At the end, summer gives it its all again, the late afternoon sun shines all the way into the courtyard of the gastro at the Volkstheater on Friday, where perhaps the last one is sitting at the tables Garden Spritz of the year is celebrated. Inside the foyer, a bunch of former guests hang on the lips of the host, who today doesn’t play a major role himself. But as long as the doors to the halls are still closed, when asked, Christian Stückl starts to tell me how he came up with the idea of rebuilding his Volkstheater here in the Schlachthofviertel: “I got there via Google Earth, I have it “Searched the whole city and found the place.”
A perfect place for them too Southgerman newspaper, which is hosting its Authors’ Night here for the second time from early to late Friday evening. 1,100 readers came to the sold-out house to stroll back and forth between the stages, the foyer and the Luise cultural center next door and find out whether the Chancellor can sometimes let his temper down in a small circle and laugh at himself like nights The research into the allegations against Rammstein singer Till Lindemann was exhausting and what means the social media team uses to heart its followers. In discussions with their interested audience, influential figures in the SZ reported on their work using modern means. Podcasts, storytelling, everything included.
There was only standing room in the Volkstheater’s largest hall as the team leader of the Bavaria department, Katja Auer, and her colleagues, state parliament correspondents Andreas Glas and Johann Osel, cast the future cabinet. They all appear in the picture one after the other, the “election winner or not” Markus Söder, the woman “with the most dirndls and the loosest tongue, who runs through the cowshed like a film actress”, Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber. Both are set, of course. On the other hand, our colleagues see the Minister of Education and “anti-Aiwanger” Michael Piazolo as shaky. It’s probably going to be nothing for the cabinet, but the job for the next green mayoral candidate in Munich is currently vacant after the second mayor, Katrin Haben Schaden, has just announced her resignation. “Katha Schulze would be someone who could do it,” says Glas about the parliamentary group leader of the state parliamentary Greens.
What’s on the audience’s mind is then shown by the many questions about the leaflet affair surrounding Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger. The guests want to know how the reporting came about, why at this point in time? “We still believe that this story was necessary,” says Katja Auer.
Casting the candidates for Markus Söder’s new cabinet: Bayern team boss Katja Auer and the state parliament correspondents Johann Osel and Andreas Glas (from left).
(Photo: Leonhard Simon/Leonhard Simon)
The SZ first learned of the existence of the leaflet on August 2, 2023 and then began its research. “After three weeks we had enough together to report and not make it dependent on the election.” It was neither an option to wait until after the state elections nor to not report at all. “It’s not our job to choose when we think it’s right.” Long-lasting applause in the large hall.
An hour later, another native of Lower Bavaria is sitting here, filling the room. The management duo of the Munich, Region and Bavaria department, Ulrike Heidenreich and René Hofmann, have the cabaret artist and author Bruno Jonas as guests for their podcast “Munich Personally”. He tries to explain current politics. He asked his friend Rigobert, an SPD member from the area around Freyung, on the phone why the country voted “so conservatively” last Sunday: “They vote for all the people who are not in power.”
Ulrike Heidenreich wants to know from Jonas how to deal with the AfD as a cabaret artist. “We are called upon to work with satire using its own means. What bothers me about their attitude?” For him, there is no right-wing or left-wing satire. The audience has also changed. “I work a lot with irony, for some people it’s no longer noticeable; they have deficits in their receptiveness.” His tip for reducing your own excitement level: “I recommend turning off the sound on talk shows. The image is stronger than what someone in the image is saying.”
Guest for the live podcast “Munich Personally”: Cabaret artist Bruno Jonas was interviewed by Ulrike Heidenreich and René Hofmann (right).
(Photo: Cathrin Kahlweit)
Meanwhile, on the first floor of the Volkstheater, Gabriele Krüger, 68, and Paul Michael Krämer, 64, are studying each other’s faces with great pleasure. You have just taken part in the SZ magazine’s photo shoot, the cult format “Don’t say anything now”. One of the questions: “How is her reading face?” Gabriele Krüger holds her outstretched left hand at chin height: smartphone, clearly. The husband has reading glasses on his nose and is peering at her display with his arms folded over his stomach. “Very funny!” The couple is at the SZ night for the first time. “It’s exciting to experience the people and something different when someone writes or sits on stage and discusses with people. Great!”
Reader Udo Faupel will even make it into the newspaper himself next Monday. Detlef Esslinger and Meredith Haaf from the opinion page explained to the guests, along with the cartoonists Katharina Greve and kittihawk, not only how an SZ caricature is created. You could help design one yourself. We were looking for a text for the template: Sisyphus is interviewed by a team of reporters while rolling a stone up the mountain. Udo Faupel, one of 41 readers present, delivers the best text in fifteen minutes: “Could you imagine that as a four-day week?”
Sisyphus in part time: Caricature by Katharina Greve with text by reader Udo Faupel.
(Photo: KA Greve, Udo Faupel)
There were already high-ranking visitors at the start. Before day turned into night, the Herbert Riehl Heyse Prize was awarded for the tenth time, honoring the life’s work of the former SZ chief reporter. The anniversary award winner is Nadia Pantel, a former SZ editor who now works at Mirror is busy. Your text “Can you sort Odessa, Bucharest and Sofia from north to south?” not only struck a chord with former Federal President Joachim Gauck, who gave the laudatory speech.
There is a lot on offer this evening. Nobody can attend all the events, you have to decide. Either to the “Berlin Consultation Hour” with Nicolas Richter and Henrike Roßbach from the capital office, who explain why politicians are allowed to authorize question-and-answer interviews. Or later to the correspondents Tomas Avenarius and Cathrin Kahlweit, who describe in the workshop discussion how Putin’s war in Ukraine and now Israel is reported. Israel reporter Peter Münch is connected.
Exchange in the foyer: Head of Politics Stefan Kornelius in conversation with readers.
(Photo: Leonhard Simon/Leonhard Simon)
If you arrive late, you have no chance of getting to the small stage 3. Claudio Catuogno, Christof Kneer and Philipp Schneider from the sports editorial team offer a “highly speculative” look behind the scenes at FC Bayern. High tempo, wit and speed form a chain of three and the author duo Kneer/Schneider can also write. “Storm of Love” was the title of their story in May about Thomas Tuchel’s approach to his new club. Classic reading on sporty.
Conversely, the principle of getting to know each other with a glass of wine in your hand also works on Friday. Who are our SZ readers, which pages do they access, when and how? Sabine Bender-Schmidt, 56, and her husband Peter Schmidt, 57, full subscribers, something like the newspaper makers’ dream. During the week they read digitally, “the homepage for quick news”. The sports teacher listens to the podcast “On the Point” during morning exercise in the basement and reads “Print” on the weekends, because it’s nice when you have time to hold the newspaper in your hand.