Brown shoes don't make it, Eva
Germans just can't “talk” to one another anymore. And I don’t suppose that they will ever be able to. They are simply not souverän (confident, poised) or gelassen (even-tempered) enough. Think of two emotionally-charged Americans facing each other across the Grand Canyon of our beloved American political divide who attempt to calmly “discuss” George W. Bush. Only that Germans get hot about everything they discuss. They get this way when talking about “issues” like introducing longer store hours or having dog owners dispose of the crap their dogs produce.
And then there are the “real issues”, or the real issues which are perceived to be real issues over here. And that’s when the German sausage really hits the fan. News reading celebrity Eva Herman either very stupidly or very cleverly stuck her finger into such a real thing recently when putting “family values” and “Nazis” together in public. She was then promptly fired and then publicly executed two nights ago on a big talk show here. She was literally kicked off the show after she refused to apologize for her comments and depicted herself as being the victim of a media witch-hunt (I must add that she also just published a book, if you know what I’m sayin’).
Anyway, her real crime is asking a forbidden kind of Gretchenfrage (Gretchen question) here, or perhaps indirectly asking it. The Gretchen question means posing a question about someone’s religious or political convictions, as the character Gretchen did when posing the question to Faust about his attitude toward religion. She is basically provoking her fellow Germans, of all people, by asking them to 1) take their stand on Nazism (as if we already didn’t know where that was) and said family values and while doing so to 2) calmly discuss certain aspects of the Nazi past, which they are clearly not able to do. She then, an ex-talk show host herself, was rewarded for this by being promptly entsorgt (disposed of) and then later publicly humiliated by being asked to leave a broadcast with the cameras still running.
All this really did was create some sympathy for her (and sell a few more of her books) and possibly get the odd German or two (there are actually a whole lot more) to ask him or herself why it is that they just can’t talk with one another. But maybe they already know damned well why they can’t talk with one another. Maybe the really odd things would start happening once they ever started to do so - again.
Das wollte ich Sie schon immer fragen, Gretchen, uh, Eva.
And then there are the “real issues”, or the real issues which are perceived to be real issues over here. And that’s when the German sausage really hits the fan. News reading celebrity Eva Herman either very stupidly or very cleverly stuck her finger into such a real thing recently when putting “family values” and “Nazis” together in public. She was then promptly fired and then publicly executed two nights ago on a big talk show here. She was literally kicked off the show after she refused to apologize for her comments and depicted herself as being the victim of a media witch-hunt (I must add that she also just published a book, if you know what I’m sayin’).
Anyway, her real crime is asking a forbidden kind of Gretchenfrage (Gretchen question) here, or perhaps indirectly asking it. The Gretchen question means posing a question about someone’s religious or political convictions, as the character Gretchen did when posing the question to Faust about his attitude toward religion. She is basically provoking her fellow Germans, of all people, by asking them to 1) take their stand on Nazism (as if we already didn’t know where that was) and said family values and while doing so to 2) calmly discuss certain aspects of the Nazi past, which they are clearly not able to do. She then, an ex-talk show host herself, was rewarded for this by being promptly entsorgt (disposed of) and then later publicly humiliated by being asked to leave a broadcast with the cameras still running.
All this really did was create some sympathy for her (and sell a few more of her books) and possibly get the odd German or two (there are actually a whole lot more) to ask him or herself why it is that they just can’t talk with one another. But maybe they already know damned well why they can’t talk with one another. Maybe the really odd things would start happening once they ever started to do so - again.
Das wollte ich Sie schon immer fragen, Gretchen, uh, Eva.
Kommentare auf Deutsch? Selbstverständlich.
PS: Thanks for the FAZ link, influx. But never forget that Eva died (den Fernsehtod) for your sins! ;-)
PPS: And thanks for the losing touch link, Tommi.
A more polemical, but still clear-sighted opinion can be read at Stern's website: http://tinyurl.com/25hs5o (Comment this)
So in the Kerner Talkshow this tuesday, she was able to rectify these assumtions in TV for the first time. Kerner started his show by asking her whether she regrets "comparing the family policy of the Third Reich" with the policy later on. She did not but instead justified her comments, while she clearly distanced herself from thinking positive about the Third Reich. Again she was asked whether she regretted the comparison. Again she mentioned that it should be possible to compare without a witchhunt being initiated. But Kerner did not cease fire. Throughout 50 mins of time he kept asking her to regret her statements for at least a dozen of times, frequently assisted by three other guests. Two of them were 1968er women who engaged in a cruisade against Hermann´s conservative beliefs. And then there was a "political scientist" in the audience who was repeatedly allowed to comment Hermann´s statements in the talkshow. As a true anti-fascist he further attacked Hermann who continued to distance herself from the Third Reich while demanding freedom of speech at comparing the family policies of the various ideologies. But the other guests, Kerner and the "political scientist" just did not stop attacking her, demanding her to regret her comparisons. After the audience increasingly applauded Hermann´s defense statements, Kerner more and more interrupted her answers to cut off the applause. Then in the end one of the 1968er guests said she cannot understand why somebody could applaud to Hermann and that she was no longer going to listen to Hermanns statements and was going to leave - but she continued to sit on her seat! That was the moment Kerner decided to throw Hermann out of the show! It was his most watched show in entire 2007..
Since that happened on tuesday, the spooky show in our media began. All the major press organisations praised Kerner for his decisive action against an extreme rightist woman. Meanwhile, the people who actually saw the talkshow speak of an "inquisition trial" against Hermann and demand freedom of speech, but the media just won´t listen and keeps pretending Hermann is a political outsider! It is totally scary and I wonder what comes out of this. (Comment this)
I think the last sentence in the FAZ article sums up what you're trying to suggest here: "Spätestens jetzt ist Eva Herman zur Märtyerin all jener geworden, die überzeugt davon sind, dass es in diesem Land kein Recht auf freie Rede gebe." (Comment this)