Angela Merkel sits on a toilet, a copy of Charlie Hebdo in hand, and the slogan “Charlie Hebdo, the newspaper that relaxes” … This is the poster chosen by the satirical weekly for the launch on Thursday, December 1 of its German version, the satirical magazine’s first experience outside the French borders. The same edition will be launched in Vienna. The irreverent French phenomenon, which was the victim of a bloody jihadist attack in January 2015, hopes to continue its renaissance with a German version of its provocative mix of no-holds-barred cartoons and biting satirical columns. Germans bought 70,000 copies of Charlie Hebdo’s “survivors’ edition”, which appeared one week after last year’s massacre in the magazine’s Paris offices, and it already sells 1,000 copies a week of its French edition there. Its editor the cartoonist Riss – who was shot in the shoulder during the attack – has been working on a German-language version for six months.
He has also drawn the poster for the first issue with Merkel resplendent in pink reading a Charlie Hebdo which wonders whether she would be able to govern both Germany and France at the same time. “I always thought that we would be able to export Charlie Hebdo,” Riss told AFP.
“There is a real curiosity in Germany about what we are doing, which is not the case for instance in Britain, Spain or Portugal,” he added.