Carnival float: Mainz fools knock Jürgen Klopp off his pedestal
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Is Jürgen Klopp taking off? Or is he falling? That, says Boris Henkel with a smile, is a matter of interpretation. The huge styrofoam figure of the former Mainz football coach on the trailer in the Mainz Carnival Association's (MCV) wagon hall leaves room for interpretation. The head of the carnival association's creative committee explains that the wagon shows a grinning Klopp with a football in one hand and an energy drink in the other.
Football fans in Dortmund, Liverpool and Mainz have long revered him as an icon. But even if the ex-Mainz player's latest commitment to a soft drink manufacturer from Austria has given him financial wings, which are depicted as giant wings on 500 euro notes, Klopp has destroyed his own monument for his fans. And so it looks as if he is stumbling off the pedestal on which the crests of the three clubs are depicted - or is he taking off?
The huge floats are a traditional part of Mainz's street carnival, for which around half a million people are expected in the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital on Shrove Monday. The fools of the MCV, which organizes the parade, always take a critical look at current events. Boris Henkel believes that Jürgen Klopp should not be missing. The crazy dragon, which will wind its way through the city for over seven kilometers, comprises 140 parade numbers; the Klopp figure with number 128 will be one of more than 150 floats and committee floats that will drive past the people on the side of the road.
Stefan Hisge cannot say how long it took to build the float with the football coach, which has many nice details and in which the face of the styrofoam figure is clearly recognizable as Klopp, but he can say that the completion of the ten floats was a perfect landing. This year was the first year Hisge was responsible for building the floats, after Dieter Wenger, who died in January, had been responsible for it for six decades.
Since the carnival campaign began on November 11, Hisge and 20 other float builders have been working full-time on ten themed floats that the MCV is sending out on the parade route this year. The ideas for the themes are developed by the creative committee, designed by the caricaturist Michael Apitz and then implemented as huge Styrofoam works. This, says Hannsgeorg Schnönig, president of the association founded in 1838, is an incredible achievement, and the results this year are very good.
The mothers and fathers of the rolling satire had a particular problem. "When it became clear that the federal election would take place on February 23, we were initially taken aback," says Henkel. After all, it was clear that federal political issues would be difficult to implement without knowing the outcome of the election. Nevertheless, the topic will not be left out when the procession with 9,500 activists sets off for the 121st time at 11:11 a.m. on Shrove Monday.
The float, entitled "Crash Landing," shows a crashing airplane: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is at the controls, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is in the back, and former Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has already been thrown out of the middle seat. "This is my favorite float," says Henkel, although he knows how much effort goes into each one. Each motif costs the club around 15,000 euros, and financing has become extremely difficult, says Henkel. Selling the train badges is one way of raising money, but sponsors, other clubs and the proceeds from the carnival also help cover the costs.
Next to the crash pilots, in the next car, Vladimir Putin, based on the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the Bond films, is sitting in an armchair and petting a white Persian cat - with the face of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. With him on his lap, the fools write, "Putin is attacking humanity with ruthless aggression, ice cold, on a deadly mission." Also depicted are Defense Minister Boris Pistorius , who, given the underfunding of the German army, is only wearing a helmet around his waist and is only protected by a NATO umbrella, and Donald Trump, who is drilling for oil like mad and ruthlessly exploiting the environment. And to form a coalition, a current car is being built with the motto "Swallowing toads."
The floats will be driven out of the hall in the Mainz district of Mombach for the first time on Sunday at the "Dance on the Lu" on Ludwigstrasse. According to Henkel, the figures have been built to be weatherproof. The Klopp figure will also arrive at Münsterplatz, where the procession will break up on Monday. By then, the spectators will have decided whether Klopp will crash or take off. The slogan on the float gives an indication of where the MCV fools are leaning: "Kloppo used to have values that he no longer cares about, because Red Bull is luring people with lots of money, and he is now falling from his pedestal with a crash."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung