Like Pavlov's dog: This is how the AfD and SPD attract their voters

The bratwurst, whether from Nuremberg or Thuringia, this quintessential German cultural icon, has become a campaign hit. For Ulrich Siegmund in Saxony-Anhalt, the bratwurst worked particularly well. As the lead candidate for the far-right AfD, he gorged himself on it, grinning and waving to the smacking crowds from his Simson moped in the summer heat – all while declaring how wonderful climate change is. Our East correspondent, Doreen Reinhard, investigated the story behind the Simson, this two-stroke moped from Suhl. Incidentally, the Jewish founding family was dispossessed by the Nazis and forced to flee.

The Simson exhaust fumes hang in the air like clouds of cannabis smoke.

How I perceive the rattling Simson moped today when I'm out and about in Brandenburg, where the young people love them: The exhaust fumes hang in the air as thickly as the clouds of cannabis smoke my neighbors leave behind when they walk their dogs in my Berlin neighborhood. Of course, inhaling those fumes brings back memories. Summers used to be so beautiful. Perhaps first love blossomed by the lake, between mopeds and bratwurst.

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Exhaust fumes have always made me nauseous. I've always felt sick: on the way to Italy with five people in a mid-range car from the 1970s, when my father cracked the window open for a cigarette while driving. On the back of the KTM enduro my first boyfriend used to pick me up from home. And especially on the bus I took home from the outdoor pool after too much sun, too much chlorine, and too many fries with mayo. I probably would have still thought the ride on the Simson was pretty cool, and even more so the lake in the neighborhood that I'd always dreamed of, but which doesn't exist in the western part of Dortmund where I grew up.

No election campaign without bratwurst

Back to the bratwurst. It's also part of the election campaign in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the citizens are grabbing them as if they could be conditioned like Pavlov's dog: In the experiment, the bell was rung so often that the dog, without the sausage, would start salivating as soon as it heard a bell.

Excuse the digression into developmental psychology, but what are the implications of the bratwurst trend? That citizens' mouths will water the moment they see a campaign booth? And the more booths of a particular party they see, the more likely they are to vote for that party?

Dressed entirely in red against the blue wave: This is how Manuela Schwesig is fighting.

Incidentally, this is not an AfD trick: Manuela Schwesig also uses bratwurst as bait while complaining about high fuel prices and otherwise distancing herself from the black-red federal government.

It seems that with her personalized election campaign including the slogan "The Woman Against Blue", she even has the best chance of leaving her far-right competitor Leif-Erik Holm behind – incidentally, although the SPD has long since lost its status as a people's party in the rest of Germany.

The bass thumps to the folksy songs.

Besides the bratwurst, there's another trick up their sleeve, but only the AfD knows it. They hammer home their followers' sometimes nationalist lyrics over techno beats. AI-generated and played through campaign loudspeakers, the tracks are available online. Christian Unger describes how songs that were already popular during the Nazi era are given thumping bass to really get the party going.

But enough of this electioneering. In any case, we'll all be preoccupied in the coming weeks with the future composition of the governments in Magdeburg, Schwerin, and Berlin. And what will become of the federal government.

Erdogan wants the traditional family – and harasses the queer community.

With everything that comes next, I hope our society remains as diverse as it is. Because that's the best protection for our democracy. It makes it strong and interesting, because who wants to eat only bratwurst all the time when the tempting Vietnamese sandwich Banh Mi is calling? Or vegetable doner with yogurt sauce, or falafel in pita bread? The same goes for music, art, architecture, and literature. If we all stew in the same juices, it gets bland.

Autocratic governments dislike diversity and the creativity it fosters. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, wants to mold society to the traditional family model: father, mother, and as many children as possible.

He wants to keep homosexuality and transsexuality out of society – and he's relying on intimidation through raids, arrests, and defamation, even though homosexuality isn't illegal in Turkey. Gerd Höhler describes here what's happening in the queer Turkish community. My colleague Philipp Luther says Erdogan's plan reminds him of the AfD's election platform, he writes in his commentary.

Between death and life: This doctor coordinates organ donation

If this is too much politics for you, I understand. I feel the same way, but these days social issues are barely getting through the cracks. That's why I won't be discussing the announced fuel discount, but rather focusing on a person with a very special task: Surgeon Sören Melsa, who coordinates organ donations.

That means he ensures that another person can go on living after a tragic death. The procedures are complicated, yet everything has to happen quickly. And then there are the emotions: there's a lot of crying in operating rooms, he told my colleague Maik Henschke. I think that's an inspiring story.

Nothing against bratwurst. You have to treat yourself sometimes.

And now, one last word about bratwurst. I'm in Dortmund this weekend visiting my mother. I also have a class reunion, and I'm really looking forward to it. I was just jogging in a small wooded area. On my way back, I passed through a market square and was greeted by the smell of bratwurst. A little further on, there were fish sandwiches, either with pickled herring or matjes. Not exactly ideal for the health-conscious, I thought to myself.

Have all these campaigners actually considered the impact they're having on public health? Nutritionists, for example, warn against excessive consumption of processed meat. Our "nutrition expert," Matthias Riedl, also says that sausage is okay now and then, provided it's not burnt.

I'm really hungry now, I think I'll run back to the market. You have to treat yourself sometimes.

With that in mind, I wish you a wonderful Sunday.