Miss Tschörmänie



If you're a theoretical chemist with a passable command of German and a secret lust for power, this is the book for you. Miss Tschörmänie (pronounced "Miss Germany") is a comic strip depiction of the life and times of Angela Merkel, the current German chancellor.

The story starts with her early years as a scientist in the East, but really gets going after reunification, when her political career began. She soon signs up with the centre-right CDU party and by 2000 has taken charge. Five years later she has eliminated all other pretenders and become the first female chancellor of Germany. The aim of the book is to show you how she did it.


The story sticks closely to the facts, though there is some room for the authors to speculate about private conversations and thoughts. It's also very respectful to Merkel, who is shown time and again outsmarting her political enemies, both outside the party and within. The only really biting comments come from Gerhard Schröder (her predecessor as chancellor) and Edmund Stoiber (her rival from the allied CSU party), who frame the story while sat in a bar on the day of the 2009 election. They behave like the two old hecklers in the Muppet Show, but even they are left wondering how she pulled a fast one on them.

The illustrations are quite crudely sketched, but the likenesses of the politicians are good - at least I had no trouble recognising the few I'd heard of. Some of their expressions are priceless, usually when they realise they've been outmanoeuvred by Merkel once again. The sparing use of fanciful imagery is also effective, such as when Merkel's speech bubble conjures up a demonic pact between the centre-left SPD and ex-communist PDS, or skyscrapers topple to illustrate the credit crunch.

I won't pretend to judge how funny the book is, as I'm sure there are many jokes that went over my head. But the bits I did understand seemed well written and (gently) satirical. I can only assume the easy ride they give Merkel is due to her continued popularity as leader: her modest, pragmatic style has so far proved appealing to the electorate and doesn't offer a lot to satirise.


The book ends as the exit polls of last week's election are about to come in. In the event, of course, Merkel won. The CDU/CSU are now able to form a coalition with the free-market liberal FDP, marking a decisive shift to the right for the German government. Why this has happened in the depths of the greatest crisis of capitalism for 80 years is puzzling. Much of the blame must lie with the SPD, the other partner in the 'grand coalition' government of the last four years. As the book notes, they managed to take the blame for everything that went wrong during this time, and handed Merkel the credit for everything that went right. The financial crisis has also done them no favours. Much like Britain's Labour party, they embraced free-market ideology in the boom years, so they cannot now attack the ideologues without looking like hypocrites.

I picked up Miss Tschörmänie on a visit to Erlangen while the election campaign was in full swing. You can tell an election is on in Germany by the charmingly simple posters that cover every square metre of public space. All follow the same format: a big smiling face, a name and a slogan along the lines of 'I'm trustworthy'. They've always seemed a little risky to me given the very high incidence of graffiti in Germany. But it's a sign of the respect Merkel commands that I never once saw her picture defaced with a comedy set of glasses and twirly moustache.


Miss Tschörmänie: Wie aus Angie unsere Kanzlerin wurde
by Miriam Hollstein (text) and Heiko Sakurai (drawings)
First published 2009

Comments

  1. Since I was in Munich in the run-up to the election, I got to see all the political advertising. Most of it was fairly standard, someone's name, their face, and a box with a tick in it.

    For some reason, though, one party's image was of a child with a dog. Lacking any German whatsoever, this image was totally indecipherable, though I choose to believe at least one party in Germany is run by a toddler and a talking dog, at least one of whom is evil.

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  2. That's proportional representation for you. Who speaks for the evil toddler and talking dog vote in Westminster? No one!

    ReplyDelete

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