That with the Duzen is such a thing. It creates a closeness that not everyone necessarily likes. A former editor-in-chief of this newspaper recently even claimed that he had started using his first addressee again. Close relatives and very close friends, it was clear, but he continued to address him as you. Well, after all, people shouldn’t isolate themselves completely from their environment, that’s not healthy. On the other hand, the etiquette ascribes the right to the you to every adult, and that should also apply to ex-supervisors talking to themselves.
It is not yet known whether Sauerlach’s mayor Barbara Bogner uses the first name herself, but the members of her municipal council use the first-name form for the head of the town hall, and she is also called the first-name for them, as was seen again this week. “Yeah, what are you doing!?” she recently called out to CSU man Roman Richter with her arms spread wide; Richter had taken the liberty of criticizing the building administration in the town hall a little – and Bogner didn’t want to let that sit on her employees. Richter’s return carriage to the head of the town hall: “It would be good if you acted as a mediator between the administration and the municipal council.”
In professional life, it is usually the case that the higher-ranking or older person offers the inferior or younger person the familiar form. It is often still the case that it can be perceived as impolite the other way around. However, if you are forced to use the first form from the executive floor – as is now owed to the corporate culture in some corporations – it does not go down well with everyone. It pretends a connection, a relaxed and modern atmosphere that hardly ever exists.
The Sauerlacher model comes across as much more likeable. In the countryside, closeness actually exists: you know each other, you appreciate each other – and even in a dispute, the familiar form does not become a weapon in verbal arguments. It seems sympathetic when even the town hall employees and municipal councilors address each other so informally. However, this example is not generally transferrable. In Pullach or Ottobrunn, for example, the Sauerlach model would be unimaginable. In the Isar valley community in particular, there was a risk that some would let off too much steam. Due to the deep rifts between the parties, there are already enough arguments with each other here. The formal you does not necessarily ensure composure.
This was already evident in 1984 in the Bundestag, when the then young Green Party leader, Joschka Fischer, was thrown out of the plenary hall by Bundestag Vice-President Richard Stücklen (CSU). As he was leaving, he called out to the leader of the session: “With all due respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole!” That would be unthinkable in Sauerlach.