“Every night my face is cut up”

Cologne The cut through Karl Lauterbach’s face is always the same, once horizontally under the hairline, then vertically down to the neck. “Every night my face is cut up with a carpet knife,” says the country’s most famous health politician alongside Jens Spahn. A helper at the SPD stand in Cologne-Holweide has just reported the latest destruction to him.

A large poster with Lauterbach’s destroyed face hangs on the other side of the street. Since his election banners are not glued on, but rather drawn onto metal frames, Lauterbach’s two halves of the face flutter to the side. At the market square in Holweide, they put the halves of the face back together with adhesive tape. Each new poster costs 100 euros, Lauterbach’s team has so far assumed property damage of 6000 euros.