Okay, here’s a weird one – As I’ve noted for Heeb before: Germany just can’t let go of Hitler. Now, a new music video by Berlin-based rap group K.I.Z. is either a new high point in Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or its nadir.
K.I.Z. have long been the naughty boys of German rap. Their music toes the line between meta-stupid and just plain stupid. Sometimes they’re gross (and not the good gross), and sometimes quite funny and clever. Think of them as a cross between the Tyler, the Creator who likes raping and killing people and the Tyler, the Creator who makes “Loiter Squad“. Their new song “Ich bin Adolf Hitler“ (“I’m Adolf Hitler”) presents the Führer as a hipster who does rails of speed (The real Hitler really was an amphetamine addict) in the shape of a swastica, and whom all the ladies love because of his mustache: “One snap of my fingers/and you’re on Schindler’s List plus two“. There are, however, some things he doesn’t like to talk about: “Jewish question? Good question. Hmmm… next question.“
“Man of ze year”
The song’s video features the schlubby “Adolf” – a sad fat man who wanders through a Berlin full of hostile Jews (played by K.I.Z.) and Arabs. Comic Oliver Polak, whom Heeb once christened “Germany’s Only Living Jewish Comedian“, plays the titular Führer. I asked Polak about playing Adolf in the video – he said that his own life isn’t too different from what you see here, apart from the mustache; His comedy consists of jokes about watching porn, pets and depression. In a way he’s the German Marc Maron, minus the obsession with Ernest Becker and Beat literature, plus a genuine reason to watch his weight. His Hitler, complete with a dirty wife-beater and greasy hair, might just be one for the ages, even if not quite in the same category as Lorenzo St. DuBois (But really – what is?)
To be honest, this Jew from Germany ain’t that impressed. When talking about the Third Reich and how best to remember it, Hitler-the-iconic-figure can be more of a distraction than a key to understanding and explaining things – even in satire. This could have been a great chance for a band with true hipster cred to address the tendency of young Germans who, rather than actually confronting history, make bad jokes instead. Rather, KIZ just end up becoming the thing they criticize – because ultimately there is nothing more comforting than breaking a taboo that isn’t really a taboo at all.
K.I.Z. In Character
[…] Hitler's Lousy Life In KIZ's “Ich Bin Adolf Hitler” Music Video His Hitler, complete with a dirty wife-beater and greasy hair, might just be one for the ages, even if not quite in the same category as Lorenzo St. DuBois (But really – what is?) To be honest, this Jew from Germany ain't that impressed. When talking … Read more on Heeb Magazine […]
fette sache
+2 auf schindlers liste zu stehen ist aber was gutes.
This article isn’t just meta- it is plain stupid! First of all KIZ surely don’t have true hipster cred. They’re making fun of hipsters in this very same video, making Hitler say he’s a hipster. Second of all it reads as you wrote it, just to critisize for the reason of critisizing, that’s just sad. And making fun of Hitler IS a taboo in Germany even amongst the young ones. Further making fun of Hitler IS the best way to remember and deal with it. This way you take all his power and all his iconic thing he still got going for him to this day in some certain circles and show him for what he really was, a sad, lonely, drug addicted maniac. I’m not fan of this particular Video, KIZ have released way better vids, but to write what you wrote about it is in your own words “plain stupid”.
awesome haha
The author misses the point of that song completly. With his superficial view he fails to understand the true value of this song.
If one knows the band and their songs one set one rule: DONT TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY.
KIZs music is vulgar and sometimes explicitly gross – that is correct.
Now to understand their music one has to understand their favourite tools. These are: IRONY, SARCASM and SATIRE.
Given that information one can start to actively think about the true aims of that song.
The first comclusion to draw is: the song is not about Adolf Hitler. A daring theory considering the title the video and the story of adolf hitler in modern berlin told by himself.
Infact by projecting adolf hitlers picture into the present and pointing him out as a drug addicted scumbag who has a sad life and lives in a run down flat KIZ do neither present their version of Vergangenheitsbewältigung nor is nadir.
Its KIZ at what they do best and can do best. They produce a socio-critical satire about a certain group of germany.
In this song neo-nazis get mocked and judged at the same time.
This song also does not break a taboo in fact it is one of the first comment to the NSU.
Thus this song is GEGENWARTSBEWÄLTIGUNG and an antifaschist rap song. Whilst 95% of rap is about bitches, drugs, killing people and being a badass KIZ belongs to the 5% of rap with intellectual value and socio-critical lyrics.
In all fairness the only blame they have to accept is that they can be missunderstood so easily.
Their songs demand the effort to think outside of the box and read inbetween the lines and not just superficially judge.
Saidly i must agree that most of the people do not have those abilities and thus the critic of their songs is partially right.
But the critic must be under the premise that especially for young people KIZ is dangerous because they can be missunderstood so easily in the way the author has pointed it out.
Still this is no excuse to present such a superficial view on their new song.
love KIZ.
