When you sing along to the national anthem: unity and justice and “Sassonia”

I came up with a ritual for my birthday so that the day off doesn't fray at home. I ride my bike and the S-Bahn to a forest near Wannsee. I think of my father, who woke me up in the dark at this time of year and took me to his mushroom hunting ground. When I get too sentimental, I drive on, jump into the ice-cold water of a small moor lake and let the sun dry me on the weekday deserted meadow.

Today everything is different. My eldest son spontaneously came along. We don't find a single mushroom. I don't think about my father and I don't get sentimental. The water is still warm and when I come out it is raining. The form of the ritual has proven itself, but the content is completely different. The ritual tolerates this and makes it possible - without it I would be alone on the sofa.

Two weeks beforehand I'm playing basketball with my daughter. Half of your club is there and wants to see whether the German women go further than they ever have before at a World Cup, into the final! The hall is full, the atmosphere is relaxed and peaceful at the same time.

Then everyone stands up because the national anthems come on. My daughter sings along and I sing too. Or do I sing along and then my daughter sings? In any case, a little shiver runs down my spine. Really now, I think? What's going on here? Is it because of basketball now? Or the AfD? Am I singing for or against something? What exactly is this “pledge?”

Another week later I'm at a conference in Milan. Everyone asks me about the election in “Sassonia”. I’ll say “Sassonia-Anhalt” first, then I’ll save it. What exactly is this “hint”?

In any case, my impression is that I couldn't do anything more silly and cowardly than to pretend that I had nothing to do with "Sassonia". As if I wasn't responsible in some special way for what was happening there. My impression is that the people of Milan expect me to behave as a German when it comes to German things.

My talk is entitled “How much drug do people need?” My answer is that there is no compelling reason not to leave the answer to this question to the individual. Except when it becomes dangerous for other people.

And I say that there is, however, one drug cocktail that has proven to be the most devastating in human history: hate, arrogance, megalomania, cruelty, meanness - with alcohol as the catalyst. It becomes clear that I also mean the cocktail that decided the choice in “Sassonia”.

Since we can't find any mushrooms and it's starting to rain, my son and I take shelter under a parasol in a beer garden. The nice waiter wears lederhosen and a traditional shirt and speaks in the singsong of the Ruhr area. It's Oktoberfest here at the weekend, he says as he puts beer and sausage salad on the table.

Oktoberfest can be anywhere. It is a ritual that people all over the world interpret in very different ways, a kind of carnival with a corresponding costume.

Singing the national anthem before a basketball game is also a kind of carnival, I think, taking part in a ritual. As a person, I don't get lost in singing the German national anthem.

But I can't stop myself from not singing along to them anymore.