Frei.Wild see themselves as victims of cancel culture. Her fans are also angry.
Philipp Burger will not appear at the Leipzig Book Fair (March 21st to 24th). The Frei.Wild singer, who has photos of him doing the “Hitler salute” as a young man, wanted to read his memoirs there.
As Burger wrote on Instagram, he was removed from the program of the “LitPop” event. Because, as he says, another artist would otherwise have threatened to cancel. Burger reports that he is distancing himself from his right-wing radical past. In any case, Frei.Wild still enjoys an extremely high reputation in right-wing circles. Fans enthusiastically sing song lines like “Home means people, tradition and language” or “You can’t avoid /Looking at your country / Because your children will build on it later /Language, customs /And faith are values of the homeland / Leave without them We are under /Our little people are dying” at the top of their lungs.
The 42-year-old South Tyrolean is angry about the disinvitation. “The fact that I will appear at the reading as part of this big event, as previously planned, unfortunately seems to be off the table due to pressure from several artists/authors,” he writes on his personal Instagram page. There’s also a lot going on on the Frei.Wild band page, where – possibly confidential – screenshots of emails are being shared in which the book fair cancellation was communicated by the organizers. There is also a lot of talk about “cancel culture”, which is also ensured by the band’s followers, who let out their anger with lots of emojis.
In any case, Frei.Wild defend their boss and see freedom of expression threatened. Meanwhile, their fans are puzzling over which artist threatened to be canceled. Comment from a user, as you often hear from fans of the band: “It will be some left-wing band or singer… you just stand there shaking your head in the best Germany of all time, provided you say yes to everything, if not you are right-wing. “