Attorney at Law Viviane Fischer in a written interview with the Tagesspiegel.
The journalist Sebastian Leber sent the following list of questions to Attorney at Law Viviane Fischer on 12 January 2021, at 6:51 p.m., with a deadline of 13 January 2021, 12 p.m., after he had requested an interview regarding the Corona Committee and the Baseline study. Attorney at Law Viviane Fischer commented on the questions raised as follows.
Sebastian Leber: Why do you hide the fact that you are the milliner Rike Feurstein in your public appearances as lawyer Viviane Fischer, for example in the “Corona Committee”?
Viviane Fischer: I am glad that your question gives me the opportunity to communicate this further facet of my life, which is important for me personally, to the outside world. In the Corona Committee, with all the legal and medical questions, with all the discussions about problems, aesthetics and creative power unfortunately hardly ever play a role. To present myself as a milliner in this context would have seemed completely alien from my point of view. However, because I know from the chat during our sessions that some viewers have already mentioned that I seem closer to design than is generally expected of lawyers, it is pleasing that I can now round off the picture in this way. Yes, I am also a milliner. I learned my craft in London and New York. My label is called Rike Feurstein. Feurstein is my birth name. And Rike is my middle name. The name Feurstein has a very special meaning for me, as I explained in more detail at the Corona Committee before Christmas. My great uncle was the Catholic city priest Monsignore Dr. Heinrich Feurstein, who in several sermons spoke out strongly against the Second World War and the murder of the disabled and mentally ill by the Nazis as part of Action T-4 (extermination of “life unworthy of life”). My great-uncle died in prison in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942. After the war, he was included in the German Martyrology of the 20th Century as a witness of faith and was beatified. A school in Donaueschingen is named after him.
Sebastian Leber: Why do you always introduce yourself as a “lawyer and economist” but don’t mention your occupation as a hat designer?
Viviane Fischer: Isn’t it more than enough that I have the double qualification of lawyer and economist? For my ego, I don’t need to tell the whole world that I have also learned a very beautiful and rare craft.
Sebastian Leber: What advantages do you expect from this?
Viviane Fischer: The decisive advantage is the focus on what is currently essential. The task of the Corona Legal Committee is to carry out a factual analysis of what is happening with the virus and the impact of the measures. For this, the qualifications of lawyer and economist are important and helpful. In this context, who cares that I also happen to be a milliner? Imagine if I were to spread the word in committee that I won a Red Dot Design Award for a hat, that my hats have been published at least 10 times in international Vogue magazines, that Victoria Beckham chose one of my hats for herself out of a selection of 500 hats by other designers, that I presented my collections at Berlin Fashion Week and that my hats and caps were available for purchase, among other places, at the luxury department stores’ Barney’s New York (which fell into insolvency at the beginning of the Corona crisis). What do you think might be an advantage here for the committee’s work?
Sebastian Leber: Does this self-portrayal fit with your statement that you are always concerned with “accuracy” and “truth”?
Viviane Fischer: Where do you see a contradiction? It is true, I am a lawyer and an economist.
Sebastian Leber: On Rubikon you are praised for saying that one of the main focuses of your legal work is initiating and supporting socio-politically relevant lawsuits. Which socio-politically relevant lawsuits did you initiate and accompany before 2020? When was this in each case?
Viviane Fischer: As a lawyer, I am bound by professional secrecy, so it goes without saying that I cannot give you any information about specific mandates. I can only say that before 2020 I represented two constitutional complaints in the field of social law.
Sebastian Leber: Does the lawyer’s robe you wear in the Corona Committee belong to you? When did you last wear it in a courthouse?
Viviane Fischer: I am pleased that you positively noticed my robe, which I wore in the session when I read out the oath that we lawyers take to our Basic Law. I designed it in autumn 2020 together with a fashion label from Berlin, I am friends with. The lawyer gowns you can buy off the rack are usually not very stylish, this gown is. Because of the Corona issue, I haven’t had the opportunity to wear it in court yet, much to my chagrin.
Sebastian Leber: When did your homepage www.vivianefischer.de go online?
Viviane Fischer: My lawyer homepage has been around for about four years. I designed it myself and still find it – frighteningly – up to date, also because of the motto “A single courageous person is a majority in itself”. At that time, I could not have imagined how important courage would become only a few years later!
Sebastian Leber: Did you apply for state Corona aid as a designer or as a lawyer, or both?
Viviane Fischer: If you ask me about economic matters, may I also ask you about economic matters?
Addendum Viviane Fischer:
Mr. Leber, you know that it is a great concern of us in the committee to reopen the social discourse. As Jens Spahn already remarked in the middle of last year: “There will be much to forgive”. Therefore, the earlier the dialogue can begin, the better. I would be pleased if we could use our little interview as an opportunity to regularly question each other, on 2020News or also in the Tagesspiegel.
My current questions to you are:
- What would you describe as the bravest moment in your life?
- Have you lost any friendships in connection with Corona?
- What do you miss most at the moment?
- Are you afraid of the idea that after the pandemic there might be no going back to old normal? Which aspect frightens you the most?
- They say that in every crisis there is an opportunity. In your opinion, what could be the opportunity in the Corona and Lockdown crises?
What do you think can be done to effectively counter the division in our society?
Point 9 of the Press Code reads: “Protection of honour – It is contrary to journalistic ethics to injure people’s honour with inappropriate portrayals in words and pictures.” In your opinion, could this point be affected by the sometimes hateful reporting of participants in the Berlin anti-measures demonstrations as Nazis, tin foil hats, etc.?
Paragraph 15 of the Press Code reads “Benefits – The acceptance of benefits of any kind which might be likely to interfere with the freedom of decision of the publisher and the editorial staff is incompatible with the reputation, independence and mission of the press. Anyone who accepts a bribe for the dissemination or suppression of news acts dishonourably and contrary to the profession.” In this context, how do you view the promotion of newspapers and magazines, e.g. through donations from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which invests in pharmaceutical companies?
