Politicians talk a lot about trust.
Mostly it is about the voters trusting them.
Politicians almost never talk about which other politicians they trust – and why.
These questions are very important for her work.
If you rely on the wrong people, it can be the end of you.
They only become strong with the right allies.
So how do politicians decide who to trust, in their party or in a coalition, and what do they do to be trustworthy?
The politicians with whom the FAS spoke about the issue agree on many points, but not on some crucial ones.
One concerns how optimistic they are when they meet other politicians.
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is one of the skeptics.
"In a professional context, I distrust everyone at first," she says.
Because it is only in difficult phases that you notice whether someone is trustworthy.
The young MP Jens Teutrine also sees it that way.
He is also in the FDP and new to the Bundestag.
Before that he was head of the party youth for a long time.
He says that he has become more cautious over the years, also because he is taking on more and more responsibility.
This distrust means that he is rarely surprised negatively.
But there were also fewer positive surprises.
"I think that's a pity." Other politicians don't want to let these surprises take them away.
For example, Claudia Roth from the Greens, who is now co-governing as Minister of State for Culture.
She thinks: "Distrust closes you off." Without trust there is no cohesion.
However, she adds, trust needs rules.
And whoever breaks it, she no longer trusts.
“Someone gives without having to”
What these rules are initially seems clear: A confidante should be sincere, loyal, honest, courageous, reliable, empathetic.
In other words, in the same way that people in other professions would describe reliable colleagues.
But how do you tell if someone is this or just playing it?
Politicians have very different strategies.
One thing is clear: time helps.
But you don't always have them.
Sometimes you have to make a quick decision to trust someone else.
For example in coalition negotiations.
Or if you're new to the faction and looking for people to turn to.
Of course, there are always some that you like.
Strack-Zimmermann believes that sympathy and antipathy are not unimportant categories.
"My instincts have almost never deceived me." But what does likeable mean?
Not nice anyway.
Where kindness is beautiful;
it means little in terms of trust.
"Everyone is friendly at first, that doesn't mean anything," says Annette Schavan from the CDU.
She was a minister for 18 years, first in Baden-Württemberg, then in the federal government.
An incredible number of people buzzed around them – but that was meant for the office, says Schavan, not for herself. Conversely, politicians notice it positively when the more powerful are friendly to them or even place their trust in them.
Almost everyone has a story like this to tell, some of it was a long time ago, but it's burned in.
For example, Teutrine, a newcomer to parliament, trusts his party friend Otto Fricke, an old hand in the Bundestag.
He tried to talk to him and gave him tips.
A seal of quality: "He doesn't benefit from it." Fricke himself once said on a talk show that trust is created