An Open Word to Markus Söder

Gerald Grosz is an Austrian politician for the BZÖ (Bündnis Zukunft Österreich, Alliance for the Future of Austria) and the FPÖ (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, Austrian Freedom Party). He made the headlines in Germany recently when Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder ordered the public prosecutor to investigate Mr. Grosz in reaction to the latter’s Ash Wednesday speech, which ridiculed Mr. Söder.

Mr. Grosz has posted one of his signature video rants in response. Before getting to that video, we need to dig into the origin of Carnival customs in Bavaria, of which the Ash Wednesday speech is just a small part. Hellequin GB, who translated the video and associated material, includes the following background information:

Carnival in Bavaria begins on November 11. It’s the official start, with meetings, building the stages, the costumes, writing the speeches, and so on, and then a few weeks before Fat Thursday, there’ll be speeches and dances and music on a stage, like a theater performance. And the rest of the year, after Ash Wednesday, you collect everything that can be used against politicians and bureaucrats, local and otherwise.

The beginning of Carnival on 11.11. at 11:11 comes from the 19th century. The fool number eleven was particularly suitable, since at that time anyone who violated God’s Ten Commandments was called a fool. The Elferrat (Committee of Eleven), the organizing committee in Carnival clubs, is also associated with the number eleven.

In the history of Carnival, the tradition of the speeches also dates back to the 19th century, when the Revolutionary and later Napoleonic French occupiers prohibited people west of the Rhine from taking part in political activities. That is why the people of the Rhineland, Moselle and Saar met in secret meetings in order to exchange critical and humorous information about political developments. This Carnival custom has continued to this day — anyone who climbs into the Bütt (lectern) can complain about anything and everything in a humorous way that makes the oppressor look ridiculous.

The origin of Fasching (Carnival) was a Christian festival, and describes Fastnacht, the night before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. For devout Christians, Carnival is still the symbol for the beginning of the 40-day Lent period before Easter.

The haydays are when everything comes together at the last days of Carnival, from the “bombarding” and storming of City Hall, through the last stage performance on Friday and Saturday, the Carnival Parade, Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday Revelry to the laying of the Revelries to rest on Ash Wednesday when Lent starts.

Since the 13th century, carnival haydays have extended from Weiberfastnacht (Woman’s Carnival Day) on Fat Thursday to Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras or Violet Tuesday. On Weiberfastnacht, the women traditionally stormed City Hall, after being shot at with a cannon — I was part of that, too, every year as the Gunner — and took the mayor hostage.

The mayor was then placed by us in a cage on wheels and paraded through the center of our town, and he was only released when City Hall provided a “feast”, which entailed beer, coffee, schnapps and Berliner (carnival jelly doughnuts). The women, dressed up like old hags, also cut off every man’s tie, and if he was stupid enough to wear an expensive one — tough.

And now we come to the “controversial” Ash Wednesday Speech.

The political Ash Wednesday has its origins in Bavaria. Hundreds of years ago farmers met in Vilshofen on Ash Wednesday for the cattle and horse market. Not only was there haggling over prices, but current events and topics were also discussed in a lively fashion. Nobody minced words, and the authorities, the King, used this to gauge the pulse of the people, without interfering.

Then, from 1946 onwards, the Bavarian Party was the only party to hold political Ash Wednesdays for many years, and the venue was Vilshofen again. It was only in 1953 that the CSU, chaired by Franz Josef Strauss, followed the tradition, and as a result the political Ash Wednesday became known nationwide for the first time through TV and radio.

It is usually up to the speakers on political Ash Wednesday to decide what topic they want to address. Normally there are references to current politics. No one makes keynote speeches or delivers political manifestos. In the beer and marquee atmosphere it is about motivating your own followers. And that often works best by badly portraying other parties and politicians, and nobody takes offence.

Whether criticism was presented objectively was probably also of no interest to anyone — until now.

Translated from the YouTube notes:

“Incredible attack on free political discourse using the judiciary”

The Bavarian public prosecutor’s office in Deggendorf must investigate Gerald Grosz after his Ash Wednesday speech in Deggendorf, as the result of a complaint by the Bavarian State Chancellery.

