At the weekend, Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) presented the state's Order of Merit to 26 “distinguished personalities” in the New Palace. It is a ritual that is repeated every year. There is no question that there are many people among those honored who have rendered outstanding services to the country: Bernhard Schöllkopf, for example, the physicist from Tübingen, to whom the country owes the establishment of the “Cyber ​​Valley” in Tübingen. Or the former state police president Erwin Hetger, who, as state chairman of the White Ring, campaigns for victims of crime and violence. And certainly also Gisela Erler, who as a green politician and honorary state councilor, so only for a relatively low fee, tries with new and often experimental forms of citizen participation,to narrow the gap between society and politics a little. Among the recipients of the order there are also political staff who have done a good job for good pay: the two former heads of state chancellery Rudolf Böhmler (CDU) and Klaus-Peter Murawski (Greens) as well as long-time MPs such as Ute Vogt (SPD), Rainer Wieland ( CDU) or Cem Özdemir (Greens).

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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In principle, it is a good tradition when the commitment of democrats or officials is honored in a democratic state.

One can always argue about the excellent people and the mistakes they may have made.

The list of medal bearers of the Green Prime Minister still looks like it has fallen out of time: Among the 26 people there is not a single one who has made a name for himself in the Corona crisis. Only the Tübingen doctor Gisela Schneider mentions her work in the “Corona fever clinic” in passing, but she is recognized primarily for her commitment against sexual violence and for the training of doctors in Uganda. Otherwise, the list reads as if the pandemic did not exist: No intensive care nurse, no corona researcher, no intensive care doctor or anesthetist from the university clinics who have fought for the lives of seriously ill Sars-Cov-2 patients for weeks themselves among the honored.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), with whom Kretschmann agrees on many issues, has repeatedly spoken of the country's worst crisis since 1945.

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently awarded the Federal Cross of Merit to citizens who have made a name for themselves in the crisis, including the Tübingen emergency doctor Lisa Federle.

The founders of the Mainz vaccine manufacturer Biontech were also honored.

Civil society in Sunday speeches

The Green Prime Minister, who is otherwise quite rightly praising the value of a functioning civil society in every Sunday speech, is apparently doing the rule on this question: the President of the State Parliament and the members of the government have the right to propose. Health Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) could have suggested deserving medical staff. “The merits can be earned in particular in the political, social, cultural or economic area. Most of them are said to have benefited the state of Baden-Württemberg and its population, ”says the ordinance. It must be an extraordinary achievement. The only restriction: The honored person should be at least 60 years old. At the request of the FAZ, a spokeswoman for the State Ministry said:"There are currently some examination procedures pending for people whose honor is also justified with merits related to Corona. However, these test procedures are still ongoing. "

At the award ceremony, Kretschmann said that a society needs people who are inspired by their example. In a federal state with eleven million inhabitants, which was more severely affected by the Corona crisis than others and is equipped with many large university clinics and research facilities, someone would certainly have been found symbolically.