For Catholic-influenced Wessis such as Upper Bavaria, the “winged year-end figure” is the parade term for humor-free GDR bureaucracy and a constant source of amusement. It is not at all sure whether this designation, with which one supposedly wanted to strip the Christmas angel of his Christian character in the workers’ and peasant state, even officially existed or whether it was just an ironic phrase, invented in the orbit of the satire magazine Eulenspiegel. The objects that were the main focus are in any case the famous (carved, turned) toy figures from the Ore Mountains and connoisseurs of the conceptual history differentiate between year-end figures with (angels) and without wings (Santa Claus, miner, etc.).
The small sculpture that has graced the desk of Baierbrunn’s mayor Patrick Ott since the beginning of the week is definitely an end-of-year figure without wings. Appropriately, it comes from Seiffen, the famous toy village in the Ore Mountains, and a certain salvation-like effect should be ascribed to it, even if without a Christian transcendental note: It is an original Drosten smoker.
Ott, who went to the East after the reunification and sat for the FDP in the Saxon state parliament from 1990 to 1994, has now acquired the figure: “A dear friend from my days in Dresden, the Seiffen artisan Tino Günther, developed and protected it let “, so Ott. The smoking virologist, who is strongly reminiscent of Christian Drosten with his smoking curly hair, white coat and face mask, has existed since last year and the demand has been growing ever since – also fueled by a report by image – large far beyond the borders of Saxony and Germany.
In Baierbrunn, as a smoker, he will hopefully not cloud the head of the town hall, but could take on the role of the guardian spirit in the run-up to Christmas as a table talisman and prevent any viruses from entering. In view of the current worsening pandemic situation – the Christmas market in the community had to be canceled with a heavy heart – Patrick Ott quotes the old German classic definition: “Humor is when you laugh anyway.” Or to put it another way: Better to Drosten than to be annoyed.