The 5 best books on the rules of power and the mechanisms of the media society {reading tip}

How is it going in politics, at the levers of power? 5 books provide information.

Minutes of a public execution

Today an instructive book on the subject of media, Communication and PR. And a socially very important book on top of that. In “Der böse Wulff” the outstanding journalist Michael Götschenberg shows the power the media have developed in the Wulff case.

And how the Bild-Zeitung and the FAZ towed the systematic public extermination of the ex-Federal President. The protocol of an execution.

So Germany really ticks

This book is important and instructive for anyone who has anything to do with the media. Be it in the role of press officer in Companys or simply as attentive contemporaries. Anyone who wants to know how Germany works today will be heard in “Der böse Wulff?” learned unpleasant truths from Michael Götschenberg.

When Christian Wulff stepped down a year ago, the verdict was clear: a pale careerist has been delighted. The highest man in the state, whose main task was representation, has brought the country into disrepute.

The protocol of an execution

The journalist Michael Götschenberg is now bringing to light that the story behind the story is also somewhat different in this case. Many that too fast have broken the baton about Wulff, are taught better.

For the history of Wulff's resignation is also the story of a regular execution. And a shocking report on the brutal mechanisms of the German media landscape.

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Too liberal for the Republic?

The book also tells of someone who proclaims the “Colorful Republic of Germany” and speaks to many from the heart:

“When will it be a matter of course that someone with the same grades has the same prospects at one Application whether it’s called Yilmaz or Krause? If we ask less about where one comes from than where one wants to go. If we no longer ask what separates us, but what connects us. If we are no longer looking for what we have in front of each other, but what we can learn from each other. Then something new and good will emerge. ”

Anyone who announces the “Bunte Republic of Germany” in this way is not a leftist and not a Green. The sentences come from a Rede of the Federal President Christian Wulff in front of the Bundestag. One of the reasons why he almost became a kind of luminary for many immigrants in Germany.

And then the scandal machine jumped on

Michael Götschenberg traces the stations of Wulffs and reveals forgotten things. Writes about how the media and political Germany had slowly come to terms with Wulff.

Until the scandal machine of the media jumped. In the end, Bild-Zeitung and Co had all knocked softly. Even the prosecutor's office, which opened the case against Wulf and thus provided for his resignation. Still, it is still unclear whether Wulff is guilty of any wrongdoing.

Hard-working prosecutors as in a mafia process

And the team of 24 investigators around four public prosecutors was busy: “93 witnesses were heard. About a million files from computers, distressebooks, data sticks and cell phones sighted, 380 files secured, 45 bank accounts evaluated ... residential and business premises in eight properties were searched, legal assistance was requested from three foreign states ... the investigation files comprised over 20.000 sheets. "

No, it is not about a mafia godfather, but, as Götschenberg researched, about 2.700 euros. And it has not even been clarified whether they were rightly or wrongly paid, flowed, transferred or otherwise taken into account.

Wulff is to be taken to the track - analyzes the taz

Götschenberg tries not to be partisan. He succeeds in doing so. He does not conceive that Wulff had sometimes shown a disastrous communication behavior.

But it also shows, and that makes this book so exciting, as systematically and strategically part of the media against Wulff has proceeded. Only a few journalists were able to escape this pull.

Fear of the media republic?

And it was precisely those who were not suspected of having the CDU party book in their pockets. Stern journalist Jörges warned of a “media republic in its purest form”.

And the left-wing alternative taz writes: “What Diekmann is doing in 'Bild' is a borderline violation. (...) The newspaper now follows that more Objective: Wulff is to be hunted down ”.

The string pullers come to light

Michael Götschenberg brings the string pullers to light in “Der Böse Wulff”. Because that shows Götschenberg clear, Wulff's presidential end was not inevitable. No, it was systematically written down.

This makes the book a lesson in media power and the function of scandals (as a media business model). And it's a very good one Vorlageto check your own prejudices and quick judgements. Anyone who has read the book will listen carefully to who is speaking next time there is a scandal. And why.

Reprint for the ex-minister

One could also think that after Guttenberg's resignation, his biographies, which were printed in book form, would have to be quickly pulped. But the opposite is the case: The biography written by the two FAZ journalists Lohse and Wehner was sold out immediately - even if the decisive story of plagiarism and resignation was missing. Now it has been reprinted - and updated.

It is astonishing: Even as ex-minister zu Guttenberg causes so much furor that in the now quickly printed second edition a few pages had to be added. The biography is doing well, however, that the (provisional) end of the political star was not yet in sight. Otherwise, the general suspicion of “all dazzle” would have prevented the more differentiated consideration of the stages of life.

Thousand years Guttenberg

The biography is particularly impressive in the first two of five parts. The journalists fan out the biographical background of the baron in great detail. And this is at one Family, whose family tree goes back to the beginning of the last millennium, is a major task.

