Why does my friend Roger like a Russian kidnapping children?

Karl Kraus said: “We have freedom of thought. Now we only need the thoughts.” This describes a malaise in German journalism.

An incredible amount is written every day. We are faced with a vast range of newspapers and magazines. Then there are the social channels, which also want to be filled. One should expect a fair of opinions, but many journalists are surprisingly unanimous in their assessment of the issues.

Boris Palmer is an agitator, Markus Söder a terrible populist. The Free Democrats are a bunch of irresponsible PS friends, and climate change is an issue that can no longer be neutral. Did I forgot something? Oh yes, of course we have to beware of men who spread a toxic working atmosphere.

When Claudia Roth demands complete clarification

Til Schweiger came to the shoot heavily intoxicated (stress for the others!). Also, he was just rewriting scripts at night, so the next day the crew had to change the shooting schedules (more stress!!). Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth has demanded complete clarification. It’s a shame that something like this only occurs to her when, for once, she isn’t responsible for a scandal in the cultural world herself.

It’s a treat when you find a text in between that doesn’t repeat for the hundredth time what has already been read elsewhere. One could point out, for example, that Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Billy Wilder also gave free rein to their ideas, to the dismay of the production management. But that can only be found as a two-column in the feuilleton of the “FAZ”, and only because Claudius Seidl is a culture journalist who still knows what a monster Fassbinder was.

In a way, I understand the anger at Schweiger. That a film like “Manta Manta” tops the box office and not the sensitive docudrama about lesbian love in Somalia kills all good people. But small consolation: When they are through with Schweiger, Nora Tschirner, the great young talent of German film, will finally have her time. Then the German occupational health and safety regulations are observed in such an exemplary manner that changes to the script are only possible after a grassroots democratic vote.

Dangers of camp thinking in journalism

Sorry I got carried away. I actually wanted to write about the dangers of camp thinking. When I started in journalism, I thought that a certain spirit of contradiction was a prerequisite for the job. I was wrong about that, as I quickly found out. The herd instinct does not stop at editorial offices. Sometimes I have the impression that it is particularly pronounced here

I’ve always liked people who don’t care what other people think. Or take this as an opportunity to think about whether you could not see things completely differently. “Letters to a Young Contrarian” is the name of a book by the British author and uber-contrarian Christopher Hitchens, which I can recommend to anyone who wants to be more belligerent.

However, opposition has its pitfalls. If you always take the other side out of principle, you run the risk of coming out of a corner you never intended to come out of.

Roger Köppel meets Putin loyalists in Moscow

I will give an example that has concerned me a lot. An acquaintance of mine is Roger Köppel, the editor-in-chief of the “Weltwoche” from Zurich. We met in Berlin in 2005 when he ran Die Welt for a short time. For me, Köppel was always the Swiss version of Christopher Hitchens: maximum provocation, coupled with a rogue that could disarm even enemies.

Köppel was in Moscow three weeks ago. He has met a number of Putin supporters there, including Maria Lvova-Belova, the woman responsible for the kidnapping and forced adoption of thousands of Ukrainian children. The kidnapping of children is one of the most terrible crimes in this war, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Lvowa-Belowa.

The interview in the “Weltwoche” begins like this: “Ms. Lwowa-Belowa, you are actually a musician, a conductor. What made you decide to take care of children full-time?” If one assumes that child molesters also take care of children, “care” is the right word. The international arrest warrant? A farce. Putin? A kind-hearted person, a real father of Russia.

What happened to my friend Köppel?

Then Köppel was still with the chief propagandist and talk show star Vladimir Solowjov, who is introduced to the readers as “smart” and “funny”, a “Russian Woody Allen”. Coincidentally, I saw a couple of Solovyov’s programs. If Solovyov is the Russian Woody Allen, then Joseph Goebbels was the first German stand-up comedian with an audience of millions. “Do you want total war?”: a glorious satire on the fanaticism of the time – just as Solovyov’s attacks on “life worthless” are certainly only intended to unmask Russian propaganda.

What happened to my friend Köppel? The way he sees it, the left hates Putin because he represents everything they despise: family, religion, masculinity, power politics. In addition, since the beginning of the war, no party has shown more support for Ukraine than the ex-pacifist wing. If the people you oppose politically advocate guns, there can be something wrong with that, so you’re against it — that’s the logic behind it.

The first few months after the traffic light weren’t easy for me either. I’d rather write about the nonsense the Greens are up to than agree with them. But it doesn’t help: it was the Greens who were the first to recognize the danger Putin posed to Europe. Should I have overlooked this in order to preserve my enemy image?

Annalena Baerbock’s merits on the tank issue

I also stopped all attacks on Annalena Baerbock. It wasn’t easy for me, as you can imagine. I don’t want to put my hand in the fire for keeping it that way. When I read that the Nigerian President declared the Benin bronzes, which had just been returned with a grand gesture, private property, I felt a slight twitch. Nevertheless, it is thanks to the perseverance of the Foreign Minister, among other things, that the federal government finally handed out the tanks that they so urgently need in Kiev.

I think it pays off to have a point of view and to stick to it even if it takes effort. Opposing it on principle leads first to cynicism and then to moral bankruptcy. Incidentally, it is very similar with the fear of applause from the wrong side. Anyone who makes their position dependent on who agrees with you is just as restricted as someone who always has to take the opposite position.

No bad word about people who are already on the ground

I’m often accused of wanting to provoke. But that’s a misunderstanding. I would never write anything I can’t stand behind. If you’re going to be beaten up, then it’s better for things you mean – at least 51 percent.

There are two principles I’ve held to since I’ve been doing this job. One rule is: No bad words about people who are already on the ground. If everyone agrees on the condemnation verdict, then there is no need for another comment from me. When in doubt, I prefer to take the side of those in distress when no one else does.

I took the other rule from Harald Schmidt: No jokes about people who earn less than 10,000 euros a month. In this case, I cannot guarantee that I will always meet my requirements. I had to make an exception when Kevin Kühnert was not yet SPD general secretary, but merely chairman of the Juso. But I try. You see, all is not lost for me either.

Read all of Jan Fleischhauer’s columns here.

The readers love him or hate him, Jan Fleischhauer is indifferent to the least. You only have to look at the comments on his columns to get an idea of ​​how much people are moved by what he writes. He was at SPIEGEL for 30 years, and at the beginning of August 2019 he switched to FOCUS as a columnist.

Fleischhauer himself sees his task as giving voice to a world view that he believes is underrepresented in the German media. So when in doubt, against the herd instinct, commonplaces and thought templates. His texts are always amusing – perhaps it is this fact that provokes his opponents the most.

You can write to our author: by email to [email protected] or on Twitter @janfleischhauer.