After excitement online: Amthor foregoes beach chairs in the Chancellery

dpa | State Minister Philipp Amthor (CDU)'s beach chair is brought back from the Federal Chancellery to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Amthor takes the criticism directed at him very seriously and has therefore decided to have the beach chair removed, said a government spokesman at the federal press conference.

According to the information, Amthor bought the beach chair privately for his office in the Chancellery and also paid for delivery and assembly himself. For Amthor, the beach chair represents a connection to his homeland, as the speaker explained.

Philipp Amthor has been Minister of State for Federal-State Cooperation in the Chancellery since the end of July. In the second season of the ZDF documentary series “Inside CDU” you can see how the beach chair is delivered and brought to the balcony next to his office. The scene sparked some ridicule and critical reactions on social networks. An Instagram post from “ZDF today” about Amthor on “Inside CDU” had been commented on around 1,900 times by midday on Monday.

Several Instagram users wrote that they initially thought it was satire or AI-generated content. Others accused Amthor of arrogance, one even spoke of “late Roman decadence in its final stages”. Some users also took the scene with humor. "Oh, somehow it's funny about the beach chair. I'll treat him to the beach chair," wrote a user in one post.

Amthor comes from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where beach chairs line the beaches on the Baltic Sea coast. Beach chairs are also not uncommon in private gardens or on balconies in northern Germany. The CDU politician was until recently State Secretary for Digital, and has been Minister of State for Federal-State Relations in the Chancellery for almost two months.