Many clichés are circulating about NRW – but they usually no longer fit, not even on his politics. It will end polarization and that is good for the country.
Rarely has a misunderstanding been formulated as beautifully as in 1957 by Heinrich Böll, when the writer traveled through the Ruhr area and wrote about it: “Down there, up there, there in the West – say the Germans – there it smells of soot and money … and it smells of power.” He liked the people, but they also seemed to him like shadows between the smoking chimneys of the steel mills; even the air feels “bitter”.