Dhe Federal Department of Health is one big machine that produces many laws and regulations, an apparatus that affects everyone in the country and therefore makes its chief engineer well-known and often even liked. But sometimes he gets caught under the rapidly turning wheels. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) felt this, who initially rose to become a particularly valued politician in the corona pandemic, but then suddenly fell. Now this decline is happening to his successor Karl Lauterbach (SPD). After almost a year in office, not everything he has tackled is bad, but the high hopes that were placed in him and which he himself nurtured have largely been dashed.
Immediately after being sworn in in December, Lauterbach ranked third among the most popular politicians behind Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), and in January he was even at the top. The minister has now slipped to seventh or tenth place. When he was not yet sitting at the cabinet table, his support from the population was particularly strong, the hashtag #wirwollenkarl was circulating.