With a “big eye full of tears”

Dear readers of the city newspaper,

a big crying eye: the city newspaper of Augsburg will cease to function at the end of 2022. In an era full of upheaval, the change has not stopped at this reading material, which has become dear to the Swabia and Allgäu region . One could almost become melancholic at the chaos these times offer us in ever new Swedish bites. It affects us all. In mid-November 2022, the “Zukunft in Not” business group – an association of 680 companies in the Augsburg economic area – warned of a ruinous development for domestic companies. To tell the truth, not even the traffic light policy can convince me, if important energy sources such as nuclear energy are not used much more intensively and for longer. This is negligent.

What good is the baker if he can proudly stick a “nuclear power – no thanks” sticker on his vehicle if there are no more pretzels in production that he can still deliver? In times of crisis, the gas price brake should also come into force for small businesses and consumers from January, and not just from March (Editor’s note: at the time the article was written, mid-November 2022, the “winter gap” in the gas price brake had not yet been closed; this should now apply from 1 March 2023 retrospectively from January 2023). Greasy Olaf Scholz: “You will never walk alone” – one gets the impression that he remains guilty of the deeds.

Which brings us to the two ministers of the Greens, Steffi Lemke (environment) and Cem Özdemir (agriculture). Nature conservation, species protection and agricultural ecological breakthrough are happening here… exactly: nothing. In contrast, four per cent of the areas set aside for species protection have been granted to agriculture by the EU. And the few bugs we still have will be plowed up at the same time. To save the honor of the two, it must be said that my own party, the CSU, is unfortunately equally behind on the subject of species protection and ecological agriculture. Here one can experience how the necessary biotope structures, and thus the last refuges of larks, lapwings and beetles, are sacrificed like a white sausage stretched over the altar of crisis. Humans have to eat, animals don’t. Give it another load of pesticides.

Did you know that our beloved garden animal, the hedgehog, has been on the red list of the early warning phase in Bavaria since 2018? And don’t you notice when you drive your car that the windows are immaculate when you arrive, whereas just two decades ago they looked like a modern artwork created with Jackson Pollock’s famous dripping technique? The biodiversity crisis, as the extinction of species and insects is probably called, is as urgent a problem as gas prices and inflation. Only here no one takes to the streets for our fellow men. Why should they? Insects don’t bring money. Incidentally, trees don’t even have a bank account or a wallet. This is painfully apparent when once again mighty old trees fall victim to a construction project. The Bavarian Administrative Court ruled in 2018 that building rights come before tree rights. Can politics do anything? Probably not because, as already mentioned, Bäume und Hedgehogs doesn’t have a grade to compete for. Thus, continuing Merkel’s sleeping car policy, one species after another becomes extinct. But the main thing is that the latest iPhone sounds in a stylish handbag. And the next vacation is also guaranteed.

Return to starting point. I have always liked it, indeed I liked writing for the city newspaper in my weekly column “Klimesch is right”. And I’m not of the world, I’ll probably continue to write in the “extra” paper, which will replace the city paper on the weekends and then flutter into your mailbox every Saturday instead. And in every crisis there are also opportunities. Extremely capable and 100% reliable employees of the city daily will find a new development space, I have no doubt about it. My thanks go to the entire team of the Stadtzeitung for the not only smooth but excellent cooperation, including Ms. Schmiedl and Ms. Nahirni-Vogg, who looked after me lovingly with my column.

Despite the economic and ecological crises mentioned, there is no reason for my readers to become morose or melancholy. In every crisis there are opportunities. Especially now. Don’t be afraid of change. Germany is a strong country with wonderful people. I am confident, not because Mutti Merkel has stolen the word “we can do it” from the world, but because in our country the many highly qualified and, in international comparison, really hardworking people make the difference. And stick with my column when it appears in “extras” soon. It is not for nothing that around 60% of my law firm’s clients come from the region of Swabia and the Allgäu. A region that has become dear to me and to my colleague, the lawyer Alexander Walther. I wish you courage and good thoughts when you read it again.

Kind regards, Martin Klimesch, Attorney at Law Firm Klimesch & Colleagues