Speech by rapper Danger Dan: ZDF cuts criticism of “AfD sympathizers” from the laudatory speech

In the ZDF media library you could now see what a “mistake” that happens “under great time pressure” looks like. A “mistake” in the rush can, as in this case, be that two words are deliberately cut out of a speech. The two words that the rapper Danger Dan said when he raised his laudatory speech at the award of the “Opus Klassik” prize to the pianist Igor Levit were: “and AfD sympathizers”.

The rapper and the pianist are friends, they recorded together, so it was obviously a pleasure for Danger Dan to present Igor Levit with the award last Sunday at the Konzerthaus Berlin. “I’m glad I found you as a friend and comrade-in-arms. And I’m happy to be able to present you with this award right away. It’s nice to have you,” he said. Danger Dan’s short final words were: “Finally, I would like to give this eulogy, simply to make Igor happy, with a message to all anti-Semites, racists, anti-feminists and AfD sympathizers in front of the television sets: You are complete idiots. Good evening.”

You could listen to it in a similar way in the ZDF media library, with the subtle difference that “and AfD sympathizers” were missing. This caught the eye of internet users and, of course, the laudator and the award winner, as you can read on Twitter. The “Berliner Zeitung” took up the circumstances and received a message from ZDF, which FAZ.NET also received in a very similar way from the broadcaster on Lerchenberg in Mainz: “When processing the program on Sunday evening under great time pressure, an error occurred that we regret. We will correct it as soon as possible.”

However, if one compares Danger Dan’s complete laudatory speech with the one that was in the ZDF media library and was to be edited, one could get the impression that this was not a “mistake” that “arose under great time pressure. Exactly two words are missing in Danger Dan’s short speech, after “antifeminists” there is an exact cut, also in the picture, then it goes with “in front of the television sets: you are complete idiots. Good evening” further. If you didn’t have the original laudation for comparison, you as a viewer wouldn’t be able to tell that it was cut here. Strange, this “error”.