In terms of retrograde trends, Austria is far ahead of Germany. How about learning from Austria's nonsense instead of copying it?

Even if it wanted to learn a lesson, Germany should do without it. Photo: imago

Bavaria bans the genre. Markus Söder received applause from the right, as hundreds of people took to the streets of Munich last Sunday to demonstrate against the decree. As an Austrian I can only say: “Hey, I know.” Translated: Dude, I know.

In Lower Austria, Austria's Bavaria (the largest federal state and no one likes it), Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner of the ÖVP (Austrian People's Party) implemented a gender ban last summer. This also brought him a lot of malice, the Austrian satire platform he Daily Press The title read something like this: “Violation of the gender ban: St. Pöltner is flogged with 30 lashes in the town square.”

It is true that in other German states, such as Thuringia or Saxony, there are already gender bans initiated by the CDU. But the question of whether the idea of ​​the gender ban arose from an Austrian or German conservative right-wing mentality is like a chicken and egg question.

Lower Austria, Austrian Bavaria

Are the Germans again following the example of the southern Alpine republic? Imitating Austria is rarely a good idea and always involves risks, especially for Germany. Sometimes Hitler shows up (not good), other times Haydn (okay). In fact, Joseph Haydn composed the German national anthem as the Austrian imperial anthem.

However, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that mostly only bad things happen from Austria to Germany. René Benko and the Signa crisis, you, the Germans, have also been affected by Ösis. The same thing happened then with Jan Marsalek and the Wirecard scandal. Both examples of Austrian prodigies promoting an incredibly successful company and captivating politicians and the media, only to then run away with their tails between their legs as the entire financial structure collapses.

Both Signa and Wirecard went bankrupt and, with the Signa crisis, Germany was left with a half-built Elbtower, for example. Oh, and Jan Marsalek, wanted internationally for accounting falsification and stock market manipulation, is probably a Russian spy too.

What I would like to appeal to with this text: Please, dear Germans, learn from your mistakes and be more careful with what you inherit from us Austrians. At least a certain learning curve can now be seen: the far-right thinker Martin Sellner is no longer allowed to enter Germany. The concept of an entry ban could have been applied to another agitated Austrian a hundred years ago. But better late than never.

Schnitzel WITHOUT sauce

The next step in this learning curve would be to selectively adopt things from Austria (e.g. schnitzel) and then not make them worse (the sauce with schnitzel is really a disgrace).

Or maybe you can even improve something. I'm thinking about the Ibiza thing. The result was that Sebastian Kurz's ÖVP-FPÖ government was blown up after Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) wanted to sell the most widely circulated private Austrian newspaper to a Russian oligarch in Ibiza.

After this, in his own words, “bad shit”, Strache left the window and in the following new elections the FPÖ was expelled from the government. But this did not last long: under the leadership of Herbert Kickl, the FPÖ was once again on the path to success.

What can Germany learn from this? One can try to forget similar “slips” by the FPÖ's sister party, AfD, less quickly. The wave of anti-right demonstrations following Correctiv's investigation into the secret meeting in Potsdam was a good sign, but there were no major vote losses for the AfD. However, much of society is aware of the AfD's far-right efforts. It would be important that it does not disappear, as happened in Austria with the corrupt tendencies of the FPÖ.

After the gender ban is before the ban on white sausages

Back to Lower Austria. When the gender ban emerged from the ideas of the black-blue state government, he laid another egg: the pub voucher. This provides financial support to companies that offer “traditional and regional” cuisine. An advantage for the Schnitzelhaus and not for the kebab stand.

At least there is no need to be too afraid in Germany, since the doner kebab was invented, as we know, in Berlin in 1972. Although Kreuzberg is not Germany, if CDU leader Friedrich Merz is to be believed.

In this sense, I will probably have to eat kebabs, pizza and similar things as often as possible in the near future. Who knows how long it will be before some Markus Söder-style right-wing sovereign discovers the pub bonus for himself. Because: after the gender ban comes the ban on white sausages. A nightmare.