The handshake is back. For two years he had to hide in trouser and jacket pockets, eke out a miserable existence as a worldwide outlaw, actually only loved by the corona virus. Instead of him, the muffled elbow check and the buddy-like ghetto fist took up the greeting. But now hands are being shaken again like crazy. Supporters of the handshake give a thumbs-up, others break out in cold sweats, they probably didn’t celebrate National Handshake Day recently.
The handshake, it is said, is a person’s calling card. There are not only a lot of wet business cards that are handed to you like dead fish. There are also some that can be very painful when grabbed. For example, if the other person is a muscle man with a vice hand and squeezes your own hand like seawolf Raimund Harmsdorf once squeezed a raw potato and thus clearly violates the recommendations of Moritz Freiherr von Knigge, according to which the firmness of the handshake should be adapted to the other person. And then there are the long-time shakers, who won’t stop shaking an innocently offered hand until you’re pleading.
Because after a two-year Corona break, some may have completely forgotten how to shake hands, further spiritual assistance on the subject: The optimal handshake, say the body language and communication trainers Caroline Krüll and Christian Schmid-Egger, is firm. “The hand completely encloses the other’s hand, the hands are held straight. The arms are bent, there is a medium, healthy distance between the two people. You shake for about three seconds – and look the other person in the eye.”
So the handshake is back, but not in the way it was before Corona. This can be clearly observed in contemporaries who position their hand like Schnick-Schnack-Schnuck and then, depending on the reaction of the other person, clench their fist or hold it out like a sheet of paper. For everyone who doesn’t say hello by default: August 1st is World Middle Finger Day.