Ode To Pay: Germans Say Friedrich Schiller Must Pay
DEAR Friedrich Schiller, though you have been dead for more than 200 years, and never watched television, we remind you that you should pay your TV and radio licence fee.
Das ist alles.
Schiller is, of course, the writer of Ode To Joy (An die Freude), on which the anthem of the European Union is based. He is also a non-payer of the German licence fee, and the German fee collection agency, GEZ, says he must pay.
The demand was sent to Mr Friedrich Schiller, care of a primary school bearing his name, the Friedrich Schiller Primary School in the eastern town of Weigsdorf-Koeblitz.
With the annual fee of about 200 euros (£157) unpaid since 1805 Schiller would owe more than 40,000 euros.
Of course, there is every chance the German will laugh it off as terrible funny. And Herr Schiller will not be locked up for the rest of his natural life.
Of course, it’s all one in the eye for those who accuse the Germans of robotic precision and a mechanised adherence to data collection and record keeping…
Posted: 2nd, October 2008 | In: Strange But True Comments (7) | TrackBack | Permalink
