As soon as the last fish has been digested on Ash Wednesday, the first keg of strong beer is tapped festively. After carnival, the time of high original wort and strong sayings begins. The recipe has tradition: No strong beer without derblecken. No derblecken without political celebrities. The juggling talker face to face with those about whom he cracks his jokes – otherwise it doesn’t work.
In Taufkirchen, however, there were a few gaps at the Promit table in the again sold-out hall of the culture and congress center at the eighth edition of the event. Once upon a time, everything that wanted to become or remain politically something in the district of Munich crowded here, especially in election years. But on Friday evening, Taufkirchen’s mayor Ullrich Sander was absent again – this time due to illness – but other politicians also apologized. The right moment to abdicate, thought Michael Müller, who, as Knight Blech von Hilprandingen, verbally distributed again and then said goodbye: “My time as a knight is now over, I bow to you, my esteemed audience. “
Helmut Rösch, the chairman of the Friends of the Wolfschneiderhof, who organizes the strong beer festival, can’t imagine it without Müller in the guise of a mocking knight. He eventually became the hallmark of the event across the district, because year after year he implemented with a sharp pen and pointed presentation what he had set himself: “With spirit and wit I wanted to show you that even big heads tend to Doing crafts with just water, and that what comes out is sometimes stupid because you miss your brains.”
Müller, once press spokesman for the former District Administrator Heiner Janik (CSU), has written nine such speeches in recent years. He has now held eight, the ninth came in the drawer instead of on stage because of Corona. Müller is now 67 years old and, in addition to being a knight, is now also a local curator in the municipality of Taufkirchen. “It’s more work than I thought, almost a part-time job,” he says, explaining his decision to only wear a traditional shirt and not a knight’s outfit from now on. However, that is only half the truth. Apparently, the effort involved in preparation and the reward paid out in applause and hearty laughter are no longer in harmony. As a strong beer speaker you have to put up with it: Not every joke that you have worked on linguistically and that you could laugh at yourself leads to the desired reaction from the audience. “If you’re standing up there and the punchline doesn’t ignite, you’d most like to leave,” says Müller.
District Administrator Christoph Göbel (CSU), who really is one of the regular guests at the Taufkirchner Strong Beer Festival, who can also laugh heartily when the knight calls him “Landvogt” and “patron saint of the air domes”, who now no longer has to inflate textile air cushions because he got into container construction, says about Müller: “I have a lot of respect for these performances.” A strong beer speaker has to collect material and facts all year round, from their own community to big politics, and then get to the point critically and sharply. “I’m impressed every time, it would be a shame if he didn’t do it anymore,” said Göbel.
Well then cheers! The chairman of the Friends of the Wolfschneiderhof Helmut Rösch with the second mayor of Taufkirchen, Michael Lilienthal, district administrator Christoph Göbel and the CSU member of the state parliament Kerstin Schreyer (from left).
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Kerstin Schreyer, the member of the state parliament of the CSU and former minister from Unterhaching, sees it that way. Müller was very chivalrous towards her this time and comforted her after being thrown out of the cabinet: “It’s better to be a reliable representative of the people and to be able to rely on yourself than on a prince who, like a weathercock, can quickly turn in another direction.” That’s good sometimes, said Schreyer, although she, as a political professional, of course knows that when you cheat, you also have to laugh in places where you might not feel like it. “As a strong beer speaker, you mustn’t hurt, you have to be funny without hurting yourself,” she says. One of the challenges with these speeches is to incorporate community politics in such a way that everyone in the audience who doesn’t deal with it all the time understands it, says Schreyer. She knows how difficult it is to get the punch line. “We also know that from our speeches, when that doesn’t work. It’s just not that bad. You just ignore it and say to yourself: It’s important that the content comes across.” Christoph Nadler, deputy district administrator for the Greens and Taufkirchner, also says: “It’s difficult to hit the right note.” He knows that Müller is not a green man, “but he basically did it very well.”
A full house at the strong beer festival in the culture and congress center in Taufkirchen, also known as the Ritter-Hilprand-Hof.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Helmut Rösch, the club’s chairman, now hopes that Müller will change his mind. He refers to himself, who actually wanted to stop a year and a half ago. Ritter Blech dedicated as many lines to him as are otherwise only given to celebrities: “They are now introducing zones of 30 everywhere. Only the friends of the Wolfschneiderhof are going full throttle. There is no upper limit. The captain stays there too still on the navigating bridge at 82.”