Thank God the good news is still there – even in dark times like these. Recently, for example, the Munich House and Landowners’ Association, a reputable organization that provides emotional support for people with extremely high tax burdens, let it be known that rents in Munich are “becoming more and more affordable”. It is understandable that Munich’s tenants then happily hugged each other, especially since the reasoning contained a second piece of good news:
Munich residents’ wages, according to the homeowners’ club, have risen by an average of almost 16 percent over the past six years, and one may add that it was certainly the low-wage recipients and other poor wretches who made the biggest bucks, of course at the expense of the better off. On the other hand, the rents – oh dear!
They grew by a measly twelve percent, which is practically nothing compared to the explosion in wages. It goes without saying that the people of Munich now easily pay their rent out of petty cash, apart from a few losers who now live in a prefabricated housing estate somewhere in the east.
In this context, an observation that the cabaret artist Maximilian Schafroth revealed in an interview with the SZ is revealing: “Those who own entire streets in Munich have holes in their jackets.” Schafroth is familiar with assets, he trained as a bank clerk, a profession that provides the deepest insights into human life.
It is true that people sometimes stand there in front of the doctor without clothes, but they are only really naked in the face of their bank advisor. A glance at the account is enough for him to know whether the customer is still halfway free or already a servant of the bank. In this way, Schafroth noticed that the really big property owners rarely come along as glamorously as the usual Untergiesinger basement tenants with their Ferraris and Rolex watches.
But why is it like that? Up until now it was thought that a person who owned half of Pasing or Haidhausen wore his clothes out of sheer stinginess until they fell off his body in shreds. That would by no means be reprehensible, especially not in Munich, where an almost Swabian pathological thriftiness had gripped King Ludwig I, who wore the same dressing gown for 60 years.
After the startling announcement from the homeowners’ association, however, the matter with the holey jackets appears in a completely different light. Real estate owners, who are dependent on general income trends, simply can no longer afford new clothes. In view of this need, everyone in Munich would do well to slip a few euros to a passer-by who comes along in shabby gear like King Ludwig. It could be your own landlord.