German Singer Heino to Perform Solidarity Concert Following National Anthem Scandal

German pop singer Heino, 87, is set to perform a solidarity concert on Saturday evening in Bad Belzig, Brandenburg, in support of firefighter competition judge Richard Münder, who was sanctioned and removed from his position by the fire brigade association after accidentally playing a recording of the German national anthem with all three verses at the German Firefighter Championships in Torgau, Saxony, in August 2025. The concert, added as an extra date to Heino's "Made in Germany" tour, is scheduled to begin at 19:00 in the spa town of Bad Belzig, which has a population of 11,000. Heino described the sanctions against Münder as excessive and called for the firefighter to be given a second chance. Numerous firefighters are expected to attend the performance.

Münder found the recording on YouTube by accident Richard Münder said he searched for a sung version of the Deutschlandlied on YouTube, selected the first result, and downloaded it to open the championship — not realizing it contained all three verses rather than only the officially recognized third. The recording turned out to be a version Heino had made in the 1970s at the request of Hans Filbinger, then Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg and a member of the CDU, who was later controversially identified as a former Nazi naval judge. After the incident, the fire brigade association sanctioned Münder and removed him from his position, a response he considers disproportionate and unjust. Münder said he felt unfairly branded by the episode.

„Man hat versucht, mir einen Rechtsextremismus-Stempel aufzudrücken” — Richard Münder via Der Tagesspiegel

He rejected any suspicion of right-wing extremist sympathies, describing the incident as an honest mistake made without political intent.

Heino distanced himself from the recording but backed Münder Heino made clear after the August 2025 scandal that he did not approve of the version being played at the championships, writing on Instagram that he found it inappropriate. Nevertheless, the singer argued that Münder deserved a second chance rather than lasting professional consequences. Heino has long pushed back against accusations of right-wing associations, arguing that performing German folk songs does not make a person politically suspect.

„Warum soll ich rechts sein, nur weil ich Volkslieder singe?” — Heino via Der Tagesspiegel

The singer made that remark in the first episode of the television documentary "Heino - Karamba, Karacho, Kult!" and has campaigned for the CDU in federal election campaigns. At the end of each of his concerts, Heino sings the national anthem — specifically the third verse of the Deutschlandlied. He is known for songs including "Blau blüht der Enzian", "La Montanara", and "Treue Bergvagabunden".

Counter-event draws on Heino's own song titles Not all residents of Bad Belzig welcomed the concert. A local initiative organized a simultaneous music event on Saturday evening under the title "Knallbunt ist die Haselnuss" — a deliberate play on Heino's well-known folk song "Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss" — to promote diversity and an open society. The two events are running in parallel in the same small town on the same evening, reflecting the broader debate the anthem incident has stirred in Germany. The "Lied der Deutschen" was written in 1841 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben. The National Socialists later misused the song propagandistically to assert claims to great-power status abroad. In 1952, Federal President Theodor Heuss, at the request of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, agreed to recognize only the third verse — beginning with the words "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" — as the official national anthem of West Germany. The other two verses were not banned but ceased to carry official status. The legal position remains that singing or playing the first two verses is not prohibited in Germany, even though only the third verse holds official anthem status. The episode in Torgau has reignited public discussion about the boundaries between cultural tradition, historical responsibility, and political symbolism in Germany.