The German rapper Danger Dan.Image: www.imago-images.de
ZDF canceled his appearance shortly before recording – the text was a possible call for violence.
July 17, 2026, 04:33July 17, 2026, 04:55
Shortly before the recording, the rapper Danger Dan was kicked out of an anniversary edition of the ZDF satirical show “Die Anstalt”. The station considers its new lyrics to be problematic.
The rapper was invited to the recording of the 100th edition of the program “Die Anstalt”, which will be shown next Tuesday (July 21) on ZDF and deals with political radicalization and the resilience of democracy. According to ZDF, a joint performance with star pianist Igor Levit was planned: together they were supposed to present the song “Keine Angst”, which deals with “resistance against right-wing extremism”. A discussion was planned afterwards. That didn’t happen – the station canceled the performance at the last few meters, very shortly before the recording, according to a statement from the promotion agency Check Your Head.
ZDF accuses Danger Dan of inciting violence
As justification, ZDF stated that the song’s lyrics could be understood as a call to violence. This would be in clear contradiction to the station’s programming guidelines. The song was prepared intensively and the management was also involved. In the end, they came to the conclusion that this contradiction could not have been resolved after the more than seven-minute live performance on stage.
It initially remained unclear which passages of the text triggered the accusation of incitement to violence. The song “Keine Angst” was released on Friday night. Internally, ZDF agreed to “deal with the Danger Dan song in a timely manner in a documentary and journalistic manner and to work on it at another point in the program”.
Danger Dan sends supposed greetings to suspected extremist
In terms of content, the song essentially calls for the fight against Nazis and fascists. The text is a kind of guide on how to band together without being targeted by right-wing extremists or security authorities: with secret communication, researching right-wing structures, documenting their actions and publicly announcing Nazis. “Don’t get caught, look for surveillance cameras,” it says at one point. “Never without gloves, never leave a fingerprint,” on another. “They look dangerous, but we’ll kill them,” sings Danger Dan and also: “If you fight together, then it can work.”
At the end he sends “kind regards to Lina, Gucci, Maja and Nanuk”. This probably refers to the suspected left-wing extremist Lina E. and three of her colleagues, who were sentenced to prison in 2023 by the Dresden Higher Regional Court for several attacks on right-wing extremists.
Danger Dan campaigns against discrimination
Danger’s real name is Dan Daniel Pongratz. The 43-year-old is part of the band Antilopen Gang (“Nothing can happen to me”, “Pizza”). Five years ago, his solo album “That’s all covered by artistic freedom” was released, the title song of which made headlines. Accompanied by Levit, he also presented him in Jan Böhmermann’s “ZDF Magazin Royale”. Already there, the rapper took up the topic of fascism and played through various scenarios.
The musician from Aachen and his band campaign against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism. He also appeared on stage with Levit at the “Jamel rocks the Förster” festival in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which is intended to draw attention to the neo-Nazi scene.
The rapper acknowledged ZDF’s decision with great incomprehension. “Always trouble with ZDF, this time they seriously kicked us out,” he wrote on Instagram. He and Igor Levit had a wonderful day off in Munich, but unexpectedly because of the cancellation. An official written reason for the disinvitation had not been received until then. The song had been available to the station for weeks, Danger Dan continued. He spoke of an interference with freedom of expression and freedom of art and sees political reasons behind the decision.