Markus Söder feels offended by statements such as “Corona autocrat”, “not a country’s father but a country’s traitor”. Furthermore, the public prosecutor’s office must also investigate “defamation against public figures” after this complaint. Sentences from Grosz’s speech against the German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach such as “virological horror clown”, “Karl Klabauterbach” were reported by the State Chancellery and are the subject of the investigation.

“It shows what a hypocritical attitude Mr. Söder really has. Ironically, wanting to censor an Ash Wednesday speech, i.e. the rhetorical chatter dance created by the CSU as polemical, sometimes satirical and exaggerated dealings with politicians, and to instrumentalize the judiciary for party political dirty work, is a scandal of a special class.

Markus Söder in particular, who likes to dish it out but obviously never takes it, apparently wants to kill freedom of expression in journalistic, satirical and political discourse in Bavaria. And it turns out that Söder is not boldly entering the debate, but is hiding miserably behind advertisements.

Against some of the speeches by Franz Josef Strauss, my speech was a gentle expression of displeasure from the “girls’ boarding school,” said the former Austrian presidential candidate and columnist Gerald Grosz.

For his part, Grosz is now examining a complaint against Söder because of Section 164 of the Criminal Code (false suspicions). “We will be happy to spell out Article 5 of the German Basic Law for Mr. Söder. Because each of my polemical and satirical criticisms of him and Lauterbach had a factual connection to the crazy Corona policy of both, to the individual case policy in Germany. As a consequence, I will be happy to take up this gauntlet, spend a lot of time in Bavaria in the future, file all appeals against this procedure, exhaust all instances up to Karlsruhe. Because it is unacceptable that political assemblies and their discourse are prevented by a prime minister in his fantasies of omnipotence,” Grosz concludes.

The translator adds:

I also heard that the well-known YouTuber Tim Kellner, aka “Der LovePriest”, received a penalty order of eight months’ imprisonment with a three-year probation period for a funny Baerbock video without a hearing. The reason given was the delegitimization of the state or a government politician.

This is according to the new law that was passed and then implemented in April of 2021:

Criminal Code Section 188 — Insult, slander and defamation directed against persons in political life

If an insult (section 185) is committed against a person in the political life of the people publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating content (section 11 (3)) for reasons related to the position of the offended person in public life, and if the act is likely to make his public work considerably more difficult, the penalty is imprisonment for up to three years or a fine. The political life of the people reaches up to the municipal level.

(2) Under the same conditions, defamation (Section 186) shall be punished with imprisonment from three months to five years and defamation (Section 187) shall be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years.

Well, if that doesn’t shut up dissenting voices, a spell in a concentration camp with a high mortality rate will.

One way or the other.

