There are no prizes for guessing whose face features on the poster for the first German edition of Charlie Hebdo which is to appear on newsstands in Berlin and Vienna today.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pictured in a moment of quiet contemplation reading the satirical weekly on the toilet.
“Charlie Hebdo has a liberating effect,” the legend reads.
Photo: AFP / Charlie Hebdo
The irreverent French phenomenon, which was the victim of a bloody terrorist attack in January last year, hopes to continue its renaissance with a German version of its provocative mix of no-holds-barred cartoons and biting satirical columns.
Germans bought 70,000 copies of Charlie Hebdo’s “survivors’ edition,” which appeared one week after last year’s massacre in the magazine’s Paris offices and it already sells 1,000 copies a week of its French edition in the nation.
Its editor, the cartoonist Riss — who was shot in the shoulder during the attack — has been working on a German-language version for six months.
He has also drawn the poster for the first issue with Merkel resplendent in pink reading a Charlie Hebdo edition which wonders whether she would be able to govern both Germany and France at the same time.
The cover she is holding on her throne is one originally drawn by the weekly’s murdered former editor, Charb, who was gunned down in the attack in which 12 people died.
“I always thought that we would be able to export Charlie Hebdo,” Riss said. “There is a real curiosity in Germany about what we are doing, which is not the case for instance in Britain, Spain or Portugal.”
Its 200,000-copy launch in Germany is certainly ambitious — almost the same number as are printed in France every week.
“Unfortunately, lots of people outside France discovered Charlie Hebdo because of the attacks when it is supposed to be a magazine that makes you laugh,” Riss said.
The cartoonist said he was wary of the weekly’s 46-year history being reduced to the terror attacks.
“It is true that an important aspect of our editorial identity is our attachment to the freedom to criticize religion, but Charlie Hebdo is not just that,” he said.
“If we succeed in developing a readership abroad, we are also making allies,” said Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sourisseau. “Those allies will help us get our message out and be understood.”
Despite its many fans and supporters, Charlie Hebdo has never had a shortage of enemies.
It first became a target of Islamist extremists after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Most Muslims consider portraying the prophet in images to be blasphemous.
It also regularly outrages Christians, drawing criticism from the Vatican, as well as from the French political establishment.
Nor did its humor go down well in Italy after the town of Amatrice was devastated by an earthquake in August.
Its “macabre and tactless” pasta-themed cartoons on the quake, including one portraying victims crushed under layers of lasagna, prompted the town to sue.
Italian Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano was even more forthright in his fury, telling the cartoonists where they “could stick their pencils.”
Charlie Hebdo is keeping under wraps which German sacred cows it plans to take to the slaughter.
Its 16-page German version is mostly a translation of the French edition, but with some content written specifically for a German audience.
Riss said he hoped it would inspire young German cartoonists to dare to start drawing for it, but such are the security concerns that the edition’s young female editor –— who heads a 12-person team — is working under a pseudonym, Minka Schneider.
“Our biggest challenge is not German humor, it is that the cartoon culture [from which Charlie Hebdo comes] doesn’t really have an equivalent here [in Germany],” she said.
Germany already has two major satirical monthlies, Titanic and Eulenspiegel, but their humor is different to Charlie Hebdo, she said.
Riss is realistic about the German edition’s long-term prospects.
“It’s a test, an experiment,” he said, arguing that the magazine’s brand of humor is “universal,” with part of its Web site already available in English.
Nevertheless, he admitted that often foreigners do not how to take the magazine’s often vicious edge.
“Charlie Hebdo is kind of an extra terrestrial ... its humor is a little cynical, disillusioned. There is a pessimism in our drawings, but we try to laugh about it,” he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia