On the face of it, Deutsche Welle seems refreshingly aware of its responsibilities as a public broadcaster particularly to those of us raised watching the BBC. Each page on their website solicits feedback and they actively reply to the comments on their videos. In these respects, they feel very much ‘of the people.’ Unlike the BBC, which strikes many of the taxpayers who fund it as distinctly detached and inaccessible, they keep their ears open to public opinion and popular sentiment.
However, this intimacy only intensifies the strange impression one feels upon viewing their cultural ‘Euromaxx’ page. Visitors to the foregoing link will quickly notice one thing: it’s not very German.
Upon watching a crop of their videos, one would be forgiven for assuming it was an American outlet. Presenter after presenter appears with various transatlantic dialects, a couple of Brits, an Australian, and then only the occasional intonations distinct to that of a Central European.
One will scroll and hear the words that this video is about “the life of an average German,” yet a dissonance is felt when those words are pronounced by a British dialect which wouldn’t be out of place in Love Actually; if left to play, an American plays the German’s date, and he himself barely speaks—itself a sad metaphor for the channel’s disorienting output.
Similarly, their ‘Meet the Germans’ channel has been presented by a Brit and an Indian, culminating in an uneasy mix between an assertive push towards cosmopolitanism and the remit imposed by being created and funded by German citizens.
So when they unsurprisingly produce the typical videos obsessed with race, gender, and sexuality, it appears even more hostile. When praising the racist Zeche Zollern museum for not allowing white people into their museum at certain times, it isn’t so much an instance of self-loathing German propaganda as a case of Germans being forced to surrender their own income to subsidise Americans cheering the fact they are to be treated as a second-class citizen in their own country.
It’s cases like this where the Anglophone (and especially American) skew of the presenters really shines. Another of them complains at a festival that, despite dressing as them, there is not a ‘single native person in sight.’ A phrase which is clearly ingrained into the presenter’s lexicon without thought, as it never seemed to strike them that to whom the term ‘native’ refers may be different in Germany than in Ohio.
This makes the page’s engagement with the comments more of a negative than a benefit, for when the account replies to critical comments, it often does so in an insulting way. When German citizens express dissatisfaction with the fact that they are paying for Americans to import their cultural hangups into Germany, they are often castigated. It’s enough to make one miss the cold aloofness of the BBC. At least then one can rejoice at being viewed with indifference rather than derision.
When noting that the content, rather than acting to ‘foster a peaceful, stable global community’ as Deutsche Welle aims, instead sows division and animates grievance, they will reply with things like: “how do you think the U.S. desegregated? Hint: it wasn’t by ignoring structural discrimination.” Rather than championing German culture, Deutsche Welle is facilitating its homogenisation and subordination to a cosmopolitan consensus.
It should be stressed that not all presenters take this approach. In fact, it is highly varied; looking at a divergence of the comments and tones across the videos, it appears that each presenter has a large remit in terms of what they present, and how to engage with audience responses.
Some—by far the best—focus entirely on producing the sort of skits you’d expect from such a channel, covering the syntax of German words or the country’s unique traffic rules.
And while this is all good and well-intended, without other content of more depth, the impression of German culture is that it is nothing more than a series of rules or festivals. In other words, one could easily copy and paste them anywhere and they’d be no different.
So, despite being a highly regional nation, one would never gather as much from their output. The odd clip may focus on an historic German programme, but there is very little of the great traditions of music, art, myth, or philosophy.
Consequently, the only history which garners any major attention is the legacy of the Nazis or colonisation. Yet, the American lens through which this is perceived just doesn’t quite fit. For example, saying that the Nazis also “killed thousands” of German Africans comes across as a bit of a reach when accompanied by a graphic saying that the number was between 1,500 to 2,000. It is a plural, but only within the upper estimation of a margin so thin, that it is literally by the smallest number it possibly can be. Rather than an interesting tidbit of comparatively minor history, the sense is that the Germans somehow committed a kind of failure for predominantly memorialising those who died in the millions, rather than in their low thousands.
