“What’s big?” asks the monkey and looks at the horse with big eyes. “A elephant,” says the little horse and leans back comfortably on the bench. “And what’s bigger?” asks the monkey. The little horse points his finger over his shoulder: “Stuagart”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/.”Yes, and what’s the big deal?” asks the monkey… then a representative of the “Horse & Monkey” enters “-fan clubs the picture. “It’s great,” he says happily, “that I’m finally getting a horse and monkey ambl in Stuttgart.” The man tears open a Käpsele beer, drunk with joy. The horse clasps his hands over his head.
“Ha noi”, says the monkey after a short silence, “why do I actually need an Ambl?” The man looks puzzled. “Yes, because it’s really important. It belongs to Stuttgart! There is a Mainzelmännle-Ambl in Mainz and a Kaschperle-Ambl in Augschburg and a Stadtmusikanten-Ambl in Bremen and an Otto-Ambl in Emden and an Elvis-Ambl in Bad Nauheim and a Marx Ambl in Trier…”
“Yeah, I got it,” says the little horse. “It’s a nice idea.” The man now takes a piece of paper out of his pocket. 12,000 Stuttgart residents signed their petition, he says, so that the Südwestrundfunk mascot duo can finally decorate the state capital’s traffic lights. But then the mayor has this and the traffic regulations have that and accidents and liability and the state parliament and compromise.
“You know what bureaucracy is?” asks Pferdle. Äffle looks helpless. “It’s bureaucracy when the new Ambl in Stuagart, unlike in Mainz, for example, is still being denounced as a normal Ambl. So that the city doesn’t have to assume any liability.”
Ah, says the monkey. “I wish I were a Mainzelmännle.”
Read more good news here.