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Michael Wendler, beard trimmed, hair slicked back, says with a smile “Good morning in the morning” at the camera, the German accent is unmistakable. Thursday’s story could be one of many posts on the 48-year-old hit star’s official Instagram channel, to which she has nearly 300,000 subscribers.
But then “Der Wendler”, as his fans call him, first announced his departure as a jury member of the casting show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” (DSDS) in a series of clips, the reason being: “Almost all the TV channels, including RTL, are complicit, aligned, politically controlled. ” And he accuses the federal government in a statement apparently read in part. “in relation to the alleged corona pandemic (…) grave and grave violations of the constitution.”
The Wendler, after Xavier Naidoo and Attila Hildmann, now another prominent crown denier and conspiracy theorist?
Dieter Bohlen is happy about Wendler’s departure
DSDS veteran Dieter Bohlen was pleased with Wendler’s departure in an Instagram video and scoffed at his remarks (“The world is a record, and I don’t know what it is all about”). The RTL television network, which broadcasts DSDS, distanced itself from Wendler’s remarks.
“It all took us by surprise,” RTL entertainment director Kai Sturm told SPIEGEL. “When I first saw the video, I thought it was a failed Wendler parody of Xavier Naidoo.” Only after a conversation with Michael Wendler’s manager, Markus Krampe, did it become clear that the pop singer was serious. Before that, there was no sign Wendler thought that way, Sturm says.
On Thursday night, Krampe said on a special edition of the RTL program “Pocher: dangerously honest!” on his client’s statements: “It is also a shock to me.” Some fans suspected a public relations hit from the pop star.
“It was clear to me that we had to talk to psychologists”
“Of course I have already noticed that it has changed in recent weeks with regard to crown measures,” Krampe told SPIEGEL. Shortly before Wendler’s departure for the United States a week ago, Krampe had “a sense of unease.” He says, “It was clear to me that we had to talk to psychologists.”
Until a phone call Thursday, the manager didn’t know how serious Wendler was. Krampe was on the highway when Wendler told him on the phone that he was talking to Attila Hildmann. “If you get caught in such a trap, you quickly lose yourself,” says Krampe. “He was completely changed, I couldn’t communicate with him at all.” Krampe wanted to prevent him from posting the Instagram stories, but Wendler posted the videos while Krampe was on the phone.
Krampe distances himself from Wendler’s attitude. Wouldn’t it make sense to distance yourself from Wendler as a business partner? “No,” says Krampe. “I’m more concerned about his health. I just hope he comes to.”
Kaufland distances himself from Wendler
A few hours before the story, a reference to a Kaufland commercial was posted on YouTube on Wendler’s Instagram channel. Wendler was to be the face of a new ad campaign for the retail chain. Now nothing will come out. At the request of SPIEGEL, a spokeswoman for the supermarket chain announced that Michael Wendler “according to his current statements was no longer a suitable advertising medium for Kaufland.” You walk away “emphatically” from their statements. The commercial has been removed.
According to a report by “Heilbronner Voice”, Wendler has billed 200,000 euros due to the broken advertising deal with Kaufland.
At the end of the Instagram story, Wendler no longer advertises his channels on the same platform, on Facebook or YouTube, all of which are “censored”, but for his new channel on Telegram, an application that is popular as an alternative platform for Extremists. right-wing, radical opponents of the Crown and ideologues of the conspiracy.
53,000 Telegram subscribers
As of Friday night, Wendler’s Telegram channel already had more than 53,000 subscribers. So far, he has mostly forwarded contributions from crown deniers from other groups, and he also shares conspiracy myths from former Tagesschau spokesperson Eva Herman and vegan chef Attila Hildmann.
Hildmann repeatedly spreads anti-Semitic conspiracy ideologies there, posting comments like “Thumbs Down Blitzkrieg.” On Thursday morning, Hildmann posted a kind of announcement of the Wendler scandal on his public Telegram channel, which has almost 90,000 followers: “Something will happen today.”
“We know each other from ‘Let’s Dance'”, Attila Hildmann tells SPIEGEL, “he is a person that I value.” The two have had no contact since the dance show in 2016, until Wendler Hildmann called him Wednesday night through Thursday and told him he wanted to leave RTL.
“He knows that Germany is no longer governed democratically,” says Hildmann. “He has followed exactly what Xavier and I have been doing in the last six months of our political education work,” he calls it. And he adds: “I am enemy number one of the regime, so it is logical that it attacks me. Attila Hildmann talks about Michael Wendler who defines himself as “a German hero” for him.
The way Wendler thinks about Corona could already be seen on a Sunday in September. That day, the commercial was shot at a Kaufland market in Berlin-Spandau, which Kaufland published on Thursday and removed again in the evening. When Wendler and his partner Laura Müller arrived at the shooting, they explained to the perplexed television crew that they did not believe in the corona virus and would not wear masks. That’s what someone who was there said.
Each of several dozen Kaufland TV people, dancers, extras and employees wore a mask that day. The producers of the Kaufland commercial tried to make Wendler see reason, also pointing out that under the contract, he was required to wear a mask during breaks from filming, which he signed. “In order not to have to wear a mask, Wendler preferred to go out between takes and kiss Laura.”
Wendler’s manager, Krampe, was also present that day. Explain that Wendler did not have to wear a mask after a nose job. And Laura Müller did not want to wear a mask. Krampe tried to convince them otherwise, without success.
