Berlin's History Res-Erected: Giant Penis Sparks Bizarre Media War

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Diekmann, on the other hand, comes across as if he has been preparing for his job as Bild editor-in-chief his whole life. When he was only 14, he held a microphone up to the face of his idol, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Today Kohl is practically part of the family; Kohl was Diekmann's best man at his wedding in 2002, and Diekmann returned the favor when Kohl married for a second time in 2008.

By the age of 36, Diekmann had made it to the top at Bild. Since then he has assembled a small team around him. They run a blog together with Diekmann, where he also sells hot pants imprinted with the inscription "I Heart KD" and shoulder bags with the inscription "Sympathy for the Devil."

Six months ago, Diekmann -- in complete seriousness, of course -- joined the Taz cooperative, which owns the newspaper and currently has over 8,900 members. "We wanted to reach the target of 9,000 cooperative members by the end of the year," Diekmann told SPIEGEL. "We are currently being forced to abandon this goal," he said, adding, in a reference to the artist who created the penis sculpture, "I'm afraid the Lenk campaign is backfiring. That's something we need to talk about."

In 2003, he was even guest editor for one issue of the Taz, which garnered record circulation figures. But now many at the Taz have the feeling that they made a pact with the devil at the time.

Meanwhile, the sculpture will stay up for another two years -- at least. Peter Lenk, the artist, has cited a verbal agreement with Kalle Ruch, the managing director of the Taz. "If anyone touches it before then," says Lenk, "it'll cost them €130,000 -- and that would be a special price because we're friends."

Folk Hero

Lenk is sitting in the kitchen of his house on Lake Constance. He worked on the piece for one year, and at the end, when he had accumulated material costs of close to €28,000, he even hocked his sailboat. His bawdy satirical pieces have made Lenk a folk hero on Lake Constance.

Last year, he installed a triptych depicting an orgy in front of the city hall in the southwestern city of Ludwigshafen. In the piece, a naked Chancellor Angela Merkel is grabbing former Bavarian governor Edmund Stoiber's genitals, while former Volkswagen works council member Klaus Volkert gropes Brazilian whores -- a reference to a much-publicized scandal at the carmaker. The piece attracted such large crowds that the city administration collected €6,000 in fines for illegally parked cars in the first eight weeks alone. The city has since installed a small viewing area with benches in front of the sculpture.

Lenk is an anarchically minded left-winger of the old school. He attended demonstrations in Stuttgart where he would shout obscene slogans. He was later fired from his job as a teacher because he was allowing his students to give themselves grades. Lenk has been a sculptor since then.

With his populist art, Lenk is a kind of Kai Diekmann of the Lake Constance art scene. But this isn't enough for him anymore. Now he wants to make his mark in Berlin.

"The ball is on the penalty spot, ready to be kicked straight into the executive floor of the the Springer building," says Lenk. "Right under the nose of those people who are obsessed with schadenfreude and tawdry sex."

Ines Pohl, says Lenk, wants to turn the Taz into a serious newspaper. "But me," says Lenk defiantly, "I'm not serious."

Diekmann seems to believe that the outcome of the culture war has already been decided -- in his favor, of course. For this reason, he has invited the Taz staff to attend a party to bury the hatchet, with free beer courtesy of Bild.

The thought alone turns the stomach of Taz old hand and blog manager Mathias Bröckers. "We've always had better parties," says Bröckers. "Now we've got this pecker hanging on the wall for the next two years." After it comes down, he says, there will still be time to make up with the people at Bild.

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• Part 1: Giant Penis Sparks Bizarre Media War
• Part 2: A Long-Lasting Culture War
• Part 3: Sympathy for the Devil