The free remit the presenters are given is a fascinating window into the mind-set of cosmopolitans. Some take their obligations to the Germans funding them seriously, and present earnest, albeit somewhat superficial, content about their culture shock when exposed to the routine workings of German society; others, though, abuse it to advocate for their particular interests, most often in the forms of sexual frivolity and identitarian advocacy.
These videos feel hollow, as they feel like the creators would have produced substantively the same video had they been in France or Greece, that the German aesthetic is lip service. So, despite its German veneer, it is in fact, rather generic. If they had produced a video on Gianni Versace instead of Karl Lagerfeld, the focus would still likely have taken its cues from the fact that the designer had once said something offensive, rather than what should matter: their unique artistic achievements. In being so detached from their home societies, all they have left for a sense of place is their desire to improve the world along liberal cosmopolitan lines.
When a video is produced about Europe’s awesome tradition of classical music, it is about the fact the instruments have been produced by refugees, or that a pastor has allowed his church to host a concert, but isn’t it progress that it was for an audience of men wearing nothing but jockstraps and chokers? It is never just an outright celebration of a nation’s culture.
For a broadcaster dedicated to highlighting aspects of culture, to then like a comment saying that “tradition is just peer pressure from dead people” makes it appear contemptuous towards the very customs they are incorporated to promote.
Thus, their content is a reflection on Germany, just a particular part of it, that of the young expat experience.
When almost all the content of some of the privately-educated presenters is clubbing, queer culture, and nightlife in Berlin, an off-putting realisation emerges: that while championing diversity, the vast divergence between the regions of Germany is ignored in face of the presenters lauding their partying and advancing their pet social causes.
Do most Germans talk openly about going ‘full fetish’ as they record themselves walking around bondage shop? No.
Would they also praise people’s authenticity while zooming the camera into the nappy of a grown-man who is clearly wearing it as part of display of sexuality? No.
Yet, these other Germans are voiceless. They are not part of these presenters’ world, so they are only referred to as a spectre, as the ‘far-right.’ While those who disagree with them are interviewed, they are strangely absent.
When train strikes are reported, it is never in the context of German labour laws or union culture, but as a mere practical inconvenience to young transnationals, with no investment in German domestic issues.
This does not always come across as intentionally malevolent, but instead as the consequence of people who were not raised in the amniotic fluid of Europe’s tradition of media impartiality.
For instance, they will note that many see a cultural tradition as innocent, but “it is problematic”—a big pause is then followed by “… for some,” as if merely saying these words, as an inelegant afterthought, saves the presenter from charges of gross bias. It’s hardly balanced when one side of an argument is a professional activist, who knows they are going to be interviewed and can consider their thoughts long in advance, and the other is represented by random members of the public who are asked for their thoughts spontaneously.
Their audience can clearly tell what the network thinks—not just from the subtext of their videos, but the kind of perspectives they promote and those they don’t. What could be more gaslighting than to lob grenades at every national symbol in sight and then feign neutrality about only wanting to spark a series of conversations?
The truth here is that it reveals a deeper division within Germany. There is a split between those who wish Germany and Deutsche Welle to be an internationalist entity with German packaging. They want Europe to be like a vending machine filled with various flavours of bottled water. Those with a ‘hint of lemon’ or a ‘hint of lime’ may have some slight difference, but they are fundamentally the same.
It’s clear that Deutsche Welle lacks a coherency of vision here. It attempts to mimic the kind of creator-audience intimacy used by influencers, yet there is dissonance in the fact that this autonomy-loving, personal creator-driven approach is financially supported by the umbilical cord of the German state. Small-time influencers cannot survive while being hostile, with increasing vociferousness, to their own audience.
Like a foreign remake of a film, something about it does not quite translate, there is an ineffable sense that the same plot and characters are unconvincing outside of their original context, leaving the viewer with the impression it was made by people who neither understand nor respect anything more than the superficial aspects of the original.
