Martina Pötschke-Langer

Abstract

Finally, I spot Martina Pötschke-Langer among the travellers pouring out of the express train at Hamburg's main train station. A friendly smile across her face, she's pulling a rickety little roller suitcase. She looks harmless, not like the worst enemy of big tobacco companies in Germany, until last year a smokers' paradise with little respect for non-smokers' rights. Pötschke-Langer, head of the Cancer Prevention Division at the Heidelberg-based German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and WHO's Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, wants fish before travelling on to Berlin. We stroll toward a popular restaurant. She points to huge sun umbrellas at a side-walk cafe, each splattered with the words Philip Morris. “You see this sort of tobacco marketing everywhere in Germany”, she says. “That is the major problem.” Inside, awaiting our fish, I mention my amazement at the ability of German non-smokers to have silently endured restaurant smoke for so long. “The problem”, I suggest, is a “German cultural thing”. “Noooo”, says Pötschke-Langer, who trained as a surgeon. She explains Germany is Europe's biggest tobacco market. Tobacco companies invest heavily to foster positive press coverage and political support: “We are speaking about billions of Euros less for them if our work is successful”, she says. “Culture can be changed, like Ireland, like Italy”, both with tough laws on smoking. And after much hard work by Pötschke-Langer and her colleagues smoking culture is finally changing in Germany. Prodded by the federal government, Germany's 16 states now have laws on smoking. “I am very proud of this”, she says. But she is not done yet. Noting that state laws vary widely, her next goal is a tough uniform federal smoking law. She also wants holdouts Austria and Greece to pass laws. “Greece is awful. A majority of doctors smoke in Greece.” As we enjoy fish, I ask about her background. She was born in the former East Germany. During World War II, her 2-year-old sister, grandparents, aunt, and other family members died in the bombing of Dresden. Later, her family fled to West Germany. Her father, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer. But she is reticent about her own motivations: “Oh, I hate personal questions”. Why? “I want to protect myself and my family”—she and her husband have three sons. As we return to the train station, she talks of her work: “It is in my heart. My heart is woven around this mission.” With a dozen staff members, Pötschke-Langer sees her main duty as educating the public about the health dangers of smoking. Despite her tough stand, she claims never to have asked a nearby smoker to put out a cigarette. “I fight for laws, don't waste my energy on private details.”