Meet me 4 Tea: Berlin’s former governor and I at the Hotel de Rome

For almost 14 years Klaus Wowereit was mayor of Berlin. I meet the former governor for a cup of tea at the Hotel de Rome. With bouncy steps and a quick saying to welcome me, he enters the lobby. For three years, the lawyer, who was born in Berlin and studied law, is no longer in office. Klaus Wowereit is, however, far away from being a pensioner. Although the sun-drenched hobby golf player has just returned from a 14-day Mallorca holiday.

“Having something to do is important to not rust.”

MyStylery: Klaus, in three months it’s Bundestag election and the SPD is currently in free fall. Can Martin Schulz win the election?
Klaus Wowereit: Yes, of course. His survey ratings climbed over 30 percent within a very short time and there were 17,000 new party entries.
MS: Nevertheless, the SPD has lost three provincial elections in a row. Was it a mistake to nominate Martin Schulz as chancellor candidate?
KW: Three lost provincial elections were quite tough. Martin Schulz still enjoys great sympathy.
MS: Apparently not enough to choose him.
KW: The initial hype is over, the question is what comes after. It is always more difficult for the challenger than for the incumbent.
MS: What advise would you give Martin Schulz?
KW: The most important thing is keeping the nerves together. Sharpen the SPD’s profile and focus on the righteousness.

“What advise I would give Martin Schulz? Keeping the nerves together. Sharpen the SPD’s profile and focus on the righteousness.”

MS: Don’t you feel it in your fingers when you see all of this? Do you not want to get involved again?
KW: On one hand I think, thank God, you have nothing to do with it. On the other hand I would have liked to say something here.
MS: What exactly?
KW: Oh, I do not know now. My short-term memory. (Laughing). Beautiful cup by the way.
MS: This is KPM. Do you know that every cup of this colored Kurland series is unique and has been signed on the bottom?
KW: I also have a big KPM cup at home with my initials, a very nice piece. I really like Kurland. In my generation the so-called good service belonged to the good tone or the dowry, even in families with lower income. On wedding lists the bridal couple collected their new dishes. This seems to have been a little forgotten. Today pragmatism is more important.

“KPM is a wonderful product and I find it remarkable with what historical awareness KPM boss Jörg Woltmann is engaged. Berlin can be very grateful.”

MS: Are you a tea drinker?
KW: Yes. Darjeeling tea, but also gladly Frisian blends.
MS: And you cook yourself?
KW: Yes, and I do not take tea bags, but loose tea leaves from the can. I remember this from times in Emden, where the tea is traditionally prepared differently, you drink it with candy and scooped cream. A special tea experience was a Hightea in Cape Town at the Hotel Mount Nelson. I like this combination of hearty toasts and sweet scones. Of course they should not be too hard, but with some Whipped Cream it always works.

In Berlin’s city hall there is also a service of KPM for large dinners and official guests

MS: It is your third year being a politician pensioner. What has changed compared to your previous life?
KW: I was completely busy in office hours. Came home at night, slept shortly, the next day early the first appointment and that seven days a week. After my resignation, this was suddenly different.
MS: Have you fallen into the infamous hole?
KW: I had the hope that it does not hit me. I enjoy to have lots of free time. But suddenly, leisure needs to be designed. It would have been wrong to say yes to all, just to avoid the emptiness. Just to be there for my husband and myself however would be too little, too. I am committed to the Berlin aid, I am in the presidency of the association Berlin merchants and currently conciliator in the tariff conflict between Euro- and Germanwings. I am happy about the trust. Nevertheless, I have to be careful not to fall into the old stress. Today I get up in the morning an hour later, take my time for breakfast and newspaper reading and go shopping.
MS: Are you the housekeeper now?
KW: No. This is alternating. We share the tasks. We both like cooking. However, not together. (Laughing). I am responsible for fish, poultry and roasts. Jörn makes the minced meat or goulash.

“Of course I’m talking about Jörn as my husband.” The doctor Jörn Kubicki and Klaus Wowereit have been a couple for 24 years, but unmarried

MS: Is Jörn annoyed that you are now so much at home and so very present?
KW: That does happen apparently. But no. He is happy about it.
MS: Mrs Merkel suddenly delights in the same-sex marriage. Are you married?
KW: No. This is only possible since 2001. We’ve known each other since 1993. Of course I’m talking about Jörn as my husband. Partner or life companion sounds silly.
MS: How has Berlin changed under your auspices?
KW: In Berlin, some efforts have long been considered as being unnecessary, independent of the society. According to the motto, the money is just going to come from somewhere. I wanted to change this attitude.

