Today we are dealing with the macabre birthday of NATO, with the failure of a professional, with chat lessons and Greta Thunberg's return.
A high on the "Hirntote"
Michel Euler / DPA
More in the SPIEGEL
Issue 49/2019
Beethoven - A pop star turns 250
Why all the world adores him to this dayDigital Edition | Printed Edition | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
A birthday party at the bedside is never really funny, especially not if the patient is considered brain dead. In this macabre situation today and tomorrow, the heads of state and government of the NATO countries are back, because the alliance is celebrating its 70th The bad bulletin comes from the French President Emmanuel Macron , but also traveling to London to celebrate the "brain dead" allow.
He would have saved that word better. In fact, NATO is not in good political shape, but military cooperation works. Macron may want to defend France with his atomic bombs, but that's just an illusion. NATO is the only security guarantee of the liberal democracies in Europe, even if not only liberal democracies are members of it (Turkey, for example). Accordingly, one should nurture and nurture her, not only on her birthday.
- Underrated Defense Alliance: NATO, a well-oiled military machine
Scholz
OMER MESSINGER / EPA-EFE / REX
I spent two or three hours with Olaf Scholz last week, and now I wonder sometimes what I read about him. How arrogant he had been, how sure of victory. That was not my impression. Scholz talked about how to lead the SPD back to the Chancellery, but I did not feel that was arrogant, but a matter of course for someone who wanted to be chairman of this party.
He was not sure about victory. I found him thoughtful, almost melancholy later. He knew he was at a crucial point in his career and that it could soon be over.
Scholz has lost not only Scholz, but also the type of professional politician , a representative of the so-called Berlin bubble. Saskia Esken and Norbert Walter-Borjans are also professional politicians, but their advantage in this election was that their career was not as successful as that of Scholz. So far they have only played supporting roles, they do not stand for "Berlin".
This is the true break of this election: that for the first time in Germany it is clearly directed against the metropolitan professional politician, against the so-called establishment of politics. Skepticism towards this caste has long existed, even with the great sociologist Max Weber, who wrote about "politics as a profession". This skepticism has become a resentment by the AfD, which has spread to the right. But also the middle and the left milieu are not free of it.
With Scholz you meet the wrong guy. Top policy requires a high degree of professionalism and a lot of experience. Scholz has both. He did not always appear happy, but who is that? Intellectually, he has deeply penetrated his profession, he knows his way around power politics , which is not beautiful, but inevitable, and he has ideas for what to do with social democracy. If the new party leadership is smart, it does everything to get Olaf Scholz the SPD and the professional policy.
Today, the extended presidium of the SPD advises on the future course of the party. By Thursday, one wants to formulate a leading motion for the party convention that begins the day after.
- SPD with a new tip: Howls
Chat for Pisa
Marijan Murat / DPA
One of my favorite passages in the new SPIEGEL comes from the interview with education expert Kristina Reiss:
SPIEGEL: Ms. Reiss, what can students have today to do well in the Pisa test?
Reiss: You have to master basic schooling skills: reading, arithmetic, having an understanding of science.
Hell, I thought, the world is not spinning as fast as you might think. When I was in school in the 1970s, reading (good), arithmetic (sufficient), and an understanding of science (satisfying) were all important factors, and Goethe's school could probably be the same (no comparison, for God's sake).
In the course of the interview, however, one learns that the students have to record and analyze a chat with several participants in the new Pisa test. Whether they need the school for that, I dare to doubt. But no matter: the new Pisa study is presented to the public today.
- Digital Lessons: "Who only watches videos, does not learn it"
Winner of the day ...
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP
... is Greta Thunberg, who will finish her long sailing trip to America and back today and land in Lisbon. I have already expressed my doubts about the meaning of this symbolic journey, but the tenacity of these youths impresses me. A pure pleasure was certainly not this trip.
Thunberg will probably go straight to Madrid (by train, I suppose). Since yesterday there is a World Climate Conference, where the participants prepare for the coming year. Then it will possibly lead to a tightening of the climate goals.
The compact news overview in the morning: current and opinionated. Every morning (weekdays) at 6 o'clock. Order directly here:
The latest news from the night
- How Trump wants to slow down the Democrats: The investigations in the US Congress for impeachment go into a new phase, soon could be voted. The president holds against performances as creators and statesmen - can this work?
- US threatens France with punitive tariffs of up to 100 percent: The government in Washington calls the French digital tax "discriminatory" - and has set the procedure for the introduction of new punitive tariffs in motion. Imports could be worth $ 2.4 billion
- North Korea's dictator celebrates new city Samjiyon "as the epitome of modern civilization" : The major project was only possible through forced labor
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
- Hit rate 20 percent: why shoot German police so bad?
- Israel accuses human rights activists: "Okay, I'll give you my peer review"
- Economic growth despite climate protection: Does capitalism also turn green?
- Former HSH Nordbank: Some lose their jobs, others lose millions
- Hatred against Bauinvestoren: "several times with the fist in the face"
Have a nice day.
Your Dirk Kurbjuweit
