Like the placeholder in the ID: I am the real Max Mustermann

Max Mustermann lives! Not on Musterstrasse, not even in 12 345 Musterstadt, but with his parents in 49 610 Quakenbrück (Lower Saxony). Bild am Sonntag visited him there.

The boy is 17 years old, plays basketball, drives a moped, is doing an apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic – and enjoys the fact that he has become a little celebrity: “I’m the only one who is really called Max Mustermann. I like the name, never wanted to be called anything else. “

His parents Jessica Mustermann (38, teacher) and Thomas Krogmann (42, baker) are repeatedly asked why they chose this name. Your simple answer: “Because we like it.”

But it is not always easy for her boy: A teacher once dragged him to the school principal because she did not believe him, his name is what his name is. After all, Max Mustermann is regarded as an artificial name and the epitome of the average Otto – like John Doe in the USA or Mario Rossi in Italy.

If the boy only introduces himself by his last name, some of them ask in disbelief: “But your name is not Max, is it?” Restaurant guests who want to remain anonymous in Corona times write his name on the guest list.

And when football ultras were no longer allowed to curse Hoffenheim patron Dietmar Hopp (80) as a son of a bitch in March 2020, they instead wrote in huge letters on a banner: “Max Mustermann, you son of a bitch”.

“Sometimes that’s annoying,” says Max. “But I was really annoyed only on Instagram. The network recently suspended my account, apparently because they thought my name was fake. Photos, contacts – everything was suddenly gone. ”Since then, Max has been calling himself defiantly: @Der_echte_Max_Mustermann.

“My name is often an icebreaker,” he says. “I get into conversation with people easily. And it doesn’t matter what my name is. “