Parole Transparenz #6 Wallraffing

Disguised as Ali the Turk, Günter Wallraff experienced the inhumane practices of a real working world, at McDonaldʼs, for example, or at Thyssen. His book Ganz unten sold millions of copies and became one of the most successful non-fiction books of all time. In the foreword, Wallraff wrote: ‘You have to disguise yourself in order to unmask society, you have to deceive and disguise yourself in order to find out the truth’. Wallraff has long since become a classic of this genre and has found a whole series of imitators, even though he has been repeatedly criticised and sued in court. There seems to be no end to what we can learn about our society when it believes itself to be unobserved. From industrial labour to the Bild newspaper - Wallraff's method brings scandalous circumstances to light. Even today, the now 82-year-old still uncovers abuses with his Wallraff team on the RTL channel.

In an interview with author Ralph Hammerthaler, he looks back on his life as a journalist, the experiences that have shaped him and the debates he has sparked. The contours of his style will emerge, his method of research, known in Sweden simply as Wallraffing and also part of the vocabulary of the Swedish Academy.

With the Parole Transparency series, we are setting a counterpoint to GEHEIMNIS throughout the entire season. It is true that not every secret can be revealed, even if it were desirable. But we are convinced that a democratic society should have access to as much information as possible that concerns it. That this is not the case - therein lies the explosiveness.