Henryk Marcin Broder: German thinking with Jewish rationality and a Polish heart

As an author, Broder apparently likes to make himself unpopular and particularly likes those people who do not like him, as he repeatedly says. The fact that he then coquettishly overplays his belief in the good and his hope of something better in the face of everyday atrocities is part of the romantic side of the eccentric self-promoter. This is particularly evident in his talk show appearances, some of which enjoy cult status, such as the legendary discussion with the famous boxing adversaries Graciano Rocchigiani and Dariusz Michalczewski on the “Markus Lanz” programme on 2 February 2014. Several times during the programme, the legendary “Tiger” Michalczewski addressed Broder in Polish.

Much has been said about Broder in the last few years, whenever he was awarded his numerous prizes and accolades, and this can easily be found on the Internet and, being his preferred medium at the moment, that will no doubt delight him. What makes him so unmistakable in the German journalist scene? 

Perhaps it is his Polish heart: his feel for the absurd, his tendency to strongly exaggerate, his curiosity, genuine awareness of details, deification of irony, Vulcan-like emotionality, imparting of knowledge through symbolism, humour and anecdotes, emphasising the power of the imaginary, the love of the paradox, a tendency towards healthy fatalism, melancholy or overstated outrage; it is an aversion to manipulation, a notoriously destructive fundamental attitude in the constant search for the positive, occasionally the purely Polish characteristics of “pieniactwo” and “warcholstwo”, which cannot be translated exactly into English but which mean: I have something to say about everything and I am a quarrelsome troublemaker. Also characteristic of Broder’s Polish heart are possibly his romantic soul, detachment and openness as a way of living and working, affirmative disinterest in materials, longing for security and probably the most important characteristic: the belief in love as the ultimate driving force. 

For decades, Broder has shaped the scene of the fourth estate, i.e. the free press. Much, very much has been written about him and the phenomenon that is Broder has been publicly analysed with, at times, an eerie meticulousness. Despite this, it can be assumed that we only know a fraction of this multifaceted personality. However, his ever present ironic smile in the electronic media tells us:  Don’t worry, that’s not all by any means because I still have lots to say and: You won’t get rid of me that easily. In the end, the calculation of rationality seems to be greater than his emotionality.

Henryk Marcin Broder has been a columnist at the daily newspaper Die Welt since 2011. Based in Berlin, he is constantly on the go. 

Jacek Barski, July 2018