The Left: Gysi: “If anything, then be Chancellor”

Imagine the two of them actually at a sausage stand – perhaps after an event together. Gregor Gysi, immediately recognized by those around him, would hardly be able to fortify himself in peace. He also admits that he only eats curry desert once or twice a year, and fries are too fatty for him. But the title of the book captures exactly what Hans-Dieter Schütt calls an “attempt at casualness.” He worked on several Gysi books, starting with the autobiography “One Life Is Too Little” up to books of conversations with Friedrich Schorlemmer, Gabriele Gysi, Martin Sonneborn… And now he has his own, which actually has a special status among his numerous volumes of interviews has.

Not an essay in two voices, as Schütt usually likes. »Currywurst stands for: five-minute dialogue; for responsiveness that doesn’t weigh in on every word… No prior selection of topics, but a spontaneous beginning, a spontaneous progression. And commitment to the fragment… Just don’t get bogged down in ambition…” The two of them have achieved a feat, as light as this book comes across. It is indeed stimulating “how big and small questions reached out to each other as if there was a camaraderie between them.” Everything is really connected in a human life, with Gregor Gysi as with everyone else.

“I trust. Querfeldein” – I thought of this book title by Martin Walser when I opened the table of contents. 64 short chapters – from “Adventure” to “Coincidence, History”. But of course not in alphabetical order. Everything should remain alive, unforced – in a state that is transferred when reading. Schütt probably doesn’t know how many questions he has thought up and allows us to focus on the answers by stepping back behind his interlocutor, who we see in a good mood and eloquent.

“More open and personal than ever before,” advertises the publisher. Gysi as a child: At the age of three he wanted to become a porter (there is a funny anecdote about this), then a doctor. His apprenticeship then became cattle ranching. It’s amusing to find out how this suits him today. Has he ever smoked weed? What about smoking? What is life like as a single person? What does football mean to him? Does aging and death weigh on him? And the “crucial question” shouldn’t be left out: How does he feel about religion? Serious, thoughtful answers alternate with quick-witted humor. Pointed sentences, almost refined into aphorisms. Art of succinctness, so that the conversation remains as quick as if it were really taking place between two bites.

And I feel like I’m there. Amused and regretful that I didn’t have anything to write down, I would listen to the two of them from a distance as they talked about everyday life in the Bundestag and in the law firm, about mass media and election campaigns. My reading copy is full of notepads, and sometimes exclamation marks even appeared in the book. Marx and Engels, East and West, political mistakes in German “unification” and those in European politics, because the Ukraine conflict urgently needs a diplomatic solution and constant reflection on the party to which it gave so much of its strength.

How happy I was sitting in front of the television in December 1989 when I saw Gregor Gysi being elected as the new chairman of the renewing SED. That’s exactly what was needed back then, like this lawyer – rational and joyfully determined, not an ideologue like we already had, but a mediator who was practically looking for viable paths. Here too, he expresses himself calmly and sensibly: that health and art should not be forced to “pay off”, that public services, i.e. “education, energy and water supply, housing, mobility… belong in public ownership, at least in public responsibility «. But “the left” shouldn’t “overreach” programmatically. “If the Left continues to work on allowing people to adopt a certain, one-sidedly critical attitude towards Germany, it will indirectly make a contribution to strengthening the right-wing extremists and right-wing populists.” Instead of fighting out internal differences of opinion, it would also have to look after the socially weak as well as taking care of the middle class. »The tax burden in this country is not evenly distributed. The middle pays for everything! … The burden of the middle can only be overcome if the really rich and wealthy, the large corporations and banks, are appropriately involved.

This party has achieved a lot in Germany. At some point, historians will gather objective and subjective reasons for their current miserable position. Gregor Gysi, I get the impression, is cautious and doesn’t want to step on his comrades’ toes. Some of whom, and this is just a guess, instead of supporting him, also envy his popularity. Your own ego defends itself against someone else’s charisma.

Hans-Dieter Schütt wishes him to “continue to shine.” “Because so much does not shine in politics…” He once asked him whether he would like to be Foreign Minister (in fact, I imagine that he would fit better into the diplomatic arena than others). “No, my English is too bad for that,” he laughs. “If anything, then Chancellor.”

Gregor Gysi/Hans-Dieter Schütt: A currywurst with Gregor Gysi. Aufbau Verlag, 299 pages, hardcover, €22;
Book presentation on November 29th, 6 p.m., Münzenbergsaal in the FMP 1 (nd building),
Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, entry €6.