And now for Gerald Grosz’s answer to Minister-President Söder — “An open word to Markus Söder!”. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00   Dear Mr. Söder,
00:04   Understanding humor and satire requires intelligence.
00:07   Mastering a tough political debate
00:13   requires rhetorical brilliance, mental agility, analytical thinking and, as a result,
00:19   precise spontaneity. True authority is not shown by the more than dubious assumption
00:24   of office and the gratification of a weak self-esteem
00:29   by the purely outward symbols of power, but arises
00:32   from the free assent and sincere affection of one’s countrymen.
00:36   True idealism presupposes a vocation and not a profession.
00:40   Vanity is not only a mortal sin, but the enemy of all idealism.
00:44   In the last few days I have received hundreds of emails and letters from Bavaria
00:47   and all over Germany. For that I’m grateful. Well-known personalities from public life,
00:51   law professors, representatives of civil life, simple and good citizens of the Free State
00:57   share my view that due to your political socialization, Mr. Söder,
01:01   some deficits may have crept in,
01:05   that the knowledge of the simple but noble principles described above,
01:10   must have, between the pseudo-Machiavellian dodges on the part of the CSU amigos
01:15   and the coronation of a lovely beer queen,
01:19   gotten lost somewhere in between. We want to help you!
01:22   And so I thank you for taking my Ash Wednesday speech in Osterhofen as an opportunity
01:29   not only to give it special value and prominence,
01:33   but also to give me and your compatriots the opportunity
01:37   to explain to you the principles of democracy, freedom of expression, political debate,
01:42   humour, satire, empathy, conception of office,
01:47   and last but not least to teach you idealism.
01:50   For this reason, I am looking forward to the first lessons at the district court in Deggendorf,
01:54   then in Munich and finally in Karlsruhe,
01:57   which I will give you exclusively and free of charge. It would never have occurred to me
02:03   that I would have to comment on and accompany Bavarian domestic politics on a permanent basis.
02:07   My heart beats for Bavaria, but as you know, I’m Austrian.
02:12   With Bavarian roots. My grandmother was from Munich.
02:15   My uncle still lives at Lake Tegernsee, and my mother, formerly from Munich,
02:20   has German citizenship.
02:23   As an Austrian with Bavarian roots who spent his youth
02:26   in “Nuremberg” and “Lauf an der Pegnitz” on vacation,
02:29   I am pleased that you are giving me the opportunity to return to the many places
02:34   of my youth. Because Bavaria is beautiful. The Bavarian soul is beautiful.
02:39   And perhaps my digression will serve to give you, as a Minister-President who is still in office,
02:43   a better understanding of your compatriots and bring their good character closer.
02:47   Hops and malt are not lost yet.
02:50   Lifelong learning is for you, Mr. Söder,
02:53   more than necessary. You will still need it. Of course,
02:57   I will make the court files produced in this way available to the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation
03:01   for further episodes of the “Heiteres Bezirksgericht” [Cheerful District Court].
03:05   This gives you the once-in-a-life-time chance
03:08   that your expiring position as Minister-President, at least in the media,
03:12   will be considered historical. Warm greetings, still… from Austria. Yours truly, Gerald Grosz.
 

2 thoughts on “An Open Word to Markus Söder

  1. “The origin of Fasching (Carnival) was a Christian festival,”

    The origin of these festivities is pagan! At the turn of winter into spring, at first there were masquerades and parades with a lot of noise and music to drive out the ghost of winter and celebrate the end of the season’s harshness. Christian festivities were then grafted on top of the ancient customs marking the year’s and life’s cycles in the hope people would forget about them. The addition of political criticism wrapped in a humorous package is said to have been institutionalized during the French occupation. When they couldn’t (yet) push back the enemies, they resorted to ridicule them, and their own leadership’s antics and corruptions along the way.

    • Somehow Ned edited the Pagan part out of my little History “histrionics”

      “Even the ancient Germans wore masks and animal skins to drive away evil spirits with a lot of masquerade and to awaken the good spirits so that they could bring spring.”

      You can still see it in the Allemanic Carnival tradition.

      The festivities are older and definitely Pagan, although they were held at the Spring-equinox – it was essentially seen as a spiritual passage from dark to light, winter to summer -, and then again after Harvest time, but “Carnival” is definitely a “Christian” invention, the phrase comes from the Latin – Carne Vale, which means “Farewell to meat”.
      The Vatican created Lent in the lead up to Easter by imposing its own interpretation of Christ’s 40 day fast by denying meat and earthly pleasures for the 40 days before Easter. They moved the Pagan feasting celebrations to before Lent.

      Carnival on the Christian calendar involved the whole community and was a giant celebration in which rich food and drink were consumed, as well a time to indulge sexual desires all of which were supposed to be suppressed during the following period of fasting.

      During Lent, no parties or celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating meat, dairy, fat, and sugar. Most of these foods were unavailable anyway during this period because of winter shortages.

      Lent’s purpose was to commemorate Jesus but also a time to reflect on Christian values. For those converting to Christianity it was a time to prepare for baptism at Easter.

      Personally, as a Pagan myself, I’d still prefer it if that Roman Emeror Constantine wouldn’t have noticed the political leverage and power he can gain by becoming a “Christian” and by making it a State Religion.

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