Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 118)

The other autobiography
Franz Kleve cleaned his mouth with a tissue, seemingly having enjoyed three marshmallows, saying: “Share with us, please, your relationship with the SPD, the Social Democratic Party of Germany.“

I took a moment to think how best to explain my very complicated relationship with my party SPD, and came out to say: “Most people associate Political Scientist with their wish to become politicians like teachers and lawyers. We have indeed chosen this subject as it matches our personality better than any other subject. Someone is mistaken to believe that we have the heart desire to become politicians, while the contrary is the truth. Among politicians, especially in high offices, you hardly find Political Scientists. We prefer to stand in the second line behind any frontman and keep our wisdom to ourselves or pure. What I mean by that is very simple to explain. I never wanted to join any political party, as this makes you, as a serious Political Scientist, corrupt in a certain way. You step out of Sciences and into the ring of political ideas, which makes you lose the objectivity needed to be a Scientist. As a scientist, you must analyse and conclude not along political ideas but along scientific principles. They might stand against or in contrast to your political affiliations...very dangerous for a serious Scientist.

If you want my political beliefs to show, I am a right-wing political believer of the SPD and a left-wing believer of the CDU, our conservative party in Germany. My free mind never fits into any footsoldier category and varies as matters and solutions vary. While other SPD members follow party lines to the letter, I use the freedom of thinking to think independently. Party bosses have, of course, problems with party members who have signed up to the party but use their right to think independently.

After years of hesitation, I finally joined the SPD. I could have as well joined the CDU or FDP, but as the SPD has ruled in Hamburg for as long as I can think, and I came from the working class, I decided, for practical reasons, to join the SPD. Much later, when my party was in free downfall, I stood by for only one reason. The SPD under Adolf Hitler was the only party in the Reichstag which voted against the Ermächtigungsgesetz, the Emergency Laws, which gave Adolf Hitler absolute power over Germany, and Germans were being killed the same day or the next day. A party which was so heroic in the darkest days of Germany, someone cannot abandon and leave alone with its current leadership confused to their bones and persons, not personalities, selling out the party to others in German history. In these difficult moments, I was convinced that one day the SPD would be led again by personalities much loved by Germans and others beyond Germany.

Ending my studies at Hamburg University and returning from The Abbey in Sutton Courtney in Oxfordshire, I joined the SPD and visited each meeting of the local SPD district in Hamburg Blankenese and Rissen. I engaged in every election campaign and met Professor Katherina Anna Breckner, whom I had told you about earlier.

Olaf Scholz, who much later became German Chancellor, was my party boss in those days. He was responsible for the District Altona and had his party office in the SPD building in Max-Brauer-Allee close to Altona Station. He worked as a lawyer to defend workers and lived in Ottensen nearby with Britta Ernst, his later wife. Britta Ernst was a member of Hamburg Parliament, while Olaf Scholz, after closing his law firm office, was the local party boss. He attended most of the meetings in our district, and I met him on several occasions. Born in Osnabrück, less than one year older than I, he had studied law in Hamburg. Right from the beginning, he was what later people would describe as not in touch with people. As a lawyer, he was very analytical, very strict and straightforward, not emotional, not able to relate to people closely and share their sentiments. He was a lawyer through and through. Olaf Scholz was never loud, never emotional, never laughing freely from the heart, but rather kept himself always under control. He was very pragmatic, not a dreamer, not a visionary man, very down to earth, trying to solve within the framework of the law and rules and regulations of society, what would be in the best interest of the party to win the next elections. While others part of human nature use words they later regret, said out of the moment, Olaf Scholz chose his words very carefully and spoke with confidence, never with power.

Each Christmas party was his moment to show himself to the party foot soldiers in the basement of the party. He was approachable, and anyone wanting to have a chat with him at such events, he would greet them with the smile of a child that was found guilty of an offence and sat down with the person. While talking to you, he would avoid eye contact with you very typical of him. It was to me a sign he wanted to avoid getting involved in your problems, but deal with your situation as an intellectual exercise. It was almost as if he would look out of the window of an ice-cold igloo to greet you. Never underestimate him, as he is ambitious.

Marlies Dobberthien was the directly elected Member of Parliament of the Bundestag, our German Parliament in Berlin. She was from North Rhine-Westphalia, from Düsseldorf. Using an internal SPD rules and regulations trick, he outmanoeuvred her and became the next direct candidate for the Altona constituency. He won a safe seat outright for the Hamburg SPD. He became the MP, making sure to visit his home base regularly. We met him in Haus Rissen for various discussions several times a year. As I told you weeks ago, he was also sitting in my armchair in Sülldorf right next to me for around forty-five minutes, addressing the concerns of some of my friends.

It was the time the SPD in Berlin formed a coalition with the party Die Linke, the party which had emerged from the SED in East Germany, keeping 14 million. Germans behind bars. I decided enough was enough and left the party. Olaf Scholz sent me a letter asking me to reverse my decision, but I stuck to my decision, seeing the SPD from the outside only.

Angela Merkel, as German Chancellor, asked Olaf Scholz to be her Minister for Labour and Social Affairs. From there, he still paid us visits in Hamburg in Haus Rissen, and we interacted with him while his bodyguards waited outside. Certain among us, he was safe. Standing in Rissen during the election campaign, Olaf Scholz stood right at my right side and answered the questions of bystanders or voters, knowing he would be there to present their concerns to him. His bodyguards, meanwhile, bought cake in the nearest bakery, leaving the three cars of their convoy unattended. As I am much taller than him, he had to look up to me and smiled like a little boy into my face when voters asked questions he was astonished by and thought were misplaced.