1. External shame for Lambrecht
Enlarge image
Photo:
Christine Lambrecht / Instagram
How many embarrassments, mistakes and omissions can a member of the traffic light government allow himself before Olaf Scholz loses his patience?
This question arises in Berlin after Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) continued her series of breakdowns at the first opportunity in 2023.
If you haven't seen the Instagram video published by Lambrecht with her New Year's Eve speech: You can see the minister giving a desolate lecture on a square in Berlin, with rockets whistling and firecrackers exploding in the background.
"A war is raging in the middle of Europe," says Lambrecht, and one thinks that at this moment she might imagine herself in Kyiv, Odessa or Kharkiv.
But no, the minister has other associations: »For me, there were a lot of special impressions that I was able to gain, many, many encounters with interesting and great people.
For that I say a heartfelt thank you.” The rest of the New Year's message is lost in the wailing of sirens and banging.
War, great people, thank you, Tatütata: One wonders whether the minister could have lost touch with reality.
The video caused ridicule and criticism on social media.
Ex-Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) took up an English-language comment on Twitter: Whether the Chancellor “actually didn’t care about Germany’s impact in Europe and the world at all”.
My colleagues in the capital office spoke to representatives of the traffic light parties about the case today.
Tenor: We're embarrassed, but we can't say it out loud.
Lambrecht would be well advised to reorganize your public relations work, says FDP defense politician Marcus Faber.
"I find the setting a bit unfortunate," says Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, also FDP.
Hans-Peter Bartels, former SPD military commissioner and now President of the Society for Security Policy, says: "I don't think anyone in the Bundeswehr understands why this video had to be made."
My colleague Konstantin von Hammerstein, who knows the Bundeswehr well and has accompanied the minister since she took office, wrote in an editorial a few days ago: »Lambrecht is the wrong person to hold the office of defense minister.
As long as despondency and lethargy triumph in their case, the turning point will not get beyond the Chancellor’s speech manuscript.”
I believe Constantine is right.
The problem is no longer just a minister who makes others feel ashamed, but also a chancellor who doesn't show the strength to finally throw her out.
Read the whole story here: »This is a private post, there is nothing to work on«
2. Is the Berlin fire brigade racist?
Enlarge image
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD)
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz had the targeted attacks on emergency services on New Year's Eve condemned "in the strongest terms".
As deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann explained, the traffic light government was dismayed.
The rule of law should not allow emergency services to be exposed to these attacks, she said.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had previously made a similar statement.
However, the minister wants to do without stricter laws.
And so back to other topics.
Until next year's New Year's Eve firefighters, paramedics and police officers will be shot at again with rockets and firecrackers?
I have to admit that I no longer buy politicians' outrage rituals on New Year's Day.
Simply enter the words "New Year's Eve" and "shot at" in connection with "police" and "fire brigade" in the search field on spiegel.de;
You will find, among other things: »Berlin fire brigade threatened with firearms« (January 1, 2018), »shot at, pelted at, bitten« (January 1, 2019), »LKA investigates after attack on police officers for attempted murder«.
(January 1, 2020).
Some believe that the violence could be stopped by a general ban on firecrackers, such as Berlin's Senator for Culture, Klaus Lederer, today.
In fact, the combination of alcohol, crowds, and over-the-counter rockets is likely to disinhibit some.
On the other hand, millions upon millions of peaceful and cheerful people have fired rockets again this year without even dreaming of aiming them at other people.
Others believe that hatred of the police, which some Berliners from immigrant families consider racist, may be escalating.
I think the blanket statement that police officers are racists is infamous and wrong.
But even if it were, it doesn't explain why the violence is also directed at firefighters, paramedics, and paramedics.
Or are the firefighters in Berlin now also considered racist?
The firefighters' union today called for all vehicles to be fitted with cameras to better document attacks.
However, a video is also circulating on social networks in which a hooded man forms the Albanian double-headed eagle with his hands next to several emergency services and then fires a weapon – in front of the camera.
I fear that the only thing that will help against the state's loss of authority is more police presence, tougher crackdowns and tougher penalties.
Read more here: Scholz condemns attacks by violent New Year's Eve offenders "in the strongest possible terms"
3. Farewell to Benedict XVI.
Enlarge image
Benedict XVI
on All Saints' Day in front of the then tomb of John Paul II - this is where Benedict himself is to rest in the future (archive photo from 2008)
Photo: A1809 epa ansa Oss Romano/ dpa
Since this morning, believers in Rome can ask the former Pope Benedict XVI.
saying goodbye.
His body was laid out in St. Peter's Basilica.
Queues had formed during the night.
However, the crowds are not expected to be as large as in 2005 when the predecessor Pope John Paul II came, when around a million people came to Rome.
On Thursday, Benedict is to be taken to the crypt of St. Peter's Basilica after a funeral service.
His final resting place will be the former tomb of a predecessor who was moved next to Michelangelo's Pieta after his beatification in 2011.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder want to go to the funeral from Germany.
Will Benedict be beatified as quickly as his predecessor?
The sympathy for him was rather limited, with good reasons.
I was particularly impressed by his resignation.
Knowing when to stop is no small feat.
For me, Benedict did not devalue the papal office, but made it more human.
