Satire | New collection of texts by Michael Bittner: Waiting Room Earth

The friendly, neatly parted man is known to a wider public as a speaker on several reading stages. But we must imagine the satirist, storyteller, and columnist Michael Bittner, born in 1980. Despite growing up in Saxony, he has a sense of humor and is a contributing writer, among other things, for this newspaper, as a great humanist.

His guiding star is reason; science forms the foundation of his thinking. Bittner doesn't believe in God, esotericism, or other nonsense, but rather in human rights and artistic freedom. He knows that things are currently in a bad way for the world and humanity, yet he doesn't despair, instead fighting for a better, more rational society. For example, he has found a convincing way to combat racism: "My advice to anyone who feels overwhelmed by foreigners in their homeland: The best way to get rid of foreigners is to get to know them."

The insights that emerge from his observations and reflections, and which he shares with us, are often of great wisdom. Regarding the supposed differences between city life and provincial existence, he writes: "Anyone who has had the opportunity to experience both the countryside and the big city in their lifetime knows that different places are dominated by different kinds of human stupidity." Who would disagree with him? Elsewhere, he recounts a train journey he took as a first-class passenger and the people he met along the way. This experience, too, leads to important new insights: "What is more repulsive than the good humor of strangers?"

"My advice to anyone who feels alienated in their homeland: The best way to get rid of strangers is to get to know them."

Michael Bittner

In general, Bittner's regular train journeys seem to help him develop a fresh perspective on things, not only regarding his fellow human beings, but also regarding the landscapes they are forced to live in. While crossing the southeastern regions of Germany, from which he himself originates, he notes: "The train back to Berlin takes a two-hour detour through areas that seem as if they haven't yet been marked on any map."

Yet even when Bittner isn't traveling through inhospitable or desolate regions or meeting unpleasantly laughing or senselessly merry people, but simply sitting still and motionless, pondering existence and time, wise thoughts emerge in the end: "Isn't all of life a matter of waiting—for death? And the earth the waiting room in which we stay until the end comes? It takes a while, though. That's why we make ourselves at home in the waiting room."

Bittner is, as one quickly realizes when reading his texts, a thinker, a seer, a philosopher. Yet he draws his profound knowledge of the nature of existence not only from casual personal experiences and everyday observations. In addition to interesting travelogues and philosophical reflections, Bittner also pens insightful reports in which he captures the extraordinary nature of certain situations with great linguistic sensitivity. Consider, for example, his report on a concert by a well-known German punk band: "There's a strangely exuberant and boisterous atmosphere, like at a children's birthday party where Doppelkorn is being served."

Or, for example, the striking portrait of a man who has been trying in vain for seventeen years to be expelled from the SPD, and who, despite his efforts, seems unable to succeed. Bittner visited him at home and lets him speak for himself: "For a moment, I had the idea of getting a swastika tattooed on my forehead. But I'm no longer sure if that would be enough to get me expelled from the SPD."

Another special feature of the author Bittner is that he, who can be described as a convinced, non-dogmatic leftist, is not afraid to poke fun at the quirks and stubbornness of a lazy leftist. And in this, he truly belongs to a vanishingly small minority.

Michael Bittner: "Germans in the Wind." Satyr-Verlag. 184 pp., paperback, €15.