Death of Hubert Aiwanger: Why he will be missed

Of course there are the funny incidents that come to mind when you think of Hubert Aiwanger's performances. For example, when he tried to explain the Corona rules in the beer garden: “If six to eight people, everyone comes with their buddy…” The handout went viral.

Or in 2019, when he appeared at the popular startup fair “Bits & Pretzels”. The hall was full, and Barack Obama would take the stage a little later. But before that, the Bavarian Economics Minister was allowed to give a welcoming speech. That’s what he did – for minutes and in English. An English that seemed quite similar to Aiwanger's Lower Bavarian idiom.

It didn't take long before the so-called social media rained down malicious comments from educated German cosmopolitans. About this Lower Bavarian farm boy who doesn't speak English at all. And who, as much insinuation is permitted, enabled his commentators to exploit their supposed superiority.

The reaction of the predominantly international audience in the hall was completely different: you could tell from the faces of the listeners that they found this man up front to be a bit exotic, but also pretty cool. Someone who, as they say in Bavaria, doesn't give a shit. But nothing at all.

Aiwanger was also repeatedly ridiculed in politics, even by his own people. For example, when he wanted to lead the Free Voters into the state parliament. The Free Voters who are rooted exclusively in local politics? In the state parliament? It's clear!

They have now been there for 18 years, and in the state government for eight years. A dog was already a, the Aiwanger, to use another Bavarian saying. You have to know that being a dog is one of the greatest compliments you can get in this country.

Out of misunderstood piety, we do not want to obey the old rule here that one should say nothing but good things about the dead (for the above cosmopolitans: “De mortuis nihil nisi bene”). Therefore, it should be remembered again: Hubert Aiwanger often spouted off right-wing nonsense - which can certainly be understood ambiguously. His populism sometimes bordered on the appetizing. His handling of the leaflet affair will be particularly badly remembered, as he was not above a clumsy perpetrator-victim reversal and seriously accused critics of exploiting the Shoah in order to destroy him as a person.

And yet the Lower Bavarian - and that's not an empty phrase that everyone from black to green is currently speaking into the microphones - will be missing. Because Aiwanger was: real. Uncontrived. Authenticity, it almost hurts to use this worn-out term again, is demanded everywhere. But if someone is actually themselves, it doesn't fit either. Unless it happens to be a self that fits exactly into your own worldview.

Being authentic takes courage. Whoever he or she is takes risks. So it's no wonder that many politicians prefer to resort to PR talk, have journalists present every single quote for approval and would rather present voters with a choreographed production of themselves as much as possible rather than an unvarnished picture. You can't blame them.

Aiwanger was proof that there was another way. He spoke in his special dialect, which was always a source of ridicule. Offelsoft! There were people who claimed to know and explained knowledgeably why Aiwanger's language was not even “normal” Lower Bavarian, but rather a very special Aiwanger island dialect that practically no one spoke except him.

But all the mockery of his language and involuntary bon mots could not hide the fact that Aiwanger was rhetorically ahead of many of his fellow politicians - whether in the beer tent or in the state parliament.

Aiwanger almost never used manuscripts. Speaking freely for an hour was no problem for him. “I’m just a thought speaker or spoken thinker, whatever you call it,” he once explained to the taz. "I think during my speech and see where the logical next step is. You start with the core of the topic and then build more and more onion skins around it."

Whether between onion skins or in the pedestrian zone: Aiwanger spoke the language of the people, in many ways. Island dialect or not. Although he repeatedly fished in the right-wing swamp with populist slogans, he also railed against big business and even pursued a more pragmatic course in migration policy, despite pithy sayings. But he was completely different from the real right-wing populists in one way: Aiwanger was actually on the side of the ordinary people.