Or: How German politics are becoming more and more Americanized.
Social Democratic representative Johannes Kahrs from Hamburg is pretty active on Twitter (@kahrs). He uses the social networking service, inter alia, for viewing pornographic content.
Tweeting is obviously fun for Johannes Kahrs. The Social Democratic member of the Bundestag usually starts the day on his Twitter account
@kahrs with a
"Moin!" (colloquial salutation in Northern Germany). Then he lets us know who or what he is vexed about in politics (
"needs no one", "harmful", "good", "was unbearable"). He lets his followers - he has over 6,000 - know what he is doing, from the reception of a visitor group in the Bundestag to a barbecue with friends (
"fabulously beautiful"). The verified Twitter account of the fifty-year-old Social Democrat gives us a good insight into his life and activities.
Kahrs has been a member of parliament since 1998. He is a member of the Budget Committee, the speaker of the right-wing Seeheimer Kreis within his party faction in the Bundestag and the faction's spokesman for the interests of gays and lesbians.
Kahrs made his homosexuality public when he was elected to the Bundestag.
He makes no secret of his preferences: On Twitter Kahrs had followed 1,382 accounts until Monday morning - many ministers, journalists, politicians.
But also a wide range of accounts which are not related to politics, but to quite other things: sex and pornography. In these accounts, which Kahrs has joined as a follower, homosexuals spread pictures of naked men, from behind and from the front, while having sex, some in group formation.
The salacious images are garnished with references to "hot asses" or "tight guys". Even pictures of erect penises are shown. The persons shown are almost tens of years younger than Kahrs. Whether they are already full-aged cannot always be said with certainty.
From most accounts, the images are sent in rapid cycle sequences - Kahrs must therefore have been aware of what arrives on his account as a "short message".
When asked by the right-wing
Tagesspiegel Kahrs said: "I follow all and sundry." In reply to the question as to whether the followed accounts also include pornography, he said: "Maybe. I need to check. I haven't noticed yet. If they cause trouble, I'll delete them." But he does not really understand the question: "I do not exactly find it shocking."
A few minutes after a request of the
Tagesspiegel at the press office of the SPD parliamentary group Kahrs was calling from his cellphone. He had "not scrolled through" the list of people followed by him so far. Some of the accounts were "really a bit weird", he admits. But "I did not know that this is a political issue," Kahrs says. The SPD politician has deleted 30 accounts from his list after the
Tagesspiegel research. "Hence this incidence ought to be history", he says.
The SPD leadership would not comment on the case.
Source
Poll
