Ten years ago, the columnist Frank Schirrmacher died. He was a master of astonishment, an impertinence, often ahead of his time. And: he was immediately missed. A memory from a companion.
Once a delegation from Google travelled to Frankfurt to speak with Frank Schirrmacher. For weeks, the arts section of the newspaper he co-edited had been full of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Whenever there was talk of digital capitalism, its mechanisms and ambitions were repeatedly questioned from a democratic theory perspective. The small group representing the digital giant Google wanted to know quite bluntly what it was all about and whether it would continue like this for much longer.