Habecks soaring: Today a king

Robert Habeck must now pour silver. He's in a goldsmith's shop in Winsen an der Luhe, it's a Tuesday afternoon in April. "Do you have two minutes?" With these words, Henning Fast, the goldsmith, intercepted the Green Chief on a tour of the city center. "I also have five," says Habeck. "Two are enough", says Fast and pulls Habeck into his shop, past the cash register, up the stairs to the smithy.

The workbenches are made of wood, with two women working on it. The utensils are stacked on the tables. A workshop like from the storybook. "Really cool," says Habeck.

He almost presses the soldering iron in his hand, Habeck is to melt the silver, which lies in a hollow of metal on the workbench. A bit of borax in it, it puffs and hisses, Habeck has now Boraxflöckchen on crumpled jacket, but the silver remains hard.

"I realize you are ambitious," says Fast. "I'm not ambitious," says Habeck.

Then the flame turns green, the silver becomes liquid. Habeck pours it into a pen, fast, fast, before it gets rigid again. It is not quite in it, since it is already cooled. The goldsmith is proud: "I would not have thought that such a prominent politician is in my workshop."

Valerie Höhne / SPIEGEL ONLINE

Robert Habeck practices with the goldsmith in Winsen an der Luhe

Habeck actually came to support Susanne Menge, the local mayoral candidate of his party - but when he's there, it's all about him. As once with the CDU, when Chancellor Angela Merkel came to the election campaign.

Later in the Marstall, a converted horse stable where the Greens have organized a town meeting, it is jam-packed. A good 200 people fit in, but more has arrived on a Tuesday at 3 pm.

It's going great for the Greens chief. For months, the Greens are in polls before the SPD, would be elected this Sunday, their chances would not be bad, second strongest force. The ZDF Politbarometer recently named Habeck the most popular politician in the country. In a Forsa poll, he was 20 percent certified by the chancellor, ahead of SPD politician Andrea Nahles and not too far behind Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz and CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. He is a regular guest on TV talk shows.

All within a year. In January 2018, he was elected together with Annalena Baerbock to the new dual top of the party. Since then it is running. The Greens are able to announce new successes, sometimes on a monthly basis: the best election result ever in Bavaria, the best result ever in Hessen, the strongest increase in members since the party's inception. Record, record, record.

Flowers and electric car

What is the share of the tip? Habeck says the party sought leaders who spread optimism and confidence. But: "This is not a project of Annalena and Robert." If we fail, the party would elect new chairpersons to carry the spirit on. " The louder the encouragement, the quieter you will become.

Today a poll king. And tomorrow? Just do not stand out - at least not publicly.

In the Winsener Marstall it does not look like failure. People jostle in the entrance, sit on protrusions, lean against the wall. They pull out their cell phones and take pictures. Habeck is also surprised that it is so full.

In Hamburg at the station, when Susanne Menge and a party friend picked him up, Habeck was still worried about the event. Crowd stood behind the balustrade, waving a yellow gerbera. In the electric car we went to Winsen. Flowers and e-cars - the Greens may soon feel like a people's party, but they can still serve the ecology cliché.

Habeck has Winsen explained to the crowd. The small town is doing well, but also rents rose, Amazon has built a huge logistics center in the city, from the local bakers had gone broke many.

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In the stables stand the people to see Habeck

Habeck speaks on stage, he lectures on democracy, on Europe, on climate protection and "Fridays For Future", drawing a link from Brussels to Winsen. Why does not Amazon pay its taxes in Germany or Winsen? "I do not have an answer, national regulations are not working anymore, we need a European answer," he says. When the event is over, an elderly woman says, "God bless him, that there are wonderful people like him." Then Habeck continues, to Walsrode, to the Lower Saxony peasants' day.

Staging as an anti-politician

Habeck is considered vain. The deliberately slightly ruffled hairstyle is often described, even that he appears in jeans and leather boots on dates. He wears a pearl bracelet made from recycled plastic that was fished out of the sea. The string is from an old fishing net, one of his sons gave it to him for Christmas.

Habeck knows how to stage himself so as not to act like a typical politician. When they got 17.6 percent in the state election in Bavaria, he threw himself with the Bavarian top candidate Ludwig Hartmann at the election party in the crowd. Since then there are pictures of politicians crowdsurfing. Like rock stars. When he decided a few months ago to give up his Twitter profile because he had inadvertently described Thuringia as undemocratic, he celebrated public self-mortification.

Habeck enjoys the attention, not everyone likes it, not even in their own party. But the Greens chief also knows that he could fare like Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg or Martin Schulz. Who is cheered, can fall deeply.

In view of the high altitude in the polls, the Greens are asking quite new questions anyway. What if the Grand Coalition dissipates prematurely? Should one be ready for a new Chancellor Kramp-Karrenbauer as a Jamaican partner? Then one could finally rule again. But it would be risky. Perhaps the Greens then land ungroundly at the next election. Maybe prefer new elections and put on the momentum.

"I am exactly where I belong now"

What attracts Habeck actually to the policy? Politics is a kind of translation work for him, he says. One must learn to put the subject-political in a language that everyone understands. And always question the actual state.

Until September of last year Habeck was Minister of the Environment and Agriculture of Schleswig-Holstein. As such, he fought fierce battles with the Farmers' Association. The farmers had hung huge placards on straw bales in their fields next to the A7. Habeck saw her every morning on her way to work.

"Good morning, Robert", "Beautiful landscape, Robert", "That's us, Robert!"

And then: "Robert destroys farms", "Robert destroys our Knicks", "Robert promotes factory farming".

The farmers in Schleswig-Holstein have booed him out at events, and there is applause at the Lower Saxony farmers' day in Walsrode. About 600 people listen to him in the town hall.

When he became Minister of Agriculture, says Habeck, he thought: "Now I have the power, now it works as I want it." That had not been so successful. He had learned that one should not speak ideologically but economically. And surprisingly often, although one has a completely different approach, it is possible to find compromises. "The Greens should also say thank you that agriculture has made Germany so rich and so full."

The farmers are satisfied. Habeck did that "very neatly", says the editor of the association newspaper "Landvolk Lüneburger Heide". Another praises Habeck is not lifted. This is a great compliment to the Green Party politician, to whom some people like to submit.

With all the success - what is he really scared of?

"I've never really separated personal and political things," says Habeck. "But if that fails, you're really unprotected." Sounds like he always thinks about alternatives to political life.

"I'm right where I belong," he says. But: "I've lost my freedom in life many times, not knowing what's in three years."