Knowledgeable, they unfold before us a family biographical panorama that at least suggests that Guttenberg had a different approach to Welt has than most of us.

Guttenberg - a historical drama?

In addition to many more or less prominent names in German history, we learn about the fate of zu Guttenberg's great-granduncle, who was involved in the Resistance is murdered against Hitler in the last days of the war.

From the connections to the family of Stauffenberg. From his grandfather, who was a co-founder of the Maltese relief service and a member of the Croatian Parliament. And from his other grandfather, who played an important role in the Bonn Republic (and a deep friendship with Herbert Wehner).

Education does not belong to the virtues of the nobility

The fact that zu Guttenberg stumbled across his dissertation, of all things, gets another Significance, when the authors write: “For the nobility has Education, i.e. the appropriation of Background, unlike for the bourgeoisie, never played the preeminent role. were more important to him Character, Appear, morality and sacrifice.”

Who knows, perhaps that is why Guttenberg lacked the appropriate serious handling of this “footnote” in his career.

Always your finger on the trigger

Unfortunately, Guttenberg's biographers don't quite keep up their level. The closer they “KT” and his Ms. come, the stronger their resentment. A good wardrobe, a good figure, a good posture and an attractive woman are apparently enough to write with your finger on the trigger.

But: That Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg only a few days after the publication of the biography itself would be, probably would not have expected the two FAZ journalists in the dream.

Questions, questions

After reading introduce yourself Ask. Were we dealing with an imposter? With a gambler? It is to be expected that now, after the inevitable resignation, the gun smoke will also disappear.

Facts will come to light that will make it possible to reassess Guttenberg's performance and misconduct. In the meantime, the biography "Guttenberg" offers a lot of interesting material about the trajectory of the Franconian Ikarus.

Wiring hard for peer?

A book could scarcely be more current and fitting for a more fitting moment: In the brand new biography of Steinbrück, Eckart Lohse and Markus Wehner trace the life of the current SPD chancellor candidate, who stayed at school several times and worked as a car park attendant - and they also show his human sides.

The Bild am Sonntag headline recently read: "It's going to be difficult for Peer". What was meant were the chancellor ambitions of the SPDCandidate Peer Steinbruck. With their book "Steinbrück" the two authors Eckart Lohse and Markus Wehner counter this view. They believe: Steinbrück can do it! "At a time when the population's skepticism towards party politicians has grown, Steinbrück fulfills the longing for the other, the atypical politician."

Man without fear?

Chronologically, the authors trace the career path of the angular SPD man - from the office manager to Johannes Rau about the successes and defeats in North Rhine-Westphalia and his responsibility as Federal Minister of Finance up to the K-question.

In detail, they present the politician and the People behind it and explain his sympathy bonus with the Germans. Steinbrück is considered Honestly, confident and straight forward. "Anxiety, like that message von Steinbrück, is a foreign word for me”.

Can he chancellor?

The authors also show the dark side of the SPD hopefuls, who was and will always be a lone fighter. Of one who is often lacking in empathy and tact.

Steinbrück is portrayed here as the passionate chess player and strategist who likes to make important decisions on his own. He obviously is not a team player.

The unknown side of man Steinbrück

The "Steinbrück biography" is an enlightening book that also shows some previously largely unknown pages of Steinbrück (he is a fan of Borussia Mönchengladbach, which does not prevent him from getting involved with the rival BvB at the same time).

In addition, the whole is also a history of the last ten years of the SPD written with much love for the detail.

Dialogue on the future from the Chancellor

As if she had suspected it: Almost in line with the current discussion about the registration law, Chancellor Merkel has recently published a very special kind of “advice”: It’s about Germany’s possible career and Future.

Exciting, because the “future dialogue” initiated by the Chancellor, whose catchwords are social change and participation culture, could contribute to the end of the top-down culture.

Dead bell for top-down culture

Stuttgart21 was the death knell for Germany's top-down culture. And the current discussion about the Registration Act shows once again that you no longer eat everything that is served to us by politics. And no longer swallows everything that “those up there” do without looking.

Citizen participation, mediation, dialogue and transparency are the buzzwords with which new politics are to be made. But Stuttgart21 also showed that the loudest are not necessarily the majority. And that a few thousand facebook-Fans by no means make a federal state and certainly not a state.

Can Germany make a career?

Nevertheless, there will be no simple “keep it up”. Chancellor Angela Merkel is now personally taking a step in a new direction. With the "Future Dialogue" two years ago, she did that with experts and citizens Conversation opened about Germany's future.

Also a step towards a new understanding of politics, which is now documented in the volume “Dialogue on Germany's Future” edited by Angela Merkel. A book about German sensitivities. And a book about Germany's opportunities.

