Anti-Islamic marchers take to the streets in Dresden. A bloody assault is made on the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hedbo. Acts of mindless brutality are posted on the world wide web to arouse
anger and hatred, in an attempt to divide and polarise Western public
opinion. A leaked government report reveals that German security authorities believe the threat of a terrorist attack in Germany is now higher than at any time since the late 1970s. Across Europe, liberal values are under threat, and fear threatens to make cowards of us all.
Berlin has a long tradition of resistance. During the 1920s the city was known as 'Red Berlin', until Goebbels' propaganda machine – and the Nazis' vicious tactics -- changed its political colour for a decade. Every May Day since the 1960s, the city's hard-core activists have battled with police, smashing Ku'damm windows and burning upmarket Porsches in the process. Earlier this month supporters of the so-called 'Pegida' movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) tried to march to the Brandenburg Gate, but were stopped by some 5,000 anti-racist activists and several hundred riot police.
Acts of individual courage must be applauded, as ever. Florian Mundt is a tattooed, skateboarding, 27 year old psychology student at Berlin's Humboldt University – and a YouTube star. His two channels – LeFloid and FlipFloid -- have over 2.5 million subscribers and have logged more than one-quarter of a billion hits. How does he do it? Simply by telling the news, as he sees it, twice a week.
LeFloid – as Mundt is known online – has an opinion on just about everything from Pegida marches to North Korean politics, from IS fighters to 'Nazi hipsters'. He is not shy to share those opinions, and in the process engage his 16-24 year-old target audience in current affairs and the news.
As he recently told the BBC, 'I think people do not watch my videos because they agree with my opinions. I think it's just really a place for people to talk about stuff, to argue, and that works best when you really – like – knock on their heads.'
His posts are witty, provocative and rich in irony, for example in his news item about Nazi skinheads … and their image problem ('The old image of the Nazi with a fat neck, bald head, combat boots and bomber jacket is so out-of-date. It's so 'nineties and not cool at all…' says LeFloid. Cue a graphic of a youthful, hip, modern Hitler in t-shirt emblazoned with the words, 'Death Camp for Cutie').
LeFloid is pushing the boundaries -- for a reason. He wants to stimulate discussion and debate, to make people aware of events and trends, to grip people with the news … even to engage them by making jokes about Nazis. 'I really love making jokes about Hitler, because that is so provoking and Germans are always like – you can't do that. Of course I can.'
Mel Brooks – the American comedian born to a German Jewish father -- once said, 'You can bring despots to their knees faster with humour than with invective.' To my mind Brooks' greatest work is the satirical black comedy cult classic The Producers, about the staging of a cheerfully upbeat and utterly tasteless musical about the happy home life of a brutal dictator.
LeFloid brings Brooks to mind. Their work makes audiences laugh, and shudder, and think. And debate. Openly. Freely. Without fear.
photographs © Florian Mundt
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