Fassbinder and Eichhorn cast the green candidate for the position of former Chancellor, frequent traveler, international law activist, and feminist-inspired global savior with skills in geography, history, engineering, physics and English that are in desperate need of improvement.

For example, Fassbender and Eichhorn note that Baerbock's favorite word, which he crazily uses, is „must.” Hospitals in Gaza 'must be able to function'. Hamas terrorism „must stop immediately.” Addressing Moscow: “The bombing must stop.” Moreover: „Drowning in the Mediterranean must stop.” “We must work on reforms in Gaza.” United Nations.” “COP28 should have gone a step further.” Regarding supply chain law: “Europe must be able to rely on Germany.” Regarding Sudan: “We must increase pressure on both sides.” Human Rights Imperialism Like Baerbock!, but according to Fassbender and Eichhorn: “Moralizing foreign policy is a zero-sum game.”

The Baerbock consists only of categorical necessities that Little Erna can sign. But what do they bring? Well, with approval ratings of 35%, Baerbock is doing much worse than most foreign ministers in the past, and even the tailor-made Heiko Maas had better ratings in 2018 at 47%. But Baerbock is doing at least better than Chancellor Schulz (20 percent), opposition leader Friedrich Merz (29 percent), or party comrade Robert Habeck (26 percent). Only Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is “more popular” (50 percent).

Burbock's consequence-free „policy.”

“Baerböck’s appeals fall on deaf ears or even cause damage, as was the case with Baerböck’s public statement that Chinese President Xi Jinping is a dictator,” Fassbinder and Eichhorn write. “It is considered impossible for Baerbock to continue to be received in China, let alone be taken seriously.” “The situation in China has not changed as a result of their statements.”

So the problem is that all of Burbuk's necessities have no consequences. Why? Because the German Foreign Minister is not taken seriously in the world. What a highly cultured and defeated footballer might say about most German foreign ministers in the 21st century applies to them: First we were unlucky, then we were unlucky too.

There are images after images: Bairbock, above all, always on the catwalk – as on the catwalk: at a gas station in Djibouti; When visiting refugees in South Sudan; At the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties in Dubai; Baerbock is live x times and not just via Twitter/X in Israel and Ukraine; On the border between South and North Korea; In Nigeria; Scattering rose petals in New Delhi in memory of Mahatma Gandhi; At the United Nations in New York; While carrying bowlers in Olam, Niger; In Palau in the South Pacific. And so… in 2023 alone it was (CO2 neutral?) on 73 trips abroad, and in January 2024 on 13. Here you can – for once – rely on Wikipedia.

The Baerbock problem: computable in its simplicity

Baerbock is predictable in her thought, emotion, and rhetoric. Fassbender and Eichhorn also wrote: „The people she talks to know what to expect in their discussions and press conferences. But she doesn't seem to care. What seems more important to her is the impression she makes in news photographs and in the daily news: she shows herself barefoot on the islands of Palau In the Pacific Ocean, or carrying jugs of water in Niger, or disembarking from a military plane loaded with aid supplies. For Gaza in Egypt. The results on the ground are secondary… Realpolitik – bargaining and balancing between common and conflicting interests, including small secrets and turning a blind eye – is not one of “Their specialty.”

Max Weber might say: It practices the ethics of conviction instead of the ethics of responsibility from its high horse. Instead of realpolitik. See Baerbock’s legendary press conference with Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Gang in April 2023. Twice she treated her colleague critically – China’s restraint in the Ukraine war, China’s Taiwan policy – ​​and twice he did not like it. And the third time around – civil society and human rights – Chen became clear: “The least China needs is a teacher from the West.”

Fassbender and Eichhorn sum up: “There is dissatisfaction behind closed doors among experienced German diplomats,” she says. Trust has been painstakingly built in the host country, sometimes over years, and then the minister comes along and points out where the moral hammer lies. German diplomats are allowed Those on site are suffering. After the third Mai Tai at the latest, you will hear what people think of the lady from Berlin.

Appearances are everything

However, Baerbock has its own “fan bubble”. Young people in the State Department in particular will appreciate this approach. Certainly, Baerbock has already gathered „green” and „woke” boy and girl groups around him. I got there. In screamingAlso press ARD and ZDF anyway. She also does a lot for her clothes. For example, she employs her own make-up artist at taxpayer expense – for €137,000 a year. Perhaps your most important man in the State Department is professional photographer Dominik Botzmann of the Phototech agency. With plenty of professionally staged photogenic appeal, hearts fly to her in the jungle of enlightened newspapers, from „TAZ” to „Süddeutsche”. Bayerischer Rundfunk commented: “Feminist foreign policy provokes…, and that is precisely why we need it.” Baerbock also has her own fan club at her post. Behind closed doors, a German diplomat says she is surrounded by a group „convinced that Baerbock can walk on water.” Behind closed doors, the famous diplomats also say: We never exchanged blonde jokes, but now we tell each other jokes about Baerbock. They provide opportunities for this on a weekly basis.

TE readers interested in reading more about the Secretary of State's 'performance' can refer to a number of TE analyses. Here are examples from the past 10 weeks alone: