Choir that drowned out Germany's AfD leader happy to ‘bend the ear' of country

The Guardian

2 days ago

It was while Alice Weidel was being interviewed on the terrace of a parliament building overlooking the River Spree in Berlin that members of the Corner Chor's mobile phones began to ping with alerts as their song in protest at her far-right party, Scheiß AfD Jodler (Shit AfD Yodellers), blasted out from a 100,000-watt sound system on the other bank.
'We were hugely surprised and truly happy to hear at that moment that our song was receiving such a public airing,' one choir member told the Guardian.
The choir had not known of the carefully orchestrated plans by the Centre for Political Beauty (ZPS) – an association of action artists led by the philosopher Philipp Ruch – to use their song to disrupt the so-called summer interview, a regular annual TV fixture in which leaders of the main political parties are questioned in turn, typically in a relaxed setting.
Neither had the authorities, nor the public broadcaster ARD. And disrupt it certainly did. The sweet-sounding 19th-century Styrian Christmas yodel, which Corner Chor had rewritten as a three-voice protest song against the far right, managed to drown out much of the hour-long exchange, prompting Weidel to lean into the interviewer Markus Preiß and tell him: 'I have problems understanding you against this noise.'
She insisted on continuing with the interview, however, at the same time as accusing the choir of being state-funded, an erroneous slur increasingly used by the party to attack its opponents. The party's leaders later said they had been victimised and insisted on a rerun, which the broadcaster has so far refused to entertain.
Ruch called the action less of a disruption and 'more of an embellishment'. The state had classified the AfD as rightwing extremists earlier this year, he said in an interview. He added ''[ARD] should have figured out for themselves that this in itself was an indecent idea.'
Corner Chor, from the southern city of Augsburg, has been quietly making a name for itself as an activist choir, part of a growing trend in Germany. Established six years ago as a musical education project, it appears everywhere from street corners to festivals, performing its songs and mantras in myriad settings from river swims to squats, to underground passageways.
Its topics, alongside anti-fascist activities, include campaigning for free sanitary products or against extortionate rents and the gender pay gap. It is a 15-strong collective of self-described feminist Flinta-friendly singers (a German acronym standing for women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people).
The singers emphasise they are not just interested in political protest, also singing everything 'from sea shanties to Mozart'. However, the broadcast of their yodel has taken the collective into a new realm as well as heightening their sense of social responsibility, four members told the Guardian in a recent interview over Zoom, for which they did not want to be individually identified, citing their wish to be viewed as a collective voice, as well as fears for their safety.
'We simply wanted to expose the AfD's content in a non-aggressive way, through this very uncomplicated, mantra-like song, which has something very contemplative about it because it's usually sung at Christmas and allows us to express exactly what we wanted to say, as clearly as possible,' a second singer said.
The song was inspired by a notorious 2023 meeting of neo-Nazis and other extremists that party members had taken part in, where the mass deportation of foreigners was a central topic, and which sparked a wave of nationwide protest.
The singers, who come from all walks of life, admitted to being a little shocked by the resonance their song had enjoyed since going viral at the Weidel broadcast, having reached No 6 in the iTunes Germany charts. It received 60,000 plays on Spotify, drew thousands of new followers on their Instagram account and an innumerable number of downloads from SoundCloud of a Scheiß AfD ringtone. The choir has also attracted donations for forthcoming projects.
The song has already been widely remixed by other musicians, picked up by choirs around the country and become a regular feature at demonstrations, including recent Pride marches, with many citing the 'earworm' quality of what the Corner Chor describes as '15 seconds of music against rightwing extremism'.
Yet the reception has not been entirely positive. The choir, which describes itself and its weekly rehearsals as a 'safe space', has received threats and offensive posts on social media. Its critics have accused it of trying to silence the fifth of German voters who support the AfD, the largest opposition party in the Bundestag.
'We must ask ourselves: who exactly are we giving a platform to? And how loud are they allowed to be?' a third member said.
'Attempts to label us as a bunch of hysterical women are ill advised. We are humorously disruptive, peaceful protesters … We had not intended to bend the ear of the whole country but we're happy we've done so. People are speaking about this way beyond the event itself, about the AfD.'