It will be Aigner. It has to be her now, it is simply inconceivable that Friedrich Merz will now pull another applicant out of the hat. Or the other way around: that one CDU celebrity after another is rallying behind Aigner, without any certainty that the party leader will proclaim her as the Union's common candidate. Merz probably just wants to stick to the schedule he set himself. He reserves the official announcement for next Monday, when all relevant committees will be formally involved.
The selection process itself was lost on the chancellor for a long time. CSU boss Markus Söder pushed Aigner forward early on, and since then she has been busy collecting sympathy points across party lines. Merz, on the other hand, hesitated; he was probably still looking for his own alternatives. He only recently decided on a woman for the highest office in the state and now has to realize that no one can compete with Aigner's favorite status.
Aigner, currently President of the Bavarian State Parliament, only has to wait a few more days before she can speak openly about her ambitions. In the "Zeit" she already expressed a wish from which one can read her application: She would find it charming, says Aigner, "if the Greens could be brought on board." The Greens are not needed in the Federal Assembly; the Union and SPD have their own majority. But Aigner obviously wants to take the broad center for himself. When the Chancellor finally lets them.
Read more background here: Now Merz, of all people, is bringing a woman to the highest office in Germany
The beginning didn't have the magic we'd hoped for. The first appearances of the German national team under their new national coach Jürgen Klopp were, well, mixed: one win, two draws, one defeat and that against Greece. There is room for improvement when Klopp gets the team together for the next games. In the middle of the month we will face Serbia and the Netherlands again in the Nations League.
The striker is currently blossoming after difficult times abroad at Werder Bremen and has already scored nine goals in eight games in the league. Klopp now regrets that he recently made somewhat disrespectful comments about Füllkrug's 33 years of life. Of course, it remains true: Füllkrug is not the offensive hope for the next big tournaments. “If there were a European Championship tomorrow, we would of course take him with us,” Klopp said today. But it's only in two years.
The Füllkrug comeback does not mean that Klopp has already said goodbye to the goal of a major upheaval and upheaval. This time the squad also includes Wael Mohya, the young man from Borussia Mönchengladbach is only 17 years old. But Klopp also knows that he has to deliver results, that a stable present cannot do any harm for a good future. It would simply be difficult to justify doing without Füllkrug now. Or as Klopp puts it: “Sometimes form beats everything else.”
We are awarding the SPIEGEL Book Prize for the second time this year. Today we announced the longlist for the book prize, the 20 best books published this year in German or in German translation. They come from France, Great Britain, Ireland, India, Morocco, Taiwan, the USA and Germany.
It would be beyond the scope to go into detail about each individual book here; all reviews can be found here. So here's just a brief overview: The list includes experimental, intricate narrative works as well as those that are more conventional in tone. It's about love stories, about wars, past and present, about politics that have a deep impact on private lives, and also about ghosts and nature gods. This time there are a noticeable number of younger authors among the nominees, and two novel debutants are even in the running.
The works were selected by a six-person jury: The Viennese Germanist Eva Horn, the author and former professional tennis player Andrea Petković, the Berlin playwright Lena Brasch and from the SPIEGEL cultural department Arno Frank, Enrico Ippolito and Xaver von Cranach. In their last jury round a few days ago, after long discussions, the six decided on the top 5 and a winning book. The title and its author will be honored at a gala in Hamburg on Monday, November 16th.
Read the full story here: These are the 20 best books of the year
Blasphemer brothers: On December 5th, Bill and Tom Kaulitz, 37, will host “Wetten, dass…?” for the first time and perhaps once. It's still a while away, but legendary presenter Thomas Gottschalk, 76, has already declared that he doesn't want to watch the TV show: He wasn't at home that day, but out with friends, his wife said in an interview with the "Abendzeitung". This causes ridicule from the Kaulitz twins. “There has to be someone who doesn’t watch it,” complains Tom Kaulitz in the podcast “Kaulitz Hills – Mustard from Hollywood”. And his brother Bill agrees: “Absolutely, there has to be one.”
Could you just go to bed earlier? Because that could help you get rid of something at work or at university tomorrow. Say experts. The annual conference of the German Society for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine is currently taking place in Wiesbaden, and this time it is dealing with the importance of healthy sleep for economic performance and professional success, which should not be underestimated. »You want to have a career? Then you have to be good in bed,” says sleep doctor Hans-Günter Weeß. Those who don't come to work well-rested are less productive and have difficulty concentrating. »Sleep is an underestimated career factor.«
Otherwise, I recommend our new “Firewall” podcast. Host Sandra Sperber, together with SPIEGEL reporter Max Hoppenstedt Heinrichs, investigates the question of whether Russian secret services are trying to recruit teenagers via chat groups in the violence-glorifying com scene who are then supposed to cause unrest in the West (click here for the episode). However, I cannot guarantee that you will be able to fall asleep easily after listening to it.
A lovely evening. Warmly
Yours, Philipp Wittrock, author in the SPIEGEL capital office