The Strange World of German Public Broadcasting
Ina Fassbender / AFP
On the face of it, Deutsche Welle seems refreshingly aware of its responsibilities as a public broadcaster particularly to those of us raised watching the BBC. Each page on their website solicits feedback and they actively reply to the comments on their videos. In these respects, they feel very much ‘of the people.’ Unlike the BBC, which strikes many of the taxpayers who fund it as distinctly detached and inaccessible, they keep their ears open to public opinion and popular sentiment.
However, this intimacy only intensifies the strange impression one feels upon viewing their cultural ‘Euromaxx’ page. Visitors to the foregoing link will quickly notice one thing: it’s not very German.
Upon watching a crop of their videos, one would be forgiven for assuming it was an American outlet. Presenter after presenter appears with various transatlantic dialects, a couple of Brits, an Australian, and then only the occasional intonations distinct to that of a Central European.
One will scroll and hear the words that this video is about “the life of an average German,” yet a dissonance is felt when those words are pronounced by a British dialect which wouldn’t be out of place in Love Actually; if left to play, an American plays the German’s date, and he himself barely speaks—itself a sad metaphor for the channel’s disorienting output.
Similarly, their ‘Meet the Germans’ channel has been presented by a Brit and an Indian, culminating in an uneasy mix between an assertive push towards cosmopolitanism and the remit imposed by being created and funded by German citizens.
So when they unsurprisingly produce the typical videos obsessed with race, gender, and sexuality, it appears even more hostile. When praising the racist Zeche Zollern museum for not allowing white people into their museum at certain times, it isn’t so much an instance of self-loathing German propaganda as a case of Germans being forced to surrender their own income to subsidise Americans cheering the fact they are to be treated as a second-class citizen in their own country.
It’s cases like this where the Anglophone (and especially American) skew of the presenters really shines. Another of them complains at a festival that, despite dressing as them, there is not a ‘single native person in sight.’ A phrase which is clearly ingrained into the presenter’s lexicon without thought, as it never seemed to strike them that to whom the term ‘native’ refers may be different in Germany than in Ohio.
This makes the page’s engagement with the comments more of a negative than a benefit, for when the account replies to critical comments, it often does so in an insulting way. When German citizens express dissatisfaction with the fact that they are paying for Americans to import their cultural hangups into Germany, they are often castigated. It’s enough to make one miss the cold aloofness of the BBC. At least then one can rejoice at being viewed with indifference rather than derision.
When noting that the content, rather than acting to ‘foster a peaceful, stable global community’ as Deutsche Welle aims, instead sows division and animates grievance, they will reply with things like: “how do you think the U.S. desegregated? Hint: it wasn’t by ignoring structural discrimination.” Rather than championing German culture, Deutsche Welle is facilitating its homogenisation and subordination to a cosmopolitan consensus.
It should be stressed that not all presenters take this approach. In fact, it is highly varied; looking at a divergence of the comments and tones across the videos, it appears that each presenter has a large remit in terms of what they present, and how to engage with audience responses.
Some—by far the best—focus entirely on producing the sort of skits you’d expect from such a channel, covering the syntax of German words or the country’s unique traffic rules.
And while this is all good and well-intended, without other content of more depth, the impression of German culture is that it is nothing more than a series of rules or festivals. In other words, one could easily copy and paste them anywhere and they’d be no different.
So, despite being a highly regional nation, one would never gather as much from their output. The odd clip may focus on an historic German programme, but there is very little of the great traditions of music, art, myth, or philosophy.
Consequently, the only history which garners any major attention is the legacy of the Nazis or colonisation. Yet, the American lens through which this is perceived just doesn’t quite fit. For example, saying that the Nazis also “killed thousands” of German Africans comes across as a bit of a reach when accompanied by a graphic saying that the number was between 1,500 to 2,000. It is a plural, but only within the upper estimation of a margin so thin, that it is literally by the smallest number it possibly can be. Rather than an interesting tidbit of comparatively minor history, the sense is that the Germans somehow committed a kind of failure for predominantly memorialising those who died in the millions, rather than in their low thousands.
