The Upper Palatinate has sworn off trouble. Almost officially. In Amberg, the secret capital of the Upper Palatinate, 2117 people played “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” on Saturday, breaking a record from Thuringia. On Saturday! The hottest day of the year so far! Did people sit in the blazing sun! And they threw the dice and drew little figures and didn’t get annoyed that they weren’t standing in an ice barrel with a cold beer or floating on a quarry pond.
You have to know that Amberg is not just any place with board game-loving residents, but the cradle of that board game – at least the cradle of the inventor was there. “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” was invented in 1910 by Josef Friedrich Schmidt from Amberg. And because people in Amberg are proud of this fact, the citizens set a record in “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” games in 2017, which was taken from them by Weida in Thuringia in 2021. Of course, the Ambergers couldn’t let that sit on their own.
One might think that the Ambergers are slightly suicidal that they come together for board games at 36 degrees. On the other hand, with the campaign they may also show they have a nose for what Germany urgently needs right now: a sense of community, commitment to the cause, a cool head despite the heat and a will that is not clouded even by sauna conditions, not constantly worrying about everything get excited first.
In Weida in Thuringia, who are now without a record, you can get angry again. Where in Thuringia they are already so annoyed about everything. People get so annoyed there that recently a majority of troubled citizens in the Thuringian district of Sonneberg helped the first AfD district administrator into office. The AfD fans concerned were probably not passionate “Mensch ärgere dich nicht” players like their neighbors.
If Weida prepares to bring the record back to Thuringia, the troubled citizens from Sonneberg could provide support. After all, Weida has less than 8,000 inhabitants. Amberg almost 42,000. These are anything but fair competitive conditions. Aggravating!