Prince Charles in Berlin
Slowly but surely a queue is forming to take over my job in Berlin. “London has become a nest of snakes,” a younger colleague told me, “why don’t you get out of Germany and make some space for us?” This was actually said in a light-hearted way but it expressed a sense of frustration being heard everywhere now that the recession is taking hold. Many older workers realise that their pension funds are not as big as they thought; indeed not big enough to live. So the people known in the US as the Baby-Boomers, and here as the 1968ers, are fighting to hold on to their jobs. “Who says 55 is old? It’s the new 40!” If I had ten euros for every time I heard that slow-witted pseudo-wisdom I would be a rich man by now. Anyway what seems to be happening in the Anglo-Saxon world – and therefore sooner or later in Germany – is that office politics is getting nasty. The oldies are not making way for the young and the result is pent up frustration.
Look at Deutsche Bank. Jo Ackermann is going to renew his contract for another 3 years rather than retire, as promised, next year. The result: anger in the boardroom as younger directors have to kick their heels, mark time as if waiting for a delayed train. Or poor Prince Willem, the amusing red-haired heir to Queen Beatrix. He’s in his 40s now and understandably wants to start doing a real job. It has never been easy to be a Crown Prince; a nightmare surely to have your mother as your boss.
Which brings me to Prince Charles, surely the oldest Azubi in the world. He is roughly the same age as Ackermann but while Jo is irritating everybody by hanging on to his job, Charles hasn’t even started yet. Now, of course, there are worse destinies. Who, for example, would want to be a pig farmer this week (or any week)? But while Queen Elisabeth plods along like a marathon runner, breaking records for longevity, defining an era in Britain just like Queen Victoria more than a century ago, becoming the figurehead for all European royalty, Charles sees his future reign on King shrink into insignificance. When he eventually ascends the throne, how long will he have? Five, ten years? It is a zero-sum game. The more that the Queen establishes herself as a historical figure, the less likely it is that Charles will be able to influence Britain.
Now my natural sympathies are with older people wanting to keep their jobs or at least determine on their own terms when they want to leave. But in the case of the Queen, I would say (politely, of course), go now: enjoy your retirement, breed horses, walk the corgis, take it easy – and don’t meddle with the reign of King Charles. The fact is, Charles is ready; he is no longer a Praktikant. That much became clear during his short trip to Berlin. He was serious about climate change and sustainable farming long before it was fashionable. Charles is the very personification of Schwarz-Grün. Over the years the English have laughed about him talking to trees, using cooking oil to fuel the tractors on his farm and his home-made bio-Kekse. But the Germans understood his agenda, and now the British are beginning to see that Charles was ahead of his time and is now, of it. Apart from picking up his bio-prize here, Charles met architects (the brilliant David Chipperfield) and that too sent a message to the British: he will be a King who cares about the look of its cities. The English talk of their older houses being Georgian, Edwardian or Victorian; Charles wants to usher in a Carolingean even. And above all he wants his Kingdom more multi-kulti, more tolerant.
So his appearance at a Christianity versus Islam football match was more than an amusing sideshow. Charles wants to style himself “Defender of Faith” when he becomes King, not “Defender of the Faith” like Queen Elisabeth. His mother swore loyalty to the Anglican church; Charles wants to swear loyalty to the right of all British citizens to practice their own religions. He believes that religions can compete but that they must respect each other, and to do so they have to communicate. That is why watching the football match between Pfarrer and Imame was important. The two teams played as if they really wanted to win. Nobody did – the score was 0:0 – but what was remarkable was that the Christians did not lose. Even though team captain Roland Herpich, superindent of Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Berlin-Wilmersdorf, is 56 and goalkeeping Pfarrer Heribert Sültmann is 51, even though three of the players had to wear knee support, they managed to fight off the much younger, much fitter muslim clergy. Next month they will go on a spiritual retreat together and discuss Berlin’s problems. There was a lesson in this match not just for religious communities in Berlin, but also in Britain; competing faiths need not destabilise society. And as long as Pfarrer Sültmann continues to use his goalkeeper’s gloves to save Christianity, there is some hope too for those of over the age of 50.
As for Camilla, she looked ok. The English have made their peace with her; she is no longer an obstacle to Charles becoming a popular King. Personally though I wish he had married Renate Künast and brought yet more Green German blood into the Royal Family.