Poor, but sexy

MS: The Berlin sentence you wrote is poor, but sexy …
KW: … still has a certain validity compared to other European capitals. However, Berlin has also grown enormously in economic development and has become international. The Place to be. For young people, for creative people.
MS: For you too?
KW: Absolutely. For me, Berlin is without any alternatives. I was born here and still feel very comfortable. I like the many niches, the uniqueness of the quarters, the so-called Kieze. There is something for everybody.
MS: You have been living in an old apartment in Berlin-Wilmersdorf for eleven years.
KW: I can do almost everything by foot, go to the butcher of my trust and know the baker, who bakes his bread himself.

“The encounter with the Queen was already a highlight. I admire her calm, almost relaxed style and humor.”

MS: You met three US presidents during your term, George Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Which was closest to you?
KW: Bill Clinton I spoke not only to in Berlin, but also in Vienna and New York. Once in a small round in a hunting hut in the Black Forest. That connects. You notice quite quickly when there is a common conversation.
MS: You’ve met the Queen several times. Does she welcome you with “Hello Mr. Wowereit”?
KW (laughs): When I saw her last at the British Ambassador, there was at least a recognition. The encounter with the Queen was already a highlight. I admire her calm, almost relaxed style and humor.
MS: What would you have done differently in retrospect?
KW: The increase in Kita contributions was an absolute mistake. Fortunately, they were completely abolished.

“I can easily understand that many people like Tegel so much. It is central but it is too small.”

MS: Speaking of Flops – are you looking forward to the opening of the BER?
KW: I make several crosses when this is finally brought to an end. The BER is still a point that makes me very angry.
MS: Do you believe in the opening in 2018?
KW: I have stopped making forecasts.
MS: As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the BER, you were quite under fire: you were to blame for everything.
KW: I was the figurehead, who could be scolded, but I was not responsible alone, just because others ran away from it. It was a hard time.
MS: The airport is already considered too small and obsolete. Demolish and rebuild are new demands.
KW: The BER is a huge success of the airport company.

BER – a huge success

MS: What? Do I hear irony?
KW: No. On the contrary. The passenger volume has increased to 30 million passengers per year. In 2001 it was not even ten million. When the BER was planned in 1996, it was regarded as too big.
MS: Today you know that the BER cannot cope with 30 million passengers. Do you also like flying from Tegel?
KW (laughs): But now please do not ask such questions. I can easily understand that many people like Tegel so much. It is central but it is too small.
MS: The BER is at the end of the world.
KW: Oh, that is again this West Berlin kind of view.
MS: I live in the East …
KW: Look at how far the Munich airport is from the city center or the airports of other European cities.
MS: But there is the citizenship decision. Would it not be time to listen to what people want?
KW: That is a very emotional question. But it is the facts, the legal situation, which the FDP does not go past.

Klaus Wowereit: “Today I am happy that I can choose what I am doing and then enjoy it. There is no longer a need for it. I like to go to theater or opera premieres, to which I am still invited.”

MS: Regardless of the airport you are departing from: Where do you want to travel?
KW: For a longer tour to Australia and New Zealand. We like city travels, lastly we were in Budapest and Vienna. Next we go to Iceland.
MS: You had the nickname Party-master as a governor. Did that bother you?
KW: Yes, because it was meant to be defamatory. Not every reception is a party just because you hold a glass in your hand. Bambi awards or Berlinale are part of the job, and for the Governing Mayor, this is often the duty, on which I had given speeches and had to be approachable.

Not every reception is a party

MS: How did you deal with insults?
KW: It is difficult to avoid any hurt in political positions. If you are affected, however, it feels different again. The worst is for the personal environment, family and friends. I’ve grown over the years with a thick coat and insults come not too close to me. Politicians always want to be loved.
MS: If you go through the city today, the people greet you with Mr. Mayor.
KW: Right. And that pleases me. If they say that I am missing, it is nice to hear. I can be very satisfied with my professional life. Not many people can make their hobby a profession. BvH

11 years ago, Klaus Wowereit opened the Hotel de Rome in Berlin as a Governing Mayor. Here we met for our “Meet me 4 Tea” interview

 The interview series “Meet me 4 Tea” is sponsored by KPM – Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur.

