For generations, Eduard Mörike’s poem “Er ist’s” was part of the standard repertoire at German schools. You know: “Spring lets its blue band / Again flutter through the air; / Sweet, well-known scents / Foreboding streaks the land.”
Günther Jauch also knows the poem by the poet Mörike only too well, as he impressively and visibly proudly demonstrated in his quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire”. The problem: For 16,000 euros, the candidate should say which instrument can be heard in the course of the short poem – and thanks to rhyme, Jauch gave the answer with his announcer.
The question for 16,000 euros was: “What can be heard from afar in Eduard Mörike’s spring poem ‘Er ist’s’?”. Possible answers: “A: soft piano music”, “B: heavy drumbeat”, “C: soft harp note” or “D: ten-minute guitar solo”. Jauch interrupted before the candidate could even say anything about the possible answers. He immediately began to recite the poem.
Even if Jauch was not quite right and considered the scents to be “unknown” while Mörike thought they were “well known”, he managed to get through to the sixth verse. Before he stopped himself with a beep, his last sentences were: “Violets already dreaming / want to come soon”
From here it was easy for the candidate, of whom one does not know whether she would have known the poem so well – because she had recognized the rhyme. She replied, “Ah, then it was the sound of the harp.” Surprised, Jauch wanted to know why. The candidate explained: “Because the rhyme fits.” That’s right: “already” only rhymes with “ton”. Jauch looked shocked at the camera while the audience burst out laughing.
The moderator had no choice but to accept his defeat. In revenge, he said he would immediately and permanently stop all support for the candidate. They thanked them for a correctly answered question and thus 16,000 euros. In the end she left the show with 32,000 euros – sponsored by Günther.
