The Merkel era is history. The Union came only as close to the subject of pop music as Andreas Scheuer to the turntable. The SPD apparently wants to do it differently now.
Berlin / Hanover – It is not as if the SPD is a party that is decidedly far from pop. Ex-party leader Sigmar Gabriel was even called “Siggi Pop” for a while. Based on the punk pioneer Iggy Pop. And because Gabriel was “Pop Representative” under Gerhard Schröder, of course. And a deserving comrade like Ralf Stegner posts his song of the day on Twitter every morning.
Nevertheless: So far, the Social Democrats have not been perceived as directly young, fresh and affectionate to the scene. Now parts of the party celebrities are suddenly swinging strongly towards the record store – with words and deeds.
Klingbeil, Kühnert, Schmidt, Lower Saxony: SPD surprises with a new musical strategy
What is behind this cannot yet be determined very clearly. Perhaps it is an attempt to pick up on the 90s, when Labor man Tony Blair launched a Europe-wide wave of social democracy and very deliberately posed with stars of the hour such as Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher. The catchphrase back then: “Cool Britannia”. Or it’s about a charm offensive for a new house power in the SPD parliamentary group: the 49 Jusos in the Bundestag SPD.
In any case, Bald party leader Lars Klingbeil, Bald general secretary Kevin Kühnert, new head of the Chancellery Wolfgang Schmidt and the Lower Saxony SPD conspicuously shot their way into German-speaking indie from the 00s and 10s in the days of the Berlin takeover. Not for first-time voters – but according to the statutes, you are Juso up to a maximum of 35 years of age. That could still work out.
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“Which is the best Kettcar quote? Question for a speech. Thank you, ”tweeted Klingbeil late on Wednesday evening. Kettcar, a Hamburg band with stylistically distinctive, often socially critical texts, became aware of the guitar-loving scene in the early 00s.
The band Tomte was also part of the team at that time: Kettcar frontman Marcus Wiebusch and Tomte singer Thees Uhlmann founded the label Grand Hotel van Cleef and thus shaped the musical style for a few years. Uhlmann, in turn, is supposed to elect the Federal President for the Lower Saxony SPD on February 13 – in addition to TV celebrity Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, by the way. Meanwhile, Schmidt has a quote from Uhlmann’s pen emblazoned in the title of his Twitter page: “The future is unwritten, the future is so beautifully vacant / And I’ll visit you: it doesn’t matter whether it’s Stammheim or the Federal Chancellery,” you can read there. There were initially no outcry about a possible RAF reminiscence via the detour to the JVA Stammheim. Quite rightly, Uhlmann, who was born in Lower Saxony, can hardly be considered an extremist.
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Klingbeil and Kühnert publicly insisted on the topic of pop knowledge on Twitter, which has long been the norm among the new SPD front people. Klingbeil boldly hurled one of the sought-after Kettcar quotes with a pointed pen: “There were others who took our places. We had the feeling that they looked better … ”- the ex-Jusochef is supposed to follow Klingbeil in the near future. He wedged back in an equally joking tone: “As if you even knew who or what Kettcar was.”
Kühnert immediately introduced the next SPD music connoisseur to the debate – he was following Carsten Brosda on Twitter and was therefore beyond doubt, he said. Brosda is a Senator for Culture in Hamburg, but failed in the raffle for the office of Minister of State for Culture due to the Bavarian Greens Claudia Roth, who in turn once managed the left-wing cult band Ton Steine Scherben. When it comes to Hamburg, things come full circle anyway: Kettcar and Tomte come from the Hanseatic city. Just like Brosda. And Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The “Hamburg School” was once a sub-genre term in the 90s and 00s – Tomte and Kettcar, however, were not really part of it due to the lack of a less intellectual profile. Perhaps the SPD now wants to shape its own “Hamburg Political School”.
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The end of the song remains to be seen. For the time being, the SPD is primarily signaling a new style. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) attracted attention musically when she went to the opera in Bayreuth and Munich. On the other hand, CSU Minister Andreas Scheuer posed behind the DJ desk in his wild days – of course there was no lack of ridicule. Klingbeil’s search for a quote was rather encouraged. For example from TV celebrity Micky Beisenherz, or – more sensitive in terms of coalition technology – from Left Vice President Martina Renner. A touch of generation change seems to waft through the Bundestag.
Should there be joint SPD appearances with the big names in the scene in the near future, one can in any case hope that the musicians will not feel like Blair visitor Noel Gallagher back then. He was disappointed when he saw his expectations of “New Labor”, the self-imposed label of the Blair Social Democrats: “Nothing really changes, am I right? Same crap, new day, ”he stated years after his visit to the prime minister. (fn)
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