Read the whole story here: Benedict XVI.
is buried in the former tomb of John Paul II
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
Second drone night in Kiev, Selenskyj speaks of "terrified Russians":
The Russian army has again flown air attacks on Kiev, drone debris injured a young man.
And: President Selenskyj calls the opponent "pathetic terrorists".
The most important developments.
"It's a tragedy that can never be forgiven":
aim at the target, load the mortar, fire: For the Ukrainian soldiers on the Eastern Front, the fighting continued through the turn of the year.
At least there was a small celebration with some champagne.
Germany does without crude oil from Russia:
first no more oil by tanker, now also no longer by pipeline: Germany no longer imports the energy source from Russia because of the Ukraine war.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
What else is important today
Activists block the access road with a burning barricade:
Lützerath is to be excavated, but climate activists want to fight for the settlement.
Their camp will probably be cleared soon - now the resistance is forming.
Belgium requests the lifting of the immunity of two MEPs:
It's about the bribery scandal: The Belgian authorities want to investigate two MEPs - for which the immunity has now been requested to be lifted.
According to media reports, these are two Social Democrats.
Fireworks company Weco regrets misogynistic sayings:
Sexist sayings in crackers caused outrage among singer Jan Delay and others over the years.
Now the manufacturer Weco is asking for an apology – and presented the jokes as a legacy.
y "I'd like my father back":
A conversation with Oprah Winfrey, a Netflix documentary - and obviously not everything has been said: Shortly before the publication of his memoirs, an interview with Prince Harry appears.
In the trailer he shares.
Cosmic riddle solved:
Until now, science has had no explanation for this: The galaxies around the Milky Way are almost in a line.
This actually contradicts the standard cosmological model.
My favorite story today: The Beauty of Smoke
If you're trying to quit smoking, it's best not to read the following passage.
It could be that you get too excited to light a cigarette.
Or a pipe or cigar.
The text comes from the recently deceased Hans Magnus Enzensberger and deals with the beauty of smoke:
»Only on earth one succeeds in smoking.
Elsewhere, on the moon or in space, there is a lack of air and heat.
There must also be a ray of light so that the eye can follow the blue thread as it first rises vertically, then branches out, creating unpredictable vortices that never repeat themselves because the Brownian motion of the molecules creates ever new shapes.
Nicotine is just a side effect of tobacco.
The dreamy absences of the smoker are decisive.«
My colleague Hauke Goos quotes the Enzensberger passage in the latest installment of his column, which deals with the beauty of the German language.
He writes: "'Only on earth is it possible to smoke' is also a big sentence because it makes smoking something worth striving for."
Incidentally, Enzensberger, who was a heavy smoker himself, was 93 years old.
I don't want to put the dangers of smoking into perspective, I'm glad that I haven't lit a cigarette for many years.
But as Hauke writes: »To understand life as a Brownian movement, as a game in which most things are random and unpredictable, is an enviably beautiful concept.«
Read the whole story here: New Year's resolutions - smoke happier
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
If you wish to surrender, please dial the…
Ukraine is using a hotline and drones to persuade Russian soldiers to surrender.
Apparently, the unusual method is working - which says a lot about morale in Putin's army.
How electricity (hopefully) will soon become cheaper:
Electricity was absurdly expensive in 2022.
Now the government wants to reform the system in the new year.
What approaches are there?
And what do they bring?
This is how you tidy up your digital photo collection:
The mobile phone memory is full, the hard drive is overflowing and you can no longer find the photo from the wedding day?
With a few tricks and a little discipline you can create order in the photo chaos.
Which isn't that important today
Enlarge image
lottery balls
Photo: Fredrik von Erichsen / picture alliance / dpa
Expired:
A "6 out of 49" lottery player in the Mansfeld-Hettstedt region in Saxony-Anhalt has finally
failed to collect his million
-dollar prize .
The stranger had hit the bull's eye in a special draw in December 2019, but did not report.
The three-year period expired on New Year's Eve.
The amount flows back into the pot.
A spokeswoman for Lotto Sachsen-Anhalt said that they had never had such a high profit.
Mini concave mirror
You can find the whole concave mirror here.
cartoon of the day
And tonight?
Enlarge image
Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver with child actors in »White Noise«: Surreal family comedy
Photo:
Wilson Webb/Netflix
My colleague Wolfgang Höbel watched the new film »Weißes Rauschen« with Greta Gerwig (»Lady Bird«), Adam Driver (»Star Wars«) and Germany's theater star Lars Eidinger on Netflix.
Apparently with joy and pleasure.
Wolfgang calls the film »a screechingly colourful, intelligent and funny adventure«.
The film is based on Don DeLillo's book of the same name, a bestseller of the 1980s.
It follows the life of small town Americans, which is thrown off balance by a mysterious chemical spill.
However, director Noah Baumbach has moved away significantly from the book template.
Wolfgang writes: »For people like me who admire DeLillo's novel, Baumbach's film may be a mild disappointment.
For all other viewers, he should have the effect of a giant pack of candy, the sellers of which have followed the wisdom of Homer Simpson: This is America, everyone can eat whatever they want here - as long as they eat too much of it.
«
I wish you a nice evening.
Heartfelt
Alexander Neubacher