Good evening,

Manfred Koehler

Deputy head of the regional section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and editor-in-chief of the business magazine Metropol.

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it takes a lot of skills to get high in the political business. But it is also a special art to

vacate positions and offices with decency and dignity

when the time comes. The Hessian Prime Minister and

CDU state chairman Volker Bouffier

now seems to have joined the many who do not succeed

.

The question of whether the seventy-year-old

will

run again

in the

state elections in 2023

should be clarified soon. If he wants, the party will follow suit; if not, he should soon make room for a successor. After Bouffier announced last week that he did not want to run again for the post of deputy federal chairman of the CDU, the German press agency published a statement from him at Christmas that he could also imagine that someone else would chair the party in Hesse take over as the prime minister. Bouffier has not contributed to the clarity of what he intends to do, with the

model of the separation of office and party position as part of a transition process

The Union has recently had rather modest experiences at the federal level. We were impressed by Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who unexpectedly announced his resignation as Foreign Minister in April 1992 and resigned from his post in May. A tailor-made finish. Unfortunately only a few get there, like this

And otherwise?

No white Christmas. In Frankfurt-Oberrad, a man suffered serious smoke inhalation on the first holiday, and his apartment was burned out because of an overturned candle. In the churches at Christmas, the main focus was on the

pandemic and the suffering of refugees

. According to initial assessments by the security authorities, there were once again fewer break-ins in Hesse in 2021. In 2020 it was 24 percent less than the year before. Apparently the burglars suffer from the pandemic in a special way - people are more often at home.

And our Rheingau correspondent Oliver Bock also reports on how to

open a bottle of champagne in style

on

New Year's Eve

, he expressly does not include shaking the cork +++ Katharina Deschka introduces a

professor at the University of Design

who teaches “performance”.

We wish you a pleasant rest of Christmas

Yours Manfred Köhler

The

weather

for Monday

It remains gray and cloudy, occasionally a little drizzle falls.

Highs around 7 degrees.

At night some rain at 4 degrees.

Have your

birthday

on Monday

Barbara Klemm

, long-time editorial photographer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, was awarded the International Folkwang Prize 2021 (82);

Wolfhard Hoffmann

, former police chief in Frankfurt (80);

Erika Pfreundschuh

(CDU), chairwoman of the Seniors' Union in Frankfurt from 2011 to October 2021, former honorary city councilor, holder of the plaque of honor of the city of Frankfurt (74);

Daniel Guischard

, head of the Bad Homburg fire brigade, holder of the Golden Fire Protection Award of the State of Hesse (50);

Dierk Dallwitz

, managing director of the Frankfurt German Red Cross (45).