German public broadcaster ZDF is under fire after canceling a live performance of an “anti-fascist” song on one of its popular comedy programmes.
ZDF has dropped plans to air “Keine Angst” (No Fear), the new song by rapper Danger Dan and classical musician Igor Levitt, on its weekly satirical current events programme. Die Anstalt. The network said that the song, which calls on Germans to take action against the far right, could be interpreted as “incitement to violence.”
Levitt and Danger Dan, whose real name is Daniel Pongratz, were scheduled to perform the song at a pre-recording of the show last week. After the network dropped it, they posted a video of the song on YouTube, where it went viral, reaching number one on YouTube Music Trends in Germany.
In the song’s video, a short, stark black-and-white evocative of the style of German Expressionist films of the 1930s, Danger Dan sits down at a piano and quickly issues a set of instructions on how to combat growing right-wing extremism in Germany.
Along with fairly benign advice (“Talk to the bars/ask if they have space available for an evening/anti-Nazi party”); The song also suggests “outing” the “Nazi pigs” by placing flyers and posters bearing the names, addresses, and photos of right-wing extremists. It ends with a suggestive, if ambiguous, call to action: “What needs to be done is clear / I won’t say more about it / Best regards to Lena, Gucci, Maja and Nanook.”
The last line appears to refer to left-wing activists who have been convicted or are on trial for violent attacks against members of the far right.
ZDF said the song’s text “could be read as incitement to violence” and therefore violated the network’s program guidelines. The network dropped Danger Dan and Levit from Die Anstalt.
The show’s hosts were not amused. Comedians Max Uthof, Klaus von Wagner and Mike Cole called the network’s decision “cowardly.” On their show, which will air Tuesday but is already available on the network’s streaming service, they took several minutes to discuss the song’s controversial lyrics before arguing that ZDF should have allowed Levit and Danger Dan to perform.
Posting on Instagram, the two musicians claimed that ZDF obtained the text of the song weeks ago and that its legal team had already approved it, something the network disputes.
The Association of German Journalists described ZDF’s actions as a violation of the channel’s editorial freedom. The network produced a 15-minute explanatory video, posted on its live streaming platform on Saturday, outlining the controversy and arguments for and against broadcasting “Keine Angst.”
The incident comes against the backdrop of growing support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party that is currently leading in national opinion polls and is expected to win the Saxony-Anhalt state election in September. Many see the AfD as a threat to German democracy, and have called for the party to be banned.
