Zeitgeist TV German comedy inspired by The Office is brought back for the Merz era

He's the middle manager who talks as if he's the CEO, a beacon of inclusivity in his own head but a bigoted chauvinist as soon as he opens his mouth. And listening to him creates a mix of familiarity and embarrassment by proxy that turns out to be surprisingly pleasurable.

- Philip Oltermann European culture editor

Ricky Gervais's boss of a souldestroyingly dull Slough-based paper merchant stopped being a regular presence on British TV more than two decades ago, but the comedic characters he spawned across the globe have outlived him.

In Germany, where a feature film based on a German sitcom inspired by The Office opens in cinemas today, some are even starting to suspect their own David Brent is now leading the country.

The mockumentary sitcom Stromberg launched on German TV in 2004, three years after the start of the British series; its makers denied it was based on the British show until the BBC threatened legal action. It ran for eight years and the self-aggrandising wisdom of its titular character Bernd "Let papa sort it" Stromberg has been inescapable on social media.

Elections this year gave Stromberg meme culture new life, and not just because the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, physically resembles the office authoritarian played by Christoph Maria Herbst.

"They are both boomers to the core and seem to lack any sensitivity to social cues," said Lukas Lohmer, a German comedy writer. "The only difference is that Stromberg realises when he makes a faux pas."

In recent weeks, Merz elicited fremdschämen (vicarious embarrassment), especially among younger Germans, when stating on a trip to Angola how much he missed German bread, or when he said on returning from Belém, Brazil, that "everyone was delighted to be back in Germany and to have left that place".