In the hot phase of the year, which used to be known as the summer slump, the Bundestag went on vacation and people were a little less annoyed than usual – thanks to the mild temperatures. As a result, fewer things happened that journalists had to write about. Nevertheless, newspaper pages had to be filled. Luckily, however, humans have managed to domesticate the animals around them in such a way that they do unusual things just in time for the start of summer. Think of the “problem bear” Bruno, who got lost in Bavaria in the summer of 2006 of all things. Or the octopus Paul, who predicted the results of the 2010 World Cup.
A lot has happened since then. Topics such as war, corona and inflation do not take vacations. And the word “summer slump” is only suitable for readers to insult their newspaper when a topic once again seems particularly irrelevant to them.
And yet the animals are still fighting for their attention in 2022. A kangaroo hopped through the district of Heinsberg at the end of May. RTL spoke of a “city in turmoil”. Two weeks later, a non-native walrus visited the island of Rügen. the Hamburger Morgenpost wrote of “enthusiastic beachgoers”. What’s more, the silly season is so much part of cultural memory that some see escaped animals where there aren’t any. In Hanau, a man just reported that he had seen a crocodile swimming in the Main. The police searched the shore “in the best Crocodile Dundee manner” away. The reptile was not found. Which is only logical. It will only become clear when the world knows again what it has in its silly animals.
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