Charlie Hebdo mocks Merkel in first-ever foreign-language edition

PanARMENIAN.Net - Some put Chancellor Angela Merkel on a pedestal, but French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo placed her on a toilet seat in seeking to conquer Germany with its provocative brand of humour, AFP says.

The magazine hit German newsstands Thursday, December 1 -- its first foreign-language edition, an innovation undertaken nearly two years after its staff was almost wiped out in a deadly jihadist attack in Paris.

Known for its biting cartoons and commentaries, the no-holds-barred publication launched in Germany with a poster showing Merkel sitting on a porcelain throne and reading the weekly, with the slogan: "Charlie Hebdo -- it's liberating".

Cartoonist and publisher Laurent Sourisseau, better known by his artist's name Riss, who was badly wounded in the January 2015 attack, believes there is a market.

"Humour is everywhere, even in Germany," he told public broadcaster ARD.

"It's an experiment for us to publish Charlie Hebdo in another language and try to find new fans for the magazine who can help defend it."

Charlie Hebdo is now produced in a secret location, a legacy of the massacre at its former offices that claimed 12 lives, including some of France's best-known cartoonists.

The German version will be edited from France by a 33-year-old from Berlin who on the advice of her colleagues uses a pseudonym, Minka Schneider.

Schneider, speaking to Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, recalled that the "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) solidarity movement was especially strong in Germany, where the magazine sold 70,000 copies of its "survivors' edition" one week after the shootings.