The free remit the presenters are given is a fascinating window into the mind-set of cosmopolitans. Some take their obligations to the Germans funding them seriously, and present earnest, albeit somewhat superficial, content about their culture shock when exposed to the routine workings of German society; others, though, abuse it to advocate for their particular interests, most often in the forms of sexual frivolity and identitarian advocacy.
These videos feel hollow, as they feel like the creators would have produced substantively the same video had they been in France or Greece, that the German aesthetic is lip service. So, despite its German veneer, it is in fact, rather generic. If they had produced a video on Gianni Versace instead of Karl Lagerfeld, the focus would still likely have taken its cues from the fact that the designer had once said something offensive, rather than what should matter: their unique artistic achievements. In being so detached from their home societies, all they have left for a sense of place is their desire to improve the world along liberal cosmopolitan lines.
When a video is produced about Europe’s awesome tradition of classical music, it is about the fact the instruments have been produced by refugees, or that a pastor has allowed his church to host a concert, but isn’t it progress that it was for an audience of men wearing nothing but jockstraps and chokers? It is never just an outright celebration of a nation’s culture.
For a broadcaster dedicated to highlighting aspects of culture, to then like a comment saying that “tradition is just peer pressure from dead people” makes it appear contemptuous towards the very customs they are incorporated to promote.
Thus, their content is a reflection on Germany, just a particular part of it, that of the young expat experience.
When almost all the content of some of the privately-educated presenters is clubbing, queer culture, and nightlife in Berlin, an off-putting realisation emerges: that while championing diversity, the vast divergence between the regions of Germany is ignored in face of the presenters lauding their partying and advancing their pet social causes.
Do most Germans talk openly about going ‘full fetish’ as they record themselves walking around bondage shop? No.
Would they also praise people’s authenticity while zooming the camera into the nappy of a grown-man who is clearly wearing it as part of display of sexuality? No.
Yet, these other Germans are voiceless. They are not part of these presenters’ world, so they are only referred to as a spectre, as the ‘far-right.’ While those who disagree with them are interviewed, they are strangely absent.
When train strikes are reported, it is never in the context of German labour laws or union culture, but as a mere practical inconvenience to young transnationals, with no investment in German domestic issues.
This does not always come across as intentionally malevolent, but instead as the consequence of people who were not raised in the amniotic fluid of Europe’s tradition of media impartiality.
For instance, they will note that many see a cultural tradition as innocent, but “it is problematic”—a big pause is then followed by “… for some,” as if merely saying these words, as an inelegant afterthought, saves the presenter from charges of gross bias. It’s hardly balanced when one side of an argument is a professional activist, who knows they are going to be interviewed and can consider their thoughts long in advance, and the other is represented by random members of the public who are asked for their thoughts spontaneously.
Their audience can clearly tell what the network thinks—not just from the subtext of their videos, but the kind of perspectives they promote and those they don’t. What could be more gaslighting than to lob grenades at every national symbol in sight and then feign neutrality about only wanting to spark a series of conversations?
The truth here is that it reveals a deeper division within Germany. There is a split between those who wish Germany and Deutsche Welle to be an internationalist entity with German packaging. They want Europe to be like a vending machine filled with various flavours of bottled water. Those with a ‘hint of lemon’ or a ‘hint of lime’ may have some slight difference, but they are fundamentally the same.
It’s clear that Deutsche Welle lacks a coherency of vision here. It attempts to mimic the kind of creator-audience intimacy used by influencers, yet there is dissonance in the fact that this autonomy-loving, personal creator-driven approach is financially supported by the umbilical cord of the German state. Small-time influencers cannot survive while being hostile, with increasing vociferousness, to their own audience.
Like a foreign remake of a film, something about it does not quite translate, there is an ineffable sense that the same plot and characters are unconvincing outside of their original context, leaving the viewer with the impression it was made by people who neither understand nor respect anything more than the superficial aspects of the original.
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