Fynn Kliemann has not only with NIE (2018), POP (2020) and NUR (2021) released three extremely successful music albums, but also likes to present itself as a liberal do-gooder who actively pays attention to employee protection, climate protection and social issues. His credo: make the world a little bit better with fair business ideas. The versatile media designer, YouTuber, musician and businessman has repeatedly been criticized for his (business) practices, for example when he was a craftsman with professional experience in 2020 searchedwho were to work full-time on his farm for 1-3 months, but were not to receive any money for this, but only board and lodging. In such actions, critics recognized a liberal double standard, which is also widespread in the start-up scene and which tries to conceal poor working conditions with an ethos of improving the world.
Jan Böhmermann has now dealt intensively with Fynn Kliemann’s business practices in his program “ZDF Magazin Royale”. The focus of the program is Kliemann’s commitment as a mask producer. At the beginning of the corona pandemic sold Kliemann protective masks and rose to become one of the largest mask suppliers in Germany. He repeatedly emphasized that the masks would be produced in Europe under fair working conditions, for example in one Instagram post from March 31, 2020:
“We have changed our production and are now making fairly produced, reusable mouth coverings from Europe, made of 100% polypropylene, to reduce the risk of infection. The mask costs 1/10 of the things of the overpriced profit vultures and incidentally saves jobs at our producer in Europe, who otherwise due to the consequences of the spread of the corona virus [sic!] should have closed.”
Fraud allegations against Fynn Kliemann
However, as the research by “ZDF Magazin Royale” suggests, many of the masks declared as “European” did not come from Europe at all, but from Bangladesh and Vietnam. A circumstance about which Fynn Kliemann and his business partner Tom Illbruck from the company “Global Tactics” are said to have been aware, according to published WhatsApp histories. The business with the Asian masks was therefore worthwhile for the two: The production costs for a mask are said to have been between 45 and 53.5 cents. The musician then sold them for prices of up to 2.20 euros. This means that Kliemann and his business partner could have made a profit of more than one million euros with the Asian masks. According to “ZDF Magazin Royale”, on the other hand, those who sewed the masks did not benefit. The workers at a factory in Bangladesh where Kliemann had masks produced are said to have earned only around 120 euros a month – around half the average wage in Bangladesh.
See the stream of Jan Böhmermann’s “ZDF Magazin Royale” here:
Kliemann is also said to have “donated” a batch of damaged masks, for which he had not paid anything due to their incorrect processing, to refugee camps. He is said to have been aware that the damaged masks had hardly any protective effect and described them as “wrong masks” in a chat. He was medially celebrated for the noble donation.
Statement of the musician on Instagram
The “ZDF Magazin Royale” had sent Kliemann a catalog of questions about the allegations in the run-up to the show. Kliemann answered the questions on May 1st in an almost half-hour Instagram video. In the video, too, Kliemann claims that the masks he sells were produced exclusively in Portugal and Serbia under good working conditions. Research by “ZDF Magazin Royale” contradicts him on this point. The “ZDF Magazin Royale” also summarized the complete research result in writing and published online.
The new issue of “ZDF Magazin Royale” is scheduled to be broadcast on May 6, 2022 at 11 p.m. in the ZDF main program. The article about Fynn Kliemann, see above, is already available in the stream.