Virtues such as the will to achieve, sacrifice and discipline seem to be on the retreat. The personification of these values has been hit hard: the old white man.

While the latter is struggling to find his place in society, at the same time the country’s prosperity and cohesion are on the line.

Coincidence? Or is it the result of a society that has lost sight of the essentials and is bogged down in identity debates? Whether in a beer garden with former chancellor candidate Edmund Stoiber, in Ascona with top manager Wolfgang Reitzle or at home with world star Mario Adorf – journalists Franca Lehfeldt and Nena Brockhaus set out to find the answers of wise old men to the pressing questions of the present.

They listen attentively and write a declaration of love for achievement, experience and character.

Once upon a time there was a world without gender stars, without Twitter shitstorms and without cautionary fingers. That was Germany before a moralising zeitgeist rolled over the country. The modernisation of the past decades has driven out some of the mustiness, but it has also exacted a price. For virtues such as the will to perform, willingness to make sacrifices, fulfilment of duty and discipline seem to be on the retreat.

“Old WISE men” – a book title that is causing discussion. Because numerous feminists have increasingly stylised it as a social discontinued model in recent years – without questioning, without taking time, without listening. So are we talking about a feminist zeitgeist or a generation with a different understanding of values? Or both? Gender and age say nothing about what values a person possesses. But we are shaped by them and through them. Let’s listen to them!

To clarify these questions, two young women talked to ten men with life experience: Mario Adorf, Stefan Aust, Heiner Bremer, Heiner Lauterbach, Wolfgang Reitzle, Herbert Reul, Peer Steinbrück, Edmund Stoiber, Thomas Strüngmann, Claus-Holger Lehfeldt.

Old WISE men is the courageous objection of political journalists Nena Brockhaus and Franca Lehfeldt against the zeitgeist of woke-washing and blanket criticism of men.

Their argument: life achievement.