Punch of the week

“Dirty Herring” is only a small caliber after all

Schönbrunn has become a little safer again: The Administrative Court has taken away the zoo director's pump gun and magnum.

(Bild: Reinhard Holl)

Zoo director Stephan "Dirty Hering" Hagenbeck has got rid of his pump-action shotgun and his Magnum. Disarmingly, the Supreme Court argued that his deployment scenarios as Schönbrunn's Ballermann were merely personal fears. Without heavy artillery, Hering-Hagenbeck is at a loss for words.

Now the lion in Schönbrunn can sleep as well as he should according to the song (Wimoweh, a-wimoweh, you know): He no longer has to worry about a zoo director suddenly waving a pump-action shotgun and a .45 magnum in front of him. Stephan "Dirty" Hering-Hagenbeck has got rid of the large calibers again in a Supreme Court ruling - with the dry reasoning of the Administrative Court that he only wanted to play the gunslinger because of his "fears".

It's not just the guns that are silent
And what does the disarmed man say? Nothing. As loudly as the zoo boss drummed (fired) beforehand that the weapons were only intended for the zoo and not for him and that dangers would be lurking everywhere if he didn't look after things himself with heavy artillery, this is now suddenly a private matter for him: he avoids all questions about it. The court can feel vindicated: Anyone who only makes big noises in the gun smoke is a small caliber - and our Punch and Judy of the week.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs is also surprisingly quiet. They had known about the ruling for weeks and kept quiet about it. The decision on Hering-Hagenbeck's contract extension is imminent. Before anyone suspects a connection, perhaps the Ministry is just sleeping - or quietly singing to itself: So a woe, yes, so a woe!