Stephan Lever

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Stephan Hebel (* 1956 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German journalist , editor and author of the Frankfurter Rundschau and publicist .

Life

Hebel studied German and Latin American studies at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . After completing an internship , he became editor of the Frankfurter Rundschau in 1986 , and later became deputy head of the newsroom.

From 1994 to 1998 he was a Berlin correspondent. Back in the central editorial office, he became acting head of the politics department / page 3, in 2002 deputy editor-in-chief and in 2006 text chief.

He also writes for Deutschlandradio, "Freitag", "Publik Forum" and other media.

Since 2011 he has been working as a publicist on socio-political issues. In 2019 he published his third book on Angela Merkel's chancellorship.

Hebel is often a guest in the WDR press club and a permanent member of the jury for the unword of the year .

Publications

Mother Embarrassment (2013)

Heribert Prantl ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ) finds the basic idea "not awkward" to expose Angela Merkel as the high priestess of the salvation doctrine of neoliberalism, which is her "secret agenda". This steep thesis is not sufficiently substantiated, however, that his assumption of the veiled ideology is itself (conspiracy) ideological. For Prantl Merkel is at best "an ideologist of the non-ideological":

Their hallmark is political hypoglycaemia, their stock of beliefs is low. The fascinating thing about her is something that also fascinated her predecessor Gerhard Schröder. You can call it - depending on the perspective of the beholder - freedom of ideology, lack of conviction, pragmatism or opportunism. Unlike its predecessor, however, it doesn’t worry too much about it, it doesn’t let the incense barrels swing, it doesn’t boast, it is humble.

According to Prantl, their vague value orientation and freedom rhetoric seem rather poor and embarrassing, but that is the suffering of the CDU in general, that it no longer has a programmatic core or message. In the big cities, the CDU has lost touch with the reality of people's lives, Angela Merkel moves skillfully in other spheres that are not, however, the world of the citizens. Prantl therefore fears a "wasteland" after her departure, comparable to that after Schröder's resignation.

Karl-Rudolf Korte ( FAZ ) sees the work of Leebel as a calculated polemical large-scale account. He goes beyond his justified criticism and has an antiquated understanding of politics, since he ignores the fact that "the paradigm of suddenness (...) (marks) everyday life in politics". "Angela Merkel seems to be a prototype for dealing with this form of governance under conditions of globalized governance . Calm strength and forced passivity characterize her policy management." Korte finds this insight in the "participatory observing" analytical biography of Stephan Kornelius , for whom Angela Merkel is a " post-political type" because she does not make ideology the measure of her power and only demands "content-related allegiance".

Germany in deep sleep (2014)

For Rudolf Walther ( Süddeutsche Zeitung ), the most remarkable thing about lever's factual publication is that he also blames the media for the political misery. The media are about to gamble away their role as a tool for creating a democratic public. Lever shows this with many examples of tabloidization by means of personalization and scandalization and criticizes ideological equalization and uncritical acceptance. The demand for a "democratization of democracy" seems to Walter to be socially weakly founded, the justified criticism of "large caliber battle slogans" by the grand coalition falls back in a weakened form on lever's criticism of the "conservatives" and "neoliberals" themselves.

Good Power Stories (2016)

In this little "encyclopedia of myths", Hebel and Daniel Baumann want to make it clear which secret intentions and power relationships are hidden behind the euphemisms of political newspeak . Politicians speak "in a kind of Ikea language: every phrase is a prefabricated kit." The reader should learn to see through the codes of power in the "Lingua Blablativa" ( Niklas Luhmann ), which not only forms a veil of fog in front of the ideology, but also changes and shapes the conception of reality, like levers following Bourdieu , Greiffenhagen and Eppler . He quotes Nietzsche: "It is enough to create new names and estimates and probabilities in order to create new 'things' in the long run." Topics in the good-power stories include flexibility , demographic catastrophe , black zero , the socially weak , Reduction of ancillary wage costs and reduction of bureaucracy .

Mother Embarrassment and the Arsonists (2017)

The review of Vorwärts finds good reasons to choose Martin Schulz , who could form a red-red-green coalition , in the continuation of lever's Merkel book from 2013, which was updated on the occasion of the election . Lever tries to counter the image of the Federal Chancellor with the facts of her government activities and alternatives.

Merkel. Balance sheet and legacy of a chancellorship (2019)

Hebels calls for a left alternative to deal with the anti-democratic racist tendencies from the right that Merkel's policies unintentionally caused. The seemingly no alternative "Biedermeier capitalism" Merkel had strongly denied necessary reforms in housing policy , transport policy , in which redistribution , and have conflict-averse , the confrontation with top earners , property owners, business owners and their lobby organizations avoided.

