After Andreas Scheuer left the political stage, a crime thriller caused an uproar. Striking parallels can be found in a novel by an ex-employee of the former transport minister.
Berlin – Just a few days ago, CSU politician Andreas Scheuer resigned from his mandate as a member of the German Bundestag. The former Federal Transport Minister now wants to devote himself to a new career as a management consultant. While this has already caused a lot of criticism, it is now a new novel by his former press spokesman that once again puts the focus on Scheuer. Did the ex-transport minister serve as a template for a crime thriller protagonist?
Andreas Scheuer's ex-press spokesman writes a crime story: former transport minister as inspiration?
Wolfgang Ainetter from Vienna was head of communications in the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure under Andreas Scheuer from 2018 to 2021. He now works as a lobbyist for Deutsche Bahn. Now the former Springer journalist has published a book. According to Scheuer's former press spokesman, the novel with the title “Secrets, Lies and Other Currencies” is a “ministerial crime story” and takes place in Berlin. Readers of the book notice: Not only the main character named André Heidergott has many similarities with Ainetter himself. But the transport minister named Felix Rohr, who appears in a supporting role in the crime thriller, also looks suspiciously like Scheuer in places.
Striking parallels to Scheuer - the transport minister in the novel also sunk tax money
In the book, a high-ranking official is kidnapped from the government district. This official probably has great influence on Transport Minister Rohr. According to
AZ
, the book is
always about the bad press that the minister gets. The parallels to Scheuer? The former member of the Bundestag received a lot of public criticism, especially as a result of the debacle surrounding the “foreigner toll”. Not least because the failed project cost taxpayers 243 million euros. The character in the novel also “wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money with his decisions”.
In addition, the crime thriller even deals with a specific event that got the fictional Rohr in trouble: an appearance on Markus Lanz's talk show. According to
AZ
, the Bavarian transport minister is said to
have talked his head off in the book. Andreas Scheuer was a guest at Lanz in 2020 because of the controversial car toll - and got into trouble after a verbal argument with the moderator.
The author emphasizes fiction, but some passages are strongly reminiscent of Andreas Scheuer
Scheuer's ex-press spokesman emphasizes in the foreword to his ministry crime novel that all "acting people actually exist - in the author's hallucination." The stories described are as true as “resumes of MPs”.
However, despite the emphasis on fiction, some similarities cannot be ignored. The Transport Minister Rohr in the novel, like Scheuer, is from Bavaria. The police officer who is supposed to uncover the crime in Berlin - just like Ainetter from Vienna. There is also another Austrian in the novel: the press spokesman Simon Streif. Who, like Ainetter, once worked as a tabloid journalist. Andreas Scheuer has not yet commented on his former press spokesman's novel. He continues to emphasize that he wants to entertain his readers with the crime novel. Settling a settlement with Scheuer in this way would be “cheap and styleless,” the author told
ZDFheute
.
Incidentally, 29 CSU representatives, including Andreas Scheuer, have resigned during the current legislative period. Due to the departure of the ex-transport minister and another politician, the CSU has now lost two seats in the Bundestag.