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Just under a week ago, German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck posted a short Instagram video announcing his willingness to stand as a candidate for chancellor in the new elections. However, following an intervention by musician Herbert Grönemeyer, the Green politician had to delete the video. The reason: Habeck had hummed a Grönemeyer song in the recording.

Specifically, it was the song "Zeit, dass sich was dreht" ("Time for something to turn"), which Habeck hums in the video while working on a speech. However, soon after the video was published, Grönemeyer's media lawyer Christian Schertz contacted the Ecological Party and prohibited the use of the melody. 

A snapshot from the video that had to be deleted(Bild: x.com/roberthabeck)

Media lawyer: "My client has a clear stance here"
The party had been asked "to refrain from using songs by Herbert Grönemeyer and specifically the song 'Zeit, dass sich was dreht' for election campaign purposes in future", Schertz told the news agency dpa. His client has a clear stance on this and "fundamentally does not want his person or his songs to be appropriated by political parties, especially without his consent, for any kind of election advertising".

Initially, the Greens did not respond, but after almost a week, the video can no longer be found on Habeck's Instagram or X page. "Herbert Grönemeyer has stated that his works should not be used by political parties. Not even by buzzing. We respect that," a spokesperson told dpa.

CDU also had trouble with Grönemeyer
Incidentally, the CDU also recently got into trouble with the song. At the end of October, the youth organization Junge Union (JU) had Grönemeyer's song played at their meeting in Halle in Saxony-Anhalt during the entrance of the CDU candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz into the hall - the song was moderated: "Join me in welcoming the next chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany". Grönemeyer then banned the use of his hit.