AGI Arnold Schwarzenegger as Thomas Mann. Well, “Conan the Barbarian” in the wake of “Magic Mountain” and “Buddenbrooks”. It is Der Spiegel that introduces the certainly unprecedented comparison between the American superstar of Austrian descent (and former governor of California) and the great German writer.
Very special, according to the authoritative Hamburger Wochenblatt, to unite two seemingly so distant personalities, is the almost tenminute video posted on Twitter, also subtitled in Cyrillic, seen by millions in which he addressed the interpreter of “Terminator” in the Russian The people and Vladimir Putin are calling for an end to the appalling conflict in Ukraine.
Der Spiegel speaks of the “art of rhetoric” whose target group are the Russiansin an attempt to “answer a difficult question: how to talk to a blind people from a great distance? A people who love each other, who are currently committing a crime. How to take the Russians away from Putin?”.
Well, according to the German newspaper, Schwarzenegger’s ability lies in connecting his memories, his history (his friendship with Soviet weightlifting champion Yuriy Petrovic Vlasov), his “love” for Russia with demystifying the Russian narrative of the war in Ukraine: Starting with the alleged “denazification” of the country, even more absurd given that Volodymyr Zelensky’s father’s three brothers were exterminated in the Third Reich Holocaust.
Again, the personal note: His own father, “Schwarzy’s” father, had returned from World War II as a Nazi Army veteran, straight from the Russian front, broken in two, ravaged by shrapnel and tormented in soul. , with the burden of dealing with his own guilt for the rest of his life. And he too was “blinded” by the propaganda of his government, Hitler’s, which had annexed Austria in 1938.
Der Spiegel still writes that “There is a model for Schwarzenegger’s video message: It is the speeches that Thomas Mann addressed to the Germans between October 1940 and May 1945and which were broadcast on the German BBC program “.
In fact, the article by Tobias Rapp reads: “Mann faced a similar question: How do you talk to the blind? How does he escape from his leaders?“The great writer’s rhetorical key, according to the weekly, was to make it clear that the real Germany was the one in exile and that the Germany the Nazis referred to was a lie.
I love the Russian people. That’s why I have to tell you the truth. Please view and share. pic.twitter.com/6gyVRhgpFV
Arnold Schwarzenegger) March 17, 2022
The actor (and politician) moved similarly in his video letter: the real Russia, that’s the message, the real heroes are the people who oppose the war in Russia today and who are being beaten and arrested for it. They are “the real heroes”.
Then remember the weekly newspaper, Schwarzenegger himself addresses the Russian soldiers: “You know I’m telling the truth, you saw it with your own eyes”. That’s what Thomas Mann did when he spoke to the Germans while blood was flowing in the world’s rivers, when the concentration camps exterminated millions of people or when Germany was already in ruins: “Where democracy faces autocracy writes Der Spiegel the strongest Weapon is appeal to the judgment of the individual.”