Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants it to be voluntary, saving energy.

The Germans just don't want to feel the whole rise in energy prices.

Although gas is scarce and expensive, the gas companies are still not allowed to pass on their increased purchase prices directly to the end customer - Habeck would rather come up with a gas price levy and save the billion-dollar Uniper group with tax money.

Patrick Bernau

Responsible editor for economy and "value" of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Don't high energy prices need to get Germans to start saving energy on a large scale?

Maybe even a bonus for those who are particularly eager?

Habeck refuses.

The high prices are enough of an incentive, he says again and again, and then gives tips to save money: that he now takes even shorter showers than before, that as a busy minister he hardly ever heats his Berlin apartment and that anyone with a suitable shower head can save water.

"I don't want to live in a country where you only move if there's money for it," he says, declaring that saving energy is practically a civic duty - it all culminates in one sentence in the ZDF interview: "And if someone says: I I only help if I get 50 euros, then I would say: you won't get it, old man."

Belief in the striving in man

Well, Habeck certainly doesn't live in a country where you only move if there's money to do so - but can you move far enough without money?

Doubts about this are not only allowed, but also justified.

In any case, his position puts him in the middle of his party's ideological landscape - Habeck of all people, the man who actually opened so many bridges to the mainstream for the Greens.

But voluntary renunciation is apparently also at the center of Habeck's political world view: the idea that people would like to consume less if it serves a higher purpose has been close to the Greens for years.

The belief in the striving in people who will want the right thing in the end.

That's the way it is: Those who have a particularly good grip on themselves often demonstrate this by making sacrifices.

Nouveau riche braggarts have suffered less than humble entrepreneurial types, and big investor Warren Buffett is so respected in part because he still lives in his old cottage in Nebraska and drinks Cherry Coke.

For years, the old experiment has stuck in people's minds: if you don't eat the sweets right away as a child, but can leave them for a while, you will be more successful as an adult.

And maybe the educated Greens are the people who can more easily do without some fun in order to achieve a distant goal instead, for example a higher education.

everyday tips?

"nope"

But this ideology sometimes clashes with reality.

In this case, first to Olaf Scholz, the Federal Chancellor from the social democratic tradition.

"Robert Habeck is now giving tips on how to save," Scholz was asked on ARD.

"Do you also have practical everyday tips at hand?" Scholz pursed his mouth and answered with two letters.

"Nope." It's quite possible that Scholz understands the Germans better than Habeck.

In any case, there are many indications that renunciation out of pure civic duty is not so easy for people.

From theory, from the behavioral laboratory - but also very practical and up-to-date from the corona pandemic.