As is well known, satire must be allowed. But she should be able to. When the “Heute-Show” takes on the difficult topic of the Bundeswehr, the accuracy of the gags is not much better than that of the standard G36 rifle. Although many politicians sit in front of the cameras.
“Men!” commands the sergeant, “You are now crawling across the pasture and camouflaging yourselves so that you can no longer be distinguished from the cows. Sure?” – “And what if the maid comes to milk?” Okay, stupid joke. old joke Can the Bundeswehr also be funny? In a “Heute-Show Spezial”, ZDF is looking for the comic side.
Lutz van der Horst and Fabian Köster put themselves in uniform for the satire – and go in search of the Bundeswehr: “You need competence at the top,” they say. And add: “We have Christine Lambrecht.”
Lambrecht serves the country as the – often unlucky – Secretary of Defense. It serves as a common thread for the ZDF satire. Satirist Fabian Köster visits a “Bundeswehr Day”.
The Secretary of Defense has announced. The press spokeswoman does not let the ZDF man speak. Only after the official interviews does he call out his question to her. “Can you take me to Cologne later in a helicopter?” The ZDF men ask a military expert: “Is Lambrecht a good defense minister?” The expert’s answer: “She is a defense minister.” The answer is elegant. That’s not funny.
The ZDF continues to strive. Lutz van der Horst is renamed “van der Forst” and crawls through the forest on broken knees in uniform. Fabian Köster gets behind the wheel of a jeep. Strange? Really not.
At most, the politicians who make themselves available as interlocutors for the “Today Show” make themselves laughable. Seriously, Dietmar Bartsch is there. The left-wing chairman himself served in the NVA and has no sympathy whatsoever for Bundeswehr soldiers: “They’re all there voluntarily…” There’s definitely enough money there. Bartsch: “If the previous 50 billion are not enough, then I don’t understand anything anymore!”
In Munster, Lower Saxony, the largest base of the German army in terms of the number of soldiers stationed there, SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil sits down in front of a tank and in front of the ZDF cameras. “I don’t want any glorification,” Klingbeil tries to walk a tightrope – but would like recognition for the soldiers of the Bundeswehr. There were soldiers who were spat on in uniform on the train on the way home. And how does ZDF react: “Travelling by train is in itself a humiliation.”
When asked whether Putin has done more for the Bundeswehr than any German politician, Klingbeil admits: “Putin is the catalyst that will get the 100 billion euros on the way.” And when it comes to the future question of how things will continue after this special fund , the SPD politician evades: “The next government must look for ways.”
And then FDP defense specialist Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also appears. She also faces what is quoted as a “left-green-filthy” TV team. After all, many people are now “afraid that it could rattle”. Back to the common thread Christine Lambrecht.
Would Strack-Zimmermann rather be Minister of Defense? “It’s easier to pee from the outside into the nest,” the FDP woman answered in all seriousness. And adds: “And then a real jet.” Is that weird? Rather not. Is it entertaining? Actually neither. Let’s let the “Today Show” fictional character Gernot Hassknecht roar the final word: “That was the shittiest movie I’ve ever seen.”