The post Black or Green, Klaus Wowereit? appeared first on My Stylery.

Meet me for Tea: Her Highness Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and I in the Hotel de Rome in Berlin

Her Highness is about to go: Gloria von Thurn und Taxis has an appointment with the Reverend. The convinced Catholic woman nevertheless takes time for a tea with MyStylery. I meet the Bavarian Princess at the Berlin Hotel de Rome, the favorite of the nobles in the capital. The housekeeper of the largest inhabited castle in Europe regularly sits here, whether to the vernissage of her portrait-art or the presentation of her new book*. The mother of three grown up children rehabilitated the family business after her husband’s death. These include various private banks, numerous properties, industrial shares and a brewery. The wild times of the Regensburg aristocrat as a punk princess are legendary. Just like their provocative and controversial statements on Aids and contraception. Gloria von Thurn und Taxis does not criticize the criticism. I waved the waiter over and ordered tea: “Garcon!”

“I drink tea all day, made with fresh mint, a few drops of lemon and peeled ginger.”

Gloria von Thurn und Taxis: Garcon… hardly anyone is saying that today. This will always remind me of you now.
MyStylery: I take that as a compliment! Are you a tea drinker, Princess?
GTT: I drink tea all day, made with fresh mint, a few drops of lemon and peeled ginger. I pour it over with hot water. Finished. My Russian grandmother brought me closer to tea culture. You take a porcelain tank, which is previously rinsed with hot water. Only then the tea leaves enter. It is important that the tea has the right color and does not steep too long.
MS: The English leave the tea leaves in the pot all the time …
GTT: Yes, horrible! They pour everything over with milk and you cannot taste anything. I like to mix things up: Earl Gray and its magnificent bergamot aroma with the Chinese smoke lapsang souchong. That tastes delicious.
MS: Is the teatime celebrated at your castle?
GTT: In the afternoon, I regularly drink tea with my mother. She is Hungarian and actually drinks only East Frisian tea in the tea bag. For me an absolute no-go. I spend the winter months in my house in Kenya, where I like to drink Keniatee. It is not perfumed and very fresh.

Gloria von Thurn und Taxis: “Tea bags? For me an absolute no-go.”

MS: You are a practicing Catholic. Does faith in God make life easier?
GTT: I believe that through the sacred sacraments I can master life better. I go to confession at least once a month. Otherwise you might forget what you wanted to confess. (laughs) Confession is ultimately always the same. It is like showering or washing hands: you always get dirty in the same place. I hope that through confession I act a bit more sensitive.
MS: One puts ten euros in the bell and the sins are washed away?
GTT: Confession only works if you really regret. This has nothing to do with money.

Gloria von Thurn und Taxis and I decide for Eary Grey – just black and no sugar

MS: What do you regret?
GTT: Each of my sins, e.g. if I do not notice someone else because another seems more important. That is not right. Or in the workplace: how often does it happen that one plays with his power.
MS: Do you?
GTT: If I’m in a hurry, yes. Impatience, arrogance, and egoism are my great weaknesses. In the Catholic Church, no one believes that people are perfect. We are always sinful.
MS: How does your arrogance express itself?
GTT: If I feel badly placed, I wonder why I’m sitting here, this can really not be my seat. Do they really not know who I am?
MS: You say about yourself that you are hedonistic.
GTT: At some point I faced the question, am I getting fat or do I have to discipline myself and say no when I’m fed up. This is hard for me, especially with sweets. Chocolate is a big temptation.

Has a tendency to extravagant spectacles: Gloria von Thurn and Taxis loves her huge progressive lenses. “With reading-glasses you look like your own grandmother.”

MS: Your eldest daughter was pregnant for the first time two years ago; in the middle of her thirties, your younger daughter and your son are still unmarried. Do you find that strange?
GTT: We are all children of our time. Today the education lasts long. Afterwards you want to become a professional. In the past, women were conditioned to start their own family early, just to not bother their own family any longer.
MS: Your daughters have made a career, both living in London. You dropped out of school at that time. How would you have reacted if your daughters had done the same?
GTT: I always told them it’s okay if they want to drop out. An apprenticeship would have been the other option. I would have insisted on an education in any case. Just because I myself did something wrong, the children should not necessarily repeat that mistake.
MS: Do you regret not having finished school?
GTT: Of course. I really wanted to go to the drama school. But the nightlife in Munich distracted me. I had a little voice in my head shouting to me, school is much too boring, come with me to the “Why Not”. That was THE nightclub, that was owned by my friend Edith, where I could drink with my friends for free. The next morning, there was no way of going to school.

