In September 2019, Wer wird Millionär? celebrated its twentieth anniversary. In the special show, the lawyer Jan Stroh from Hamburg answered the final question and won one million euros. Afterward, the press reported how he had got there. For almost sixteen years he had replayed the show at home, at his own quiz desk, with all the sound effects. In his cellar he had his personal heißer Stuhl, hot seat. Over the years he built a large archive of questions, some from the show and some of his own. He told Bild he had not missed a single episode. His own summary: Richtig ‚durchgelernt‘ habe ich keine Fragen. He had not really crammed any questions.
anecdote
Watch Out, Trap!
Vorsicht, Falle! – Nepper, Schlepper, Bauernfänger (Watch out, trap! Swindlers, touts and con men) is a ZDF program about fraud. Eduard Zimmermann, who also created Aktenzeichen XY, first put it on the air in 1964. He presented 180 episodes until 1997. His daughter Sabine presented it until 2001. The program showed viewers the tricks that fraudsters use on trusting people. In November 2018, ZDF brought it back with Rudi Cerne as presenter. The fraudsters had changed. In the past they were Nepper, Schlepper und Bauernfänger. Now they are false police officers and online criminals. Cerne described the aim of the program: Wir versuchen mit unserem Format, die Sinne zu schärfen. With our format, we try to sharpen the senses.
The Fall on Wetten, dass..?
On 4 December 2010 Samuel Koch, then 23, made a bet on ZDF’s live show Wetten, dass..?. He would jump over five oncoming cars of growing size, one after another, in forward somersaults wearing spring boots. At the fourth car he fell. He has been paralyzed since. ZDF ordered a review of how the accident happened and of the safety measures. On 26 January 2011 the German Sport University Cologne presented an independent expert opinion. It found weder bei der Wettvorbereitung noch bei der Umsetzung ein Fehlverhalten, no misconduct either in preparing the bet or in carrying it out. A feasibility check had been made. The risk assessment was nachvollziehbar und für die Bedingungen adäquat, understandable and adequate for the conditions. The biomechanics expert Gert-Peter Brüggemann named the cause: ein bewegungstechnischer Fehler, an error in the jumping movement. ZDF still dropped high-athletic bets from the show.
Then We Will Camp
For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the German national team stayed at Campo Bahia, a resort near Santa Cruz Cabrália that a Munich businessman built as the team’s base. It was due to be ready by March 2014. A few days before the team arrived on 8 June, the furniture was still held in customs, the showers did not work, and there were occasional power cuts. The team manager, Oliver Bierhoff, later recalled the reaction of the goalkeeper Manuel Neuer: Ist doch kein Problem, Oliver, dann zelten wir. (No problem, Oliver, then we will camp.) Germany won the tournament.
The Dog in Sochi
In January 2007, Chancellor Angela Merkel met President Vladimir Putin in Sochi. Putin’s black Labrador, Koni, came into the room and moved around close to her. In her memoir Freiheit, published in 2024, Merkel wrote that Putin had known since 2006 that she was afraid of dogs. In Sochi she tried to ignore the dog while they posed for the photographers. She told herself: Bleib ruhig, konzentrier dich auf die Fotografen, es wird vorübergehen. Stay calm, concentrate on the photographers, it will pass. She wrote that Putin’s face seemed to show that he enjoyed the situation. She did not raise the matter with him. In November 2024, at a press conference in Astana, Putin said that he had not known she was afraid of dogs. He apologized to her in public.
The Girl in Rostock
On 15 July 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel held a citizens’ dialogue with school pupils in Rostock. One of them was Reem, a girl whose family had come from Lebanon. She told the chancellor that her family had lived in Germany for four years and that she did not know whether they could stay. Merkel answered with the rules of asylum policy. Germany could not take in everyone. Das ist manchmal auch hart, Politik, she said. That is sometimes hard, politics. Reem began to cry. Merkel stopped, walked over and stroked her. Ich weiß, dass das eine belastende Situation ist – aber trotzdem möchte ich sie einmal streicheln. I know this is a difficult situation, but I would still like to stroke her. Under the hashtag #merkelstreichelt, her reaction was heavily criticized online.
The tears did not change the answer.
A Remark About a Face
In September 2011, the CDU member of parliament Wolfgang Bosbach said he would vote against the expansion of the euro rescue fund. Days before the vote, the head of the Chancellery, Ronald Pofalla, told him: Ich kann deine Fresse nicht mehr sehen. I can’t stand the sight of your face any more. The remark became public, and Pofalla apologized. The Tagesspiegel called it a Verbalentgleisung, a verbal derailment.
The Hair Sample
In 2000 it was agreed that Christoph Daum, coach of Bayer Leverkusen, would become national coach in the summer of 2001. On 1 October 2000, the Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß hinted in a newspaper that Daum used drugs. On 9 October Daum gave a hair sample of his own accord. Ich tue das, weil ich ein absolut reines Gewissen habe. I am doing this because I have an absolutely clear conscience. On 20 October he was told the result from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Cologne. It showed cocaine. Leverkusen dismissed him without notice, and Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, then acting head of the DFB, declared: Der Handschlag-Vertrag mit Daum ist gegenstandslos. The handshake contract with Daum is void.
Du Among Comrades
In der SPD wird traditionell geduzt. In the SPD, members traditionally say du to each other. In 2015 the Social Democrat Otto Schily told the Zeit Magazin that even for him, after many years in the party, the party du still took getting used to. A party anecdote tells of a comrade who asked Herbert Wehner whether he should say du to him. Wehner answered: Das können Sie halten wie du willst! You can handle that as you like. His answer uses both Sie and du in one sentence.
The Postman Who Became a Senior Psychiatrist
Gert Postel trained as a postal worker. From November 1995 to July 1997 he worked as a senior physician in forensic psychiatry at the Zschadraß clinic near Leipzig. His license to practice medicine was forged. When he was exposed, it turned out that he had previous convictions as an impostor. In 1999, the regional court in Leipzig sentenced him to four years in prison. Postel later said: Wer die Dialektik beherrscht und die psychiatrische Sprache, der kann grenzenlos jeden Schwachsinn formulieren. Whoever masters dialectics and the language of psychiatry can phrase any nonsense without limit.
For almost two years, the forged papers were enough.