After the public prosecutor’s office in Stade launched preliminary proceedings against the media designer, YouTuber, musician and businessman Fynn Kliemann last week, he seems to be losing his nerve. On Sunday, June 19, 2022, Kliemann posted an Instagram story in which he spoke in a hysterical and confused voice about the allegations made against him. He and his “Kliemannsland” – a redesigned riding stable with workshops – are victims of the “woken left scene” and “mad reporter“.
In the selfie video, Fynn Kliemann initially complains that reporting on his dubious mask business would have destroyed his career. To “Ten years of non-stop work” be now “everything broken”. He rejects the allegations against him in their entirety – even though he would have made mistakes. He made “reparations” for them, a term from international law that means actual financial compensation payments from the defeated nation to the victorious nation. In the video, Kliemann probably means his announced donation of 282,000 euros to NGOS. According to the latest statements, Kliemann had earned that much money with mask shops – although until the revelations he had always claimed that he did not earn anything with the masks sold through his shop.
Fynn Kliemann: Victim of an intrigue?
Then Fynn Kliemann strikes an increasingly conspiracy-theoretical tone in the video. He speaks of “a reporter gone mad‘ would have made it his mission to ‘every statement [… ] to deface every utterance in such a way that it ended up being you. And everything.” And he goes on to say in the direction of public service broadcasting: “I get it, you made me big with public money, then I didn’t make a difference, and now I’m supposed to be destroyed with exactly the same money.”
For a while, Kliemann had produced the web series “Kliemannsland” for NDR, which reported on the conversion work at the riding stables. The collaboration ended in 2020. At that time, Fynn Kliemann did indeed benefit from funds from public broadcasting. The claim that the contribution of the “ZDF Neo Magazin Royale”, which uncovered Fynn Kliemann’s dubious business practices, was a result of the fact that Kliemann of whatever kind “not felt‘ seems absurd. If only because completely different actors were involved in the contribution than in the NDR program.
Fynn Kliemann sees himself not only as a victim of an intrigue by public broadcasting, but also by a part of the “woken left scene“, who couldn’t accept that people could be the way they are when visiting “Kliemannsland”, because this part of the scene “can’t accept anything“. The term “woke” describes an “awakened” awareness of social (in)justice and racism, but it also has negative connotations, especially from conservative and right-wing populist groups.
Cock for freedom?
The “Kliemannsland” is generally the focus of the video. The suspicion is that Fynn Kliemann is trying to avert greater damage to the project. Parallel to the Insta story by Fynn Kliemann, a Video uploaded, with the current operators distancing themselves a little from the YouTuber – but above all acknowledging his role in setting up the project. A protagonist in the video tearfully says in reference to Fynn Kliemann: “Of course we stand behind him”.
Kliemann himself tries to emphasize the independence of “Kliemannsland” in his Insta story. This has absolutely nothing to do with his business practices and actually hardly anything to do with himself. The “Kliemannsland” is a place against “People with their fucking index fingers, against prejudice all day long”. Above all, however, a place of freedom, whereby Fynn Kliemann seems to have a peculiar understanding of freedom in which huge cocks play an important role: “And if I’m in the mood to blast a huge cock into the field, then I’ll blast a huge cock into the field. And for freedom!” the YouTuber announces in the video.
Roughly in the middle of his Instagram story, Fynn Kliemann predicts the headlines for reporting on his statement: “Likes to bring the story: Kliemann is completely crazy”. And this is where the YouTuber proves to be amazingly accurate. After watching the video, the impression that Fynn Kliemann has drifted a bit into a parallel world actually arises.