With Richard Sennett , he sees the roots of right-wing populism in the "desire for authoritarian solutions" that Merkel generated with her " demobilization strategy ", which had to fail at a moment when a decision was inevitable. Therefore, Hebel sees the failure to close the border by Angela Merkel at the beginning of the refugee crisis in September 2015 as the trigger for its decline. She did not see that a new political awakening was necessary to counter the global crises that caused the refugee crisis. was, should have given rise to a new political awakening.

The humanistic slogan "We can do it" should have been "spelled out" beyond the prescribed welcoming culture: by relieving the countries of arrival , solidarity and consideration for their economic situation, support of the municipalities, easing the immigrant status also for asylum seekers; through a state investment program in social housing , levying taxes on high incomes and wealth , banning arms exports , combating climate change as a cause of migration, balancing out with Russia in Syria and renouncing free trade agreements with Africa.

Despite her success in the areas of family policy , suspension of military service , nuclear phase-out and “ marriage for all ”, Merkel deepened the division in society, insofar as “market-conforming democracy” remained the model of her policy and thus contributed to the material division and the contempt of the elites have.

Rainer Volk ( SWR ) judges that lever's book is not a pamphlet, but a "straightforward exposition of the deficits and breakpoints of a government era". He assigns lever to a decidedly left, but not party-programmatic standpoint. He emphasizes his approach to Merkel's political style: This depoliticized Germany "and thus blinded it to a potentially different path." Alternatives to the left of Merkel were no longer discussed, also due to the conformity of the SPD and the Greens, which went beyond compromises that are always politically necessary. Volk criticizes the sketchy and questionable treatment of Russia's role in foreign policy, but thinks he'll find the right way if, at the end of the day, he cheerfully calls for the "asymmetrical demobilization of voters to be countered, which is what Angela Merkel's policy of invoking the center" amounts to.

Private

Hebel is married to the writer Tanja Kokoska.

bibliography

As an author:

  • with Wolfgang Kessler : Future social. Guide to more justice. Publik-Forum, Oberursel 2004, ISBN 3-88095-137-3 .
  • with Wolfgang Kessler and Wolfgang Storz : Against the prevailing emptiness. New perspectives for politics and business. Publik-Forum, Oberursel 2005, ISBN 3-88095-148-9 .
  • Mother embarrassment. Why the nation doesn't need Angela Merkel and her politics. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-86489-021-5 .
  • Germany in deep sleep. How we gamble away our future. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-86489-067-3 .
  • with Daniel Baumann: Good Power Stories. Political Propaganda and How We Can See Through It. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-86489-126-7 .
  • Dear AfD voters, do not vote for yourself unhappy! A fire letter. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-86489-170-0 .
  • Mother embarrassment and the arsonists. Angela Merkel's failure - why Germany needs a real alternative. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-86489-162-5 .
  • Merkel. Balance sheet and legacy of a chancellorship. Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-86489-254-7 .

As editor:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Against the ruling void (see publications), p. 4.
  2. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Frankfurter Rundschau. Retrieved January 20, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Stephan Hebel , Press Club , April 21, 2013, WDR website , accessed on November 21, 2016.
  4. ^ Stephan Hebel , Westend Verlag website , accessed on May 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Heribert Prantl: Zig-zag becomes zag-zag. How to make Angela Merkel an ideologist. Review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 2, 2013, on: Stephan Hebel: Mutter Blamage. Why the nation doesn't need Angela Merkel and her politics. Westend Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2013. 156 pages
  6. ^ Karl Rudolf Korte: Calm strength, forced passivity. The Federal Chancellor's policy management criticized by observers. In: FAZ, discussion of June 10, 2013
  7. ↑ Rudolf Walther: The future without perspective. Stephan Hebel examines the achievements of the grand coalition. He only finds their "euthanasia strategy" really successful. In: SZ, discussed on June 23, 2015
  8. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau: "Good Power Stories": Powerful phrases. Retrieved January 20, 2019 .
  9. ↑ How Angela Merkel's policies harm Germany and Europe. April 13, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2019 .
  10. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Angela Merkel: How Merkel contributed to the split. Retrieved January 20, 2019 .
  11. ↑ non-fiction book | Stephan Hebel: "Merkel - Balance Sheet and Legacy of a Chancellorship": The Chancellor who is in line with the market | SWR2. January 10, 2019, accessed January 20, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Lever, Stephan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main