Famous friends
August 28, 2009
One eye-catching Social Democrat campaign poster currently gracing Germany's cities features a young woman in a lecture hall announcing that "education should not depend on the parental bank balance, and that's why I vote SPD." Unfortunately, newspapers this week are reporting that the young lady is in fact a student at the European Business College in Dusseldorf, which charges over 20,000 euros ($28,500) for a degree.
Given such an embarrassing faux-pas, it's not surprising that the SPD is turning to more reliable sources to help boost its profile - such as Social Democrat stalwart, writer Guenter Grass. As always in election year, he is busy touring the country shoring up support for the party currently experiencing its worst ever showings in the popularity polls.
But the party also wants to show it's on good terms with the younger generation's role models. He may be a Nobel Prize winner, but Grass is now 81, and that doesn't necessarily tally with the image the SPD wants to project. SPD General Secretary Hubertus Heil has therefore drafted in some new blood to demonstrate to the public that the party still has its finger on the pulse.
The party that needs a nanny
But his decision to appoint "an important consultant" in the person of a certain Katharina Saalfrank met with widespread derision. Saalfrank is familiar to German TV viewers from a popular prime-time show in which she is called in by desperate families to help them get control of their kids and teach them discipline. The parallels to the SDP, currently stricken by intense inner feuding, are by all means apparent - but many were nonetheless shocked. Surely the SPD doesn't need a nanny, they wondered.
Other high-profile supporters from the world of arts and culture include pop star Sebastian Krumbiegel of the band Die Prinzen, film director Pepe Danquart, as well as the photogenic young playwright Moritz Rinke, who tells all and sundry that the SPD's candidate for chancellor is a cool kinda guy, and the equally telegenic writer Julia Franck, who has assured voters that Steinmeier is a fan of poetry.
But many of their colleagues are more skeptical. Berlin-based novelist Tanja Dueckers feels it's okay for writers to voice support for single issues, but that they should steer clear of party politics. Or if they must get involved, they should channel their politics creatively.
"They'd be better off writing a novel than resorting to the preachy style of the campaign trail," she said. "It might benefit the parties to have writers campaigning on their behalf, but what's in it for me as a writer?"
Upholding a tradition
To others, the answer is obvious. As foreign minister, Steinmeier has done much to raise Germany's cultural profile abroad, boosting the Goethe's Institute's budget, pledging to promote the German language, and organizing regular readings in his ministry.
His efforts are wholly in keeping with SPD tradition. The party has always been quick to hitch its wagon to charismatic figures from the more glamorous world of arts and entertainment. A heyday of this kind of alliance was in the 1960s, during the era of then party chairman Willy Brandt, who became chancellor in 1969.
It was then that Guenter Grass first stepped up to endorse the SPD publicly - soon followed by a host of other popular West German writers, artists, intellectuals and actors. Grass' flag-waving paved the way for the celebrity endorsement that soon became a staple of German politics.
After Brandt left government in 1974, his successor Helmut Schmidt continued the tradition. A talented pianist, he even played on recordings with leading classical musicians such as Christoph Eschenbach, Justus Frantz and Gerhard Oppitz. In the 1990s, then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made much of his friendships with artists such as Markus Luepertz and Joerg Immendorf, and even went so far as to establish a new office for a minister for culture, a post he filled with publisher and journalist Michael Naumann.
But these days, the SPD's famous friends are not quite of the same caliber, and its attempts to schmooze the country's young, trendy creative set are looking a little too labored.
An endorsement from an intellectual heavyweight like Guenter Grass might carry some weight, but the party is discovering that a vote of confidence from a TV entertainment host might be counterproductive. At least rock diva and former queen of German punk Nina Hagen has decided to back the Green party.
Author: Jane Paulick / Cornelia Rabitz
Editor: Kate Bowen