this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
319 points (98.5% liked)

Germany - Deutschland, but in English

826 readers
40 users here now

The place to talk/ask about stuff in Germany in English.

No sock puppet discussions. (Accounts younger than 7 days which suddenly spawn in a discussion and all push the same agenda)

Please use sources for facts in discussions.

Wiki: https://lemmygermany.github.io/wiki/

Many thanks to @Vittelius@feddit.de for creating this!

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What people are gonna miss is this was the intended outcome:

The song offers a step-by-step guide on how to organize local, leaderless structures aimed at countering far-right movements. It advocates strict operational security, such as avoiding digital footprints and relying on face-to-face communication. It also describes tactics for investigating political opponents and publicizing their identities and affiliations, a practice often referred to as "outing" or doxing.

The lyrics also include references to militant action and express solidarity with individuals who have been found guilty of leading violent attacks on neo-Nazis.

ZDF director Norbert Himmler said he stood by the decision to cancel the performance: "In my view, the lyrics unquestionably provide instructions for a leftist resistance willing to use violence," he told the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung.

They absolutely shouldn't have allowed the song to be aired, that's why the creators wanted to air the song, and submitted the lyrics months ahead.

Either the plug gets pulled early or late minute, someone was going to pull the plug once the people in power realized what was going thru common procedure. Doing it this way highlights both how ineffective procedural opppsition is, but also how to twist it to their advantage.

At the same time, he admitted that his station should have handled the case differently: "We can be faulted for the last-minute cancellation," he said, adding, "We should have asked ourselves basic questions earlier — ideally before inviting the artists."

Eight members of the ZDF Television Council have criticized the broadcaster over the cancellation. In an open letter published on Monday by the online outlet netzpolitik.org, the council members argued that ZDF missed an opportunity to spark a debate about right-wing extremism in Germany and the various ways to combat it.

They not only got their discussion raised, they gave the agency that should be keeping an eye on this shit a giant black eye that they're not doing their jobs properly.

[–] varyingExpertise@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

ZDF director Norbert Himmler said he stood by the decision to cancel the performance: “In my view, the lyrics unquestionably provide instructions for a leftist resistance willing to use violence,”

One might argue, that he did the perfect thing at the perfect time to maximize the impact of this song, I'd wager even maximizing it more than a simple airing at something past ten in the night would have done. That man is not stupid and he knows how media works, that's why he's where he is. He saved face, he took the ZDF out of the legal and conservative line of fire and looking at the result, well, chapeau, almost.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 38 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

unquestionably provide instructions for a leftist resistance willing to use violence

Exactly its resistance. Violent resistance to fascism is morally correct. Dude basically admitted that resisting fascism is against his ideals.

Also it definitely should have been aired. There are lots of songs out there describing much worse things that get aired without issue. Art is not legal advice and lyrics dont have to only contain things that are legal. And they werent planning to air it without comment, but with loads of context and discussion.

[–] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 days ago

ZDF, the same broadcaster, literally aired his previous hit where he called for militancy against fascists, with a indirect death threat against a named fascists as an easter egg...

[–] Tonuka@feddit.org 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't know where you're getting this from. It's certainly not true that this was intended, ZDF pulled the plug extremely late, or rather, one single person did after it was already explicitly greenlit (which has some serious implications for corruption too)

[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Framed differently: If he wanted to Streisand it, he nailed it.

The other comment alleges that this may have been intentional: Feign incompetence for plausible deniability while precisely timing the pull for maximum effect.

[–] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 13 points 2 days ago

They absolutely shouldn’t have allowed the song to be aired

Why?

They constantly air things where violence is a key part of the content, they show movies & shows where people do questionable things, air comedians that joke about rape and in general have a wide variety of content. How come an artistic piece such a song, being featured in an satire program, is somehow not allowable when those other things are?

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

Typical Himmler.