Three great questions, which are discussed without the party book

No party politics, not the usual bickering, but three big questions should be at the center of the future dialogue.

• How do we want to live together?
• What do we want to live on?
• How do we learn?

About 120 experts

More than 120 experts from a wide range of disciplines have taken these questions to their hearts and looked for answers that are not dictated by party programs.

Among them were the brain researcher Gerald Hüther (“we need coaches to develop their potential”), the director of the Evangelische Schule Berlin Zentrum (“every child is highly gifted - each in his own way”) or Klaus Henning, ex-Prof. RWTH Aachen University (“22.000 companies are desperately looking for successors”).

Citizens show

In these rounds, the Chancellor is “only” the key word who occasionally asks. The show belongs to the others. Even the "normal" citizens. In three citizen talks in Erfurt, Bielefeld and Heidelberg, 100 citizens each had the opportunity to address their questions and suggestions directly to the Chancellor.

And then there was the "Online-Dialog”, which attracted almost two million visitors and provided 74.000 comments, which are by no means all evaluated. The aim of the "Future Dialogue" was to bring feasible policy proposals to the table. The next few months will show whether this on account rises.

Like a son who still lives with his parents

The documentary “Dialogue on Germany's Future” is worth reading because it goes far beyond the disaster journalism of the daily newspapers. The interesting rounds of experts contribute to this.

In the course of this, for example, the Indian business author Subhash Agrawal outlined a surprising psychogram of our nation: “Germany reminds me of the 50-year-old good-looking, well-educated and well-paid son who still lives with his parents because of a traumatic childhood experience prevents you from finally moving out and leading your own life.

The beginning is done

Angela Merkel wanted a new political dialogue with the “Future Dialogue”. Style try out. A good start has been made, as the documentary "Dialogue on Germany's Future" shows very nicely. Now it must go on!

In his current book “There is a lot to do”, ex-US President Bill Clinton intelligently intervenes in the debate, which not only dominates everything else in the USA: How much state or politics do we need and how much market? If you want to understand what is still going on in the still leading nation, you will get deep insights here. Even though the former US President is primarily concerned with the challenges in the USA, he also provides a blueprint for what is also to be done in Europe.

Market or state? An American answer

Does Bill Clinton have anything else to tell us? And if so, what? He just had to get involved again, Clinton writes right at the beginning. Because important connections and economic facts disappear behind partisan bickering. And so he tries to come out bipartisan Perspektive ways point to the future.

His eyes are focused on the United States. Clinton shows how the current situation came about and intervenes intelligently in the debate, which not only dominates everything else in the USA: how much state or politics do we need and how much market? If you want to understand what is still going on in the still leading nation, you will get deep insights into “There is a lot to do”.

Against the tea party activists

(Of course) he doesn't stay as bipartisan as Clinton announces. His reasoning is mostly directed at the address of the “tea party” activists who prefer to throw the state and politics to the old iron. They are extremely well received because they are directly linked to the founding myth of the United States - finally away from the British Empire, finally breaking down the barriers and regulations that distant governance constantly hums at them.

The struggle against a state that misused its power was only one facet of history. Another, Clinton emphasizes, was the desire for a government "that is limited in power but has the power to preserve our freedoms and is strong and flexible enough to adapt to the challenges of the new times."

It can not be done without the state

It is precisely these debates that determine the political discourse in many European countries. It should never be forgotten, however, that the program of the US Democrats is not far from what is branded as “neoliberal” in this country. Bill Clinton focuses on three points:

• On the growing inequality of income and access to jobs, health and education
• At risk of instability from uncontrolled financial markets, worldwide terrorism and political upheavals
• Unbridled growth that is plundering natural resources and causing unprecedented environmental issues.

Around Problems to solve, Clinton concludes, we need “effective government intervention”.

Let's go, paint the roofs!

Clinton reads the Levites to the United States. Relentlessly shows where they have long since fallen behind their competitors on the world market and how they run the risk of losing their leading role. But Bill Clinton wouldn't be an American if he didn't see the positive and the opportunities. And so it comes as no surprise that the former President of the United States writes in the chapter “What we can do” under point 12: "At least paint the roofs white". Because, according to Clinton, “the black tar roofs that cover hundreds of thousands of American buildings absorb a tremendous amount Energy… Just painting the roof white can cut a house’s energy consumption by up to 30% on a hot day.” This is pragmatism made in the USA. A setting that not only allows the US to get on its feet again.

Long live the American dream!

With “There's a lot to do” Bill Clinton wants to blow away the dust that is on the American Idea laid. He wants to bring America back to what made it great by offering a chance to "follow your own dreams and leave your children a country where they can do the same."

And so he delivers a blaupause for what is also in Europe. The communication about a common way into the future. A book that shows what politics could do. And how important it is for everyone to make their contribution!

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