If Jakob Maria Mierscheid did not exist, one would have to invent him

Backbencher – this word conveys the condescension towards all those in parliament who put themselves in the service of the people, but who are denied the big political stage and the talk show chair. The backbenchers are the heart of parliamentarianism, or, as the SPD member of the Bundestag Jakob Maria Mierscheid says: "I am neither an invention nor a patent, I am the solution."

Mierscheid is the icon of backbenchers, he has been a member of the German Bundestag for 44 years - a member of parliament who is so inconspicuously scandal-free that he is usually overlooked and who, despite this, or perhaps precisely because of this, is repeatedly referred to.

Mierscheid was rightly honored in Parliament on the occasion of his 90th birthday by Bundestag Vice President Aydan Özoguz: He is a self-confessed backbencher, but has achieved a lot "without even having sat with Markus Lanz once".

What it means to sit with Markus Lanz could be observed with Karl Lauterbach: Lanz and the television nation made him federal minister, not the chancellor. However, the Lauterbach case also showed that it is the same with the backbencher as with the cobbler – it is advisable to stick to the last or what you can achieve.

Mierscheid obviously understood that. This may also be due to the fact that Mierscheid is an invention: two SPD MPs brought it to life in 1979 as a reminiscence of their colleague and constitutional lawyer Carlo Schmid, so that it would remind MPs of real life from time to time. Not to prescribe how life should be, but to see how life is - not the worst quality for a representative of the people.

If Jakob Maria Mierscheid did not exist, one would have to invent him. Just today.