Rhineland: Chancellor Scholz at the Büdchen: “A very likeable little guy”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) made acquaintance with the Rhenish Büdchen culture in Düsseldorf. Before his appearance at the North Rhine-Westphalian Entrepreneurs’ Day, the Chancellor took half an hour to visit a kiosk in the Unterbilk district. Scholz did not order beer from Büdchen operator Bedri Ponik, he only wanted black coffee and still water.

Relaxed in a white shirt, Scholz sat down at three beer garden tables for seven minutes each and chatted with the stall owners and guests. Ponik later said they described their situation and asked the chancellor for less bureaucracy. “He was very approachable,” added the 43-year-old. “A very likeable little fellow.”

Drinking hall culture in the Ruhr area is cultural heritage

Ponik has been running the booth in a former transformer house for 13 years. The kiosk has been a family business for 25 years. Büdchen have a long tradition on the Rhine and Ruhr that goes back to the middle of the 19th century. Since 2020, the drinking hall culture in the Ruhr area has officially been part of the intangible cultural heritage of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Düsseldorfer Büdchentag eV had invited Scholz to the flying visit and wanted to find out more about life in the neighborhood. However, the Chancellor’s chat at the booth did not go completely undisturbed. On one side of the cordoned-off square, a few demonstrators, accompanied by a drummer, chanted loudly for several minutes, “Make peace without weapons!”

After Scholz had taken selfies with the Büdchen guests in front of the brightly painted drinking hall, he demonstratively ran to the opposite, quiet side of the street and greeted onlookers from the neighborhood there. The Chancellor column rushed off again with a neon yellow mug and a red cap as a gift for Büdchentag.