I saw this on BBC News last night… Apparently there’s a bit of a dispute over whether or not German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder dyes his hair.
You know, as an American this makes me feel good. The rest of the world manages to be just as banal as we are when they give it the old college try.
He is suing the people that reported it. I’m not sure if it was a newspaper or a radio station. Hamburg is where the trial is being held. He is running for re-election and is behind in the polls.
Is he? I don’t think so. IIRC, Schröder still is more popular than his adversary, Stoiber (who, IMHO, is just arrogant and seems to consider himself already in power - he’s meeting foreign heads of state five months in advance).
The problem, of course, is that it’s not the Chnacellor who will be elected by the people but parties.
I agree, however, that the hair dying dispute is just silly. And I think Schröder shouldn’t have sued them - if he had kept silence, nobody would have paid attention to that report, but once you run to the courts it gets the attention it doesn’t deserve.
Oooh… a local.
Would you like to get the Straight Dope for us by doing a chemical analysis of Herr Schroder’s locks? 
hands Schnitte a pair of shears
Danke schoen.
Germans are nutty on so many levels.
For instance, I heard a radio report on the “Pain Station”, a video game that allows you to inflict pain on your opponant. Before I even heard who developed it I knew it must be Germans (and I was right).
What do you expect from a culture that gave us the concept of “schadenfreude”, pleasure derived from the misfortune of others.
Claudia Schiffer
[off topic]
Call me strange, but I love “Die Prinzen.” Hoping to catch them live once I move to Deutschland in a few months.
[/off topic]
I myself think they actually are died, but I don’t care too much about it. And it will certainly not have effect on the vote I’m going to cast in the elections.
There was, btw, a soccer coach from one of the League’s superior clubs who was suspected to sniff cocaine last year. He was dumb enough to have his hair analyzed by an independent lab, they found out he did sniff cocaine, and he had to resign.
Let’s write to Schröder’s office and ask them for a sample lock?
Ah, Daum. Well, he was just an idiot for running that risk, really. Happens in all countries.
Then again, the Germans DO know how to appreciate true status.
When it was rumoured that Franz Beckenbauer (the second best football player ever, with best regards from Johan Cruijff ;)) had an extra-marital child, he came clean by writing a letter to a large newspaper, apologising to those involved.
The matter was dropped immediately. Of course, Schroeder can only dream of ever achieving the status Beckenbauer has.
You can say that again. It’s unbelievable. Although he was under some pressure, everybody would have followed his argumentation if he had announced that he didn’t consider idle slander important enough to force him to a hair analysis, or whatever. The rumours would have gone on, but that’s certainly better than having evidence for the cocaine. The dumbest person alive, I don’t grasp it.
And he’s even gaining more. To the public, he’s the man who brought the 2006 World Cup to Germany, and he made the city of Munich build (and fund) a new stadium for FC Bayern that nobody wanted. Living Legend, this man.
I apologize for saying he was running behind in the polls. I heard that on NPR and should have known not to listen to their liberal bias. 
You don’t have to apologize for anything
I myself am not too big a Schröder fan (he’s much too centrist for a traditionally left party, IMHO), but his adversary is MUCH worse, so I hope he’ll win.
In case you’re interested - here’s an FT report about the situation.
Just wondering -
mrblue, are you aware that the word “Schnitte” means “clippings”? 'Cos that makes your request even funnier…
What a coincidence. I was just looking up ‘wiener schnitzel’ today for a completely unrelated reason…
Says Babelfish, “Viennese shred”.
Sounds like a band name.
To answer–no, I wasn’t aware of that. My attempt to learn German has been slightly delayed.
Did someone say wiener schnitzel?
Marlene Dietrich
Ludwig von Beethoven
Bratwurst
Glockenspiel
BMW
most of my ancestors (the others were Prussians and Austrians, like that damn corporal)
Ludwig van Beethoven - his father’s family was of Flemish descent.
It actually means “slice”, but what the hell…
As a voter of Mr Schröder’s I have to defend him (a little bit, anyway, cause I think the whole thing is way stupid).
He is not suing the paper because they said he dies his hair. He is suing them because this is not true and they are printing it anyway, even though he said it is not true. So it’s a matter of the press writing what they know is an untruth.
BTW his hairdresser has said “no dies” to this. Mr Schröder’s hair is liberally sprinkled with grey, but you only see it when up close.
CHEESE
I could tell you the whole story of how my classmates came up with the “Schnitte” nickname, but I’ll keep this for days when absolutelky nothing of interest is on the Boards, so stay tuned.
Speaking of Schröder: I would vote for SPD if Schröder wasn’t the candidate. I think the party has became much too centrist.
With Lafontaine (Schröder’s left-wing rival within the party; retreated from politics a few years ago) the situation would be different, but I can’t see any difference between the Social Democrats and other parties any more. Without any regards to hair colour.