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The magazine for which I work has devoted itself in its current issue of the special condition in East Germany. Our Dresden correspondent Steffen Winter has traveled through the province before the upcoming state elections, the result of his research is a nearly elfseitiger "look into the East German soul" with numerous illustrations.
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Issue 35/2019
So Isser, the Ossi.
Cliché and reality: how the East is ticking - and why it chooses otherwiseDigital Edition | Printed Edition | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
Worried and thoroughly undisturbed citizens will speak, dependents and successful ones, those who mourn the GDR and those who have used reunification as an opportunity. The title page seems, as it is title pages now own, comparatively less differentiated: "So isser, the Ossi" is a headline under the image of a famous by the meeting of a ZDF team with the so-called Hutbürger anglers hat in black and red -Gold. The sub-line explains "cliché and reality: how the East is ticking - and why it chooses otherwise".
Now, of course, great excitement. The few voices, which point out that the title takes up the cliché in ironic Stammtisch language only to deconstruct and disprove it, as the sub-line already points out, are practically unheard. "Simply rip off something flat and then tap the thighs when a debate ignites. Today: At the expense of East Germany, so isser, the #mirror," criticizes the Twitter user @fernseh_heini.
Another Twitterer has even bothered to recreate the cover with a Rasta knit hat and to modify the line with the N-word to make his allegedly discriminating character conspicuous. A right blog states "the history of a radicalization", and the media journalist Stefan Niggemeier notes: "Everyone is talking about the bad cover, only @DerSpiegel has found in 2019 still no way to participate in this conversation."
The humor was given free rein
I was not involved in the design or discussion of the title. For "missrate" I hold the cover by no means. But I can still understand the excitement. Because it's true: So isser, the SPIEGEL.
About four years ago, a title story about Bayern should appear. The hundredth birthday of Franz Josef Strauss was due, and one wanted to devote himself to this strange southern Free State. I was afraid of something terrible. Often, when the editorial office talked about my homeland, I had to listen to traditional clichés. Presumably, because I do not speak dialect in the workplace, they thought they were unobserved and let the humor run wild. When they heard of my origins, colleagues regularly wondered that I am able to speak standard German without accent.
In the column Agitation and Propaganda Stefan Kuzmany writes about the current developments in politics and society. Subscribe to the newsletter directly and for free here:
In August 2015, the Bavarian title appeared. The cover was even worse than I had feared. "The spiders, the Bayern!", Was the headline, pictured was a grotesque collection of clichés: the Alps, Manuel Neuer, Neuschwanstein, a Capricorn, a waitress with five liter of beer, two gay Trachtler, a Catholic dignitary, Horst Seehofer with a crown on his head, Markus Söder wearing a Shrek costume. And above all FJS. Enzian, a banknote and a fighter plane were also mounted on his traditional hat decorated with Gamsbart. "100 years Franz Josef Strauß: The Free State and the transfigured legacy of a corrupt patriarch" was under the disrespectful title line.
THE MIRROR
SPIEGEL title 35/2015
Nevertheless, eaten
In my Bavarian circle of acquaintances nobody transfigures Franz Josef Strauss. Even alleged CSU voters has been aware for some time - and also thanks to detailed SPIEGEL reporting - that the man was not completely clean. Costumes are rarely worn, beer is enjoyed only in reasonable quantities. Hardly anyone is a fan of Bayern Munich. The whole title picture had little to do with the area that I know and love. Of course, the cover was ironic. I was still eaten.
The cover story inside was certainly highly differentiated, I can not remember it and could not bring myself to read it for this text again. An indignant debate about "failed Bayern bashing", however, I also not remembered. I did not even instigate internally, why? That's just freedom of the press. Everyone gets their fat away.
I have my own picture of Bavaria. I know how diverse, how cosmopolitan the Free State is, how far away from folk-clichés - and how beautiful just because of its peculiarities are, its dialect, its way of life (and also the costumes). The Hamburg colleagues like to make a little funny about it. Shall they. It would not come to mind, so in protest, let's say, to choose the CSU.
Another title idea
And that's why I do not understand the current excitement about the Ossi title page. If you love your home country, you can stay relaxed when others think you want to enjoy it a little. Anyone who knows his home country can not be disturbed by an ironic dig. Especially the proudest Easterners should be able to take such a thing sovereign. But I do not want to give any advice here. Everyone should feel the way he or she thinks.
Well, maybe I should express a wish. This Hamburg has been a mystery to me for a long time. This strange love for bad weather, this childish devotion to HSV. The cheeky appearance of Hanseatic people as if they were something better. The incomprehensible popularity of Olaf Scholz. All this should be dealt with in a cover story at length: "The blase Fischköppe, the peculiar behavior in an over-estimated Hanseatic city". Pepperbags can certainly be accommodated on the cover. Immediately suggest the editor-in-chief.
