The title can be misleading: “Night in the Chancellery”. Readers can expect juicy stories from the heart of government policy and its actors. Does Olaf Scholz go to the basement of the Chancellery to laugh, does her predecessor Angela Merkel uncork white or gray Burgundy?
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Such private details of political celebrities can only be found in very homeopathic doses in the new book by the presenter Marietta Slomka. The subtitle points the way: “Everything you always wanted to know about politics”. In six chapters and over 336 pages, the basics of politics are laid out and worked through. Sorted almost lexically, Slomka explains those factors that determine politics, from “attention economy” to “economy in fast forward”. It has become a non-fiction book, not a Sottisen collection. Written with the motivation that “democracy is not a sure-fire success”, that the functioning of this form of society and government requires informed citizens. Wondering less about political processes means understanding them better.
work on the foundation
Marietta Slomka makes little assumptions, she is building the foundations, she doesn’t worry if experts now complain that the journalist is carrying buckets of water into the well-known sea. Those who know a lot will always learn something new, those who know little will be made to know. Debt brake, shadow cabinet, seating arrangement, it’s explained here.
In the foreword, the 52-year-old writes: “Strange creatures live in politics, they are nocturnal like bats. At night in the Chancellery there is sometimes just as much going on as in Berlin clubs. But the political bats don’t hang around in their caves asleep during the day, but appear again early in the morning in the TV stations’ morning magazines and in the evenings in the “heute journal” – so with Marietta Slomka, that much vanity is allowed.
reference book
The reference work works its way through the terms en gros et en détail, occasionally allowing the author to pan from the front steps to the backstage. The reader learns of a hidden staircase behind a bookcase in the study in the chancellery, which leads directly to the chancellor’s apartment.
The basic tone is more serious than cheerful, and Slomka rarely throws in that pinch of irony (caricaturist Mario Lars takes care of that) that characterizes her interviews. Regarding her questioning technique, she writes: “Conducting confrontational interviews is a bit like playing chess or mill. You set your moves.” Slomka is considered a feared questioner, “become slomkat” is the corresponding predicate.
The book is about the essence of democracy. At one point Slomka, who has already published several non-fiction books, writes about different forms of government and addresses autocracy and dictatorship. When asked whether Russia was a dictatorship, Slomka told the dpa: “I think it’s moving there with some fascist features. It’s more than an autocracy, it’s already passed the next level.” The journalist wrote the non-fiction book before the start of the war. “The book went to press and three days later war broke out in Ukraine. If I had known that, I would have included that in the manuscript.”
Serious book
Marietta Slomka is a serious television journalist who has written a serious book with “Nachts im Kanzleramt”. Anyone who has read it does not automatically become a better politician, but they will definitely become a better understander of politics.
Marietta Slomka is presenting her book this Sunday in the “Tipi at the Chancellery”. It starts at 12 p.m., the interlocutor is Steffen Seifert, longtime spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel and before that a ZDF journalist. The event will be moderated by Marco Seifert (Radio Eins). More information at www.tipi-am-kanzleramt.de