“When talking about the Third Reich and how best to remember it, Hitler-the-iconic-figure can be more of a distraction than a key to understanding and explaining things – even in satire. This could have been a great chance for a band with true hipster cred to address the tendency of young Germans who, rather than actually confronting history, make bad jokes instead.”
Actually, I think the satire is quite important. As a german I can say, that in Germany the “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” is better than in any other country with controverse history. The germans have the highest pressure in dealing with their history, but in the school system dealing with the history and knowing many, many things about the Reich is very important.
So I think, that dealing houmoristic with Hitler is important, because as a young german sometimes you still get the feeling of guilt, for things you haven’t done. Props
junge du hast gar kein plan von kiz, verschwinde
opfer was redet ihr
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holy crap, are you really that naiv, or do you just lack on skills on translating AND understanding that track? Nice journalism there. USA .USA. USA!
great
Dergv: Das erste Mal in meinem Leben, das mich jemand naiv nennt. Danke!
Rasputin: How is making fun of Hitler a taboo in Germany? That’s basically an industry.
Witty: No, I of course don’t think that KIZ is bad for kids. And no, what they’re doing in that song is not original or creative or daring.
Hermann: And I think that a lot of the Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung is superficial and self-satisfied. Many people know about the perpetrators, it’s true, but knowledge about their victims is much more rare beyond the big numbers and a couple of faces and facts.
THT: Ich weiss. Das steht auch da.
Like you said it yourself: Germany just can’t let go of Hitler. And to me, THAT’S THE POINT!
There are definitely different layers to it, and it is partially a satire on German Hipster culture. But, with imagery like the “Der SPIEGEL” mirror (with SPIEGEL being on of Germans more reputable news magazines who can not let go of publishing stories about Hitler) it’s also a rather fitting satire on the importance we still give Hitler in German society today. Of course it is important to remember and reflect history, but I think KIZ are trying to show what a bizarre “megastar supervillain” status Hitler gets in both Germany and the world.
Of course this works better in combination with the video: The mixture of Hitler boasting about his fame combined with the imagery of the sad pathetic slob he really is, is pretty brilliant IMO. That’s also the reason why KIZ, as weird as it may seem, HAD to publish the video even before the release of their album/mixtape: The track alone would probably just be viewed as offensive, but with the video the antifascist intention gets pretty clear, because it also works as a critique of German neo-nazis who glorify the “Fuhrer”.
Now I totally understand if you think the Holocaust puns are tasteless (because they are, on purpose), and if you think the track itself sucks. But I think one can give KIZ at least a little more credit for the commentary they’re TRYING to make here – even though it’s pretty clear that not even their whole fanbase gets it.
Wie nimmt man dem Bösen dem Unbekannten den Schrecken?
– Indem man sich darüber lustig macht.
KIZ ist zurück, Opfer küss mir den Schwanz!
Nimrodrimshot: I actually don’t think the Holocaust puns are tasteless – the “Judenfrage? Gute Frage. Nächste Frage!” line if anything is about how people forget what Hitler represented and what the Nazis were responsible for, and being on Schindler’s List is a *good* thing. Again, obviously they’re aiming for something antifascist that’s deflating the myth. I just don’t think that’s a myth that needs to be deflated anymore.
Where do you get your “facts” Fabian? How is making fun of Hitler an industry when the only ones who dare making fun of him in public are Serdar Somuncu, extra 3 and maybe Stromberg if people are smart enough to get who Stromberg’s character is based on. So please, where is your industry? But you’re right saying that we don’t teach our kids enough or more precisely anything about the victims! We only teach them what horrible things the Nazis did but not what effect it had on the people. I specifically say people not Jews because they weren’t the only ones who faced terrible consequences just for being born. Most people tend to forget that very quickly. No one talks about the gay people, the homeless, the cripples, the mentally challenged, all the other ethnicities who got herded in concentration camps or just blatantly killed, shot in the head in the streets with people watching not giving a shit.
But you still didn’t get the point concerning this track. Even if it is not a taboo there is nothing to criticize, nothing to bitch about. They made a statement they felt was important to them in their own fucked up but still clever and funny way. And more so this track isn’t about Hitler himself. It’s an analogy. It’s about todays Neo-Nazis and to some point that even “good” citizens secretly still wish him back. I live in Germany for over 20 years now and as a foreigner who no one suspects he is not German cause of my looks and accent free pronunciation I hear a lot of shit like that. It’s still a big problem which the public likes to ignore and not talk about. So even if making fun of Hitler is an industry (which it’s not) you still completely missed the point and are criticizing something that doesn’t even exist in the first place.
love them, K.I.Z <3
Ich stimme Django Unchained zu.
zudem sind K.I.Z keine Gangster Rapper sondern Clown Rapper.
Wenn man genau hinhört sind die Texte von Reimen her, sehr gut gemacht. die reimen sich und haben zudem meist sogar eine Doppeldeutung. So wie der Killer Elefant der gerne in der Braunen Masse (Wasser) scwimmt und Giraffen tötet. Whats up? It´s Only K.I.Z
Letztes mal war es Jörg Haider und jetzt Addi :)