Gloria von Thurn und Taxis has many talents: she manages, plays, sings, writes and paints

MS: You lived your revolutionary phase when you were already married. Were the shrill hairstyles and outfits your rebellion against the establishment?
GTT: Everyone always looked adjusted and the same. I loved the crazy looks of the international catwalks. Paco Rabanne, Pierre Cardin, Courrèges or Jean Claude Montana, they all loved the fact that I wore their fancy creations. I was young and found it exciting how positive the press responded to it. And Gerhard Meir gave me the colorful punk look on my head for the catwalk.
MS: Would you do it again today?
GTT: No, that was too much carnival. And took an enormous amount of time.

“If someone doesn’t like his portrait, I paint again. This usually becomes even worse and my client decides for the first picture. “

MS: In your marriage, it is said, sometimes the palace walls wiggled more often when you had a fight with your husband. Is this a reason why you have not married again?
GTT: When we argued, we always came to peace before going to sleep. It was never about really important things. Why did you come late? Why did you drink so much today?
MS: Were your fights due to the great difference in age? After all it’s 34 years …
GTT: I had a great marriage with a fascinating man. Ten great years. A six in the lottery. The comparison would have always remained. Maybe it would be out of my head if I were to fall in love. But that has not happened since then.
MS: You were thirty when you became a widow. Do you sometimes feel lonely?
GTT: I do not feel lonely, but I’m sometimes alone. My mother told me that one could also enjoy the loneliness from a certain age. And it’s true. I am looking for some alone time today.
MS: Is this how you came up with the idea of painting?
GTT: Exactly. I can only paint when I am alone. I regenerate when painting. I paint no more than one picture a day, always faces after photo templates. By now there are hundreds.

The pictures are painted with oil paint. “I do not like thick layers of paint. The pictures need a certain lightness.”

MS: Who can make it on your canvas?
GTT: For the exhibition in Josef Voelk’s store “The Corner” I deliberately chose only Berlin personalities from all sectors. Supported by the selection, my niece, the daughter of my brother Alexander, who lives in Berlin.
MS: A photo is always a snapshot, which is why some of the people in the portraits do not feel so well applied. Does this lack of appreciation hurt you?
GTT: Not at all. It is a difference, how one sees oneself and how one is seen by others.
MS: You painted Sven Marquardt, Berlin’s most important doorman. Have you ever been to Berghain?
GTT: Never. This is just too late for me. I was in the most amazing clubs in the world, in New York in Studio 54, in the Area, in the Nells …
MS: Does it bother you, that the critics designate your pictures as lovely water color portraits?
GTT: Painting portraits is actually really petty. Since portraits are often seen as assigned works, they don’t count as art.

The exhibition of the Princess in the Berlin concept store “The Corner”. Their pictures are currently presented in the Berlin gallery Robert Eberhardt

MS: Well, you do not want to earn money with it…
GTT: Well, I’d be happy, when someone pays for finished work.  This also expresses a certain appreciation. Nevertheless, I often give away my paintings as a present because I mostly paint friends. I come from the portrait tradition that exists in the nobility. When I was looking for painters who portrayed my children, it was hard enough. Hardly any artist accepts such assignments. I recognized the market gap.
MS: And then the art critics start complaining.
GTT: It’s great, if they say anything at all. And now she is also painting … (laughs). By the way, I can also sing and used to have a rock band. The great thing about today is everyone can try things out. I like to watch these newcomers casting shows on television …
MS: What? DSDS (German singing competition), you watch that?
GTT: I love it and switch it on, no matter where I am. It fascinates me, what talents they discover there. There comes a car dealer who sings so beautiful that you can hardly believe it. Incomprehensible!
MS: You would be the perfect jury member …
GTT: Absolutely. I would love to do that. I even mentioned it to an agent. But so far nobody has come by to ask. BvH

*Book:

Skira Rizzoli: Gloria von Thurn und Taxis – The Home

Contact Gloria von Thurn und Taxis:

thurnundtaxis.de

Gallery Robert Eberhardt:

galerie.roberteberhardt.com

Merken

Merken

Merken

Merken

Merken

The post How about a cup of tea, your Highness? appeared first on My Stylery.