Austria mocks the biography of ex

On September 11, a biography of Austrian ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz will be published, which is already causing heated debates. And a lot of ridicule: Especially on Twitter, users make fun of the book under the hashtag # 50ShadesOf, based on the sultry novel trilogy "Fifty Shades of Gray".

"Sebastian Kurz: The official biography", written by the journalist Judith Grohmann, reads in parts more like a mixture of fan book and kitsch novel, here and there also like a downfall, a homage, a declaration of love to the man, the top candidate of the bourgeois conservative ÖVP on the Nationalrat election on 29 September is - and with relatively high probability soon again head of government. At the beginning of September, the Munich-based financial book publisher sent out a sample of his works, and even in some bookstores the biography is out before the official release date. Judging by the comments in the net, they seem to have read a lot already.

Grohmann writes about an encounter with Kurz, then Foreign Minister, for example: "At first I only saw a silhouette, 'Is it really?', I thought to myself, I only saw part of a head, but it seemed familiar to me. These dark brown hairs, which had been combed straight back, and the small, pointed nose that laughed out of his face. (...) He looked out of the window and looked into the distance, lost in thought, wondering if he had noticed us Sunlight shone into the room, but that did not bother him, the autumn sun blinded his face, he was engrossed and lost in thought (...) It was a special moment for me because I saw a politician in his daily work, absorbed in Thoughts on the best strategy: Away from cameras and microphones A special moment for a journalist, politicians are usually only familiar with public appearances and media events It's not every day.

Finally he took a deep breath. So I jumped up and took a step towards him: 'Minister, are you going to sit with us?' I made a welcoming gesture to the black leather sofa. But the man leaning against the door shook his head gently, looking further into the void. Once more, he took a deep breath, then looked us in the eye and nodded at us, before he turned around and wordlessly disappeared from the room.

This bombastic style of the author parody many on Twitter:

So we lay in his bed, the bed linen smelled of delicate rose petals.
He leaned over my body with his strong body and demanded that I tell him something dirty.
So this was his will, I breathed softly into his ear: "inheritance tax". # 50shadesofkurz

Or:

He looked at me. His eyes reflected the Austrian flag, which for the first of May was gently blowing in the patriotic wind. "Hey, baby," he said, his voice lower than the Traunsee. "Shall I come up ... close your Balkan route?" # 50shadesof short

Also for a book cover there are various suggestions, like this:

I would ever have idea for a cover
.. pic.twitter.com/W1fYsf2Gq5

Or this:

The @mnikbakhsh and me, we already have them, the official short biography!

The hottest moments will be on 21.9. @RabenhofTheater - the big nobody calls us Mitzi! New election special! # 50shadesof short # NRW19 # NRW2019 pic.twitter.com/pvC6lijrFC

The mockery may find some in common, but he is - after reading this biography - quite appropriate. Critical words, for example, about his coalition with right-wing populists you will not find (read all about the Strache scandal and the government crisis in Austria). Yes, Sebastian Kurz is clearly a "political exceptional talent", Grohmann never tires of emphasizing that. But she also calls him a "hard-hitting doer of a new, modern, sensitive politics," "talented," "open," "objective," "inquisitive," "honest," "confident," "authentic," "determined." "bravado", "polite" and "eloquent" and of course he works "hard". One already expects a passage in which she candidly admits her love.

Kurz was born in 1986 and was the "youngest foreign minister" and "youngest chancellor", as mentioned in many texts. But Grohmann puts it one step further: 1986 was a year "in which a great deal happened internationally". "And this exciting year was only eight months old when Sebastian Kurz was born in Vienna." Shortly developed into a "baby who drove in the fast lane". With one year already he had spoken complete sentences and "overshadowed many other children".

According to his own information, Grohmann accompanied Kurz for a few years and also visited his parents Elisabeth and Josef Kurz for their research on this book, thanking them for their "insight into family life". As a reader, you would like to know more about the author, but you can not find information about her in the book, even though she writes in the first-person form and does not give her thoughts too much space.

Thanks @stefan_tibor and @ DogPerro1 I dig through the first reading of the short biography as strange as the author. I bet in the ÖVP, nobody has looked at before or read the book. Bad style, funny content. pic.twitter.com/IU7AWCougQ

Only on the homepage of Grohmann, which is strangely enough in large parts in English and French, you will find biographical information. There she writes that she was "the youngest investigative journalist in Austria". "At the age of 17 she went to the publisher of the most famous Austrian magazine 'Profil' and offered to work for him as an investigative journalist, two months later she offered the same publisher, besides her job as a journalist also as a boss on duty to work for 'profile'. " Later, she worked as head of economic affairs for the daily newspaper Die Presse.

Both would not be worth mentioning, if not the editorial offices of both media denied. "Profil" publishes a report stating that Grohmann's allegations are a "gross exaggeration." She had "certainly not as an editor, let alone as a boss on duty" worked. And "press" editor-in-chief Rainer Nowak notes via Twitter:

The author of the authorized biography of Sebastian Kurz has forged her CV and invented a career with profil. Has the ÖVP not checked that? "profil": short biographer with beautiful references | https://t.co/K9y6nK8Pp4 https://t.co/iWYolvwyUk via @profilonline

Above all, it is surprising that this is an officially authorized by the ÖVP biography. According to reports, Kurz is said to have given her a personal reprieve - a biography of how only autocrats who expect submissiveness and submissiveness expect in tone and style. Therefore, the Viennese writer Julya Rabinowich rightly asks:

The main problem is not the biographer who may struggle with herself and her perception. The problem is that she and her book were taken seriously by @volkspartei and authorized. pic.twitter.com/hUhC5PQBda

On an e-mail for inquiries Grohmann has not reported until Sunday evening.