Life - you surprise me again and again, for better or for worse.

Once you have the answer, life changes the question...

First of all...the flu has Germany firmly in its grip. 8 million, it seems like more to me. The supermarkets are empty, kindergartens and schools are closed, everyone you meet is sniffling and coughing. It seems nobody has learned a lesson from the pandemic. I am the only one far and wide who is wearing a mask and using disinfectant. - I always use disinfectant, by the way! Whether it is summer or winter. I just find it super disgusting to touch the handrails or shopping carts, cash machines or letterboxes because I know that most people do not have good hand hygiene. - As you can now see impressively from this snorting society. As I have been ill myself for the last few weeks and still haven't fully recovered, I am currently taking even more care than usual.

I would like to stop writing about illness here, but I cannot.

This week I lost a colleague. I hear that he fought not only hatred of Jews but also his cancer to the very end. We sat on a panel in Toronto in 2019 and I got to know him as a well-informed and passionate person for a good cause. We are losing Michael Mostyn, CEO, Bnai Brith Canada, a tireless fighter against hate.

May his memory be a blessing.

Another not totally unexpected surprise... the publisher does not come across with the book block of my new book. I am not really surprised, because publishers always seem to be equally lame everywhere. Still, it is a bit surprising, because I hired an expert for the typesetting, who now seems unable to set the endnotes correctly. In any case, the announced “week” processing time has once again been exceeded by far.

And there were even more surprises this week - a new Riviera is to be built in the eastern Mediterranean, my voting papers for the Bundestag elections in less than 2 weeks have still not arrived and the LMU in Munich has put a stop to a Jew-hater (https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/politik/ludwigs-maximilian-universitaet-verweigert-francesca-albanese-hoersaal/)!

When it comes to the personal good surprises that life has given me this week, I would first like to mention that a very knowledgeable colleague and proven expert on the subject of security and energy read an 8-year-old article of mine and described it as excellent work 😊 

I am not reporting this because it flatters my ego, but because no one has ever commented so positively on one of my articles. And even though the text has been online for 8 years and I have actually always worked at the same level –

I am super happy that something so “old” still gets attention and that I have obviously worked in an academically correct and convincing way (https://jmss.org/article/download/58237/43811/158721).

Back then as well as today. What a nice confirmation! Thank you very much.

The next surprise came on Thursday. The wait is finally over! More than a year late, my book on “Introduction to Political Science - The Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany” was published by the publishers. I had actually stopped believing in it and resigned myself to the fact that I had written 220 pages for the garbage can. Now I can finally tidy up my PC and delete the citation program that I had to use to paralyze my computer because the clients demanded it. No more crashes because the program opens without being asked! Yeah.

Also - surprise surprise! - I got a very nice follow-up order and can create more materials for the learning course. There is also a new client for Saarland. Here too, Saarland surprises me because it is the second federal state to make a visit to a Holocaust memorial site compulsory in the new 2025/2026 school year.

In addition to all of this, I also had a very interesting and informative conversation with an institution for the political education of adults this week. I will be able to give talks and offer educational trips here in the future. I am very happy about the surprisingly new developments. More on this as soon as everything has been finalized. Stay tuned!