Kachelmann lashes out

Slapping his sons: Shitstorm against Gottschalk

A shitstorm has now erupted over Thomas Gottschalk because of a passage from his book "Herbstblond".

(Bild: APA Pool/Jens Kalaene)

Thomas Gottschalk (74) is facing a shitstorm - because of a passage from a 2015 book in which he describes slapping his sons as an educational measure.

Weather expert Jörg Kachelmann is partly responsible for this, prominently denouncing on X: "Thomas Gottschalk is a child abuser. If he had been reported back then, he would be a convicted felon today."

Shitstorm against Gottschalk
The former "Wetten, dass...?" presenter was heavily criticized, but there were also understanding and supportive reactions.

However, many commented that the slaps in the face described for Gottschalk's sons were out of the question and abhorrent. Others, on the other hand, defended Gottschalk, pointing to the common parenting methods of the time.

Support from Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs
Although the beating of children has been officially banned in Germany since 2001, even Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) jumped to his aid: "Dear Mr. Kachelmann, please fire up your wood stove, make yourself a nice potato soup and don't be so nasty to Mr. Gottschalk. Bet you'll feel better then!" he wrote on X.

The discussion was sparked by a passage from the book "Herbstblond" (Autumn Blonde), which was published in 2015 and is sometimes wrongly attributed online to Gottschalk's new book "Ungefiltert" (Unfiltered), which he is currently promoting.

No comment
In "Herbstblond", Gottschalk describes how he once "unrestrainedly slapped his son Roman for dropping three scoops of vanilla ice cream in front of the ice cream counter". He slapped his son Tristan because he had committed the "sacrilege" of scratching a Beatles song on the record player in a boutique.

Gottschalk lacks a guilty conscience. Gottschalk was initially unavailable for comment on his current view of the events.