Icon: enlarge
Singer Wendler in early March in the show "Pocher vs. Wendler - No more fun!"
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd / dpa
Michael Wendler, trimmed beard, hair blown back, says with a smile "Good morning in the morning" into the camera, the German accent is unmistakable.
Thursday's story could be one of many posts on the 48-year-old hit star's official Instagram channel, on which he has almost 300,000 subscribers.
But then "Der Wendler", as his fans call him, first announces in a series of clips that he is leaving the jury for the casting program "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" (DSDS), the reason being: "Almost all TV channels including RTL do it complicit, are aligned, politically controlled. "
And accuses the federal government in a partly apparently read statement
"with regard to the alleged corona pandemic (...) gross and serious violations of the constitution".
The Wendler, after Xavier Naidoo and Attila Hildmann, now another prominent corona denier and conspiracy theorist?
Dieter Bohlen is happy about Wendler's departure
DSDS veteran Dieter Bohlen presented himself pleased with Wendler's exit in an Instagram video and made fun of his statements ("The world is a disc, and I don't know what everything").
The TV broadcaster RTL, which broadcasts DSDS, distanced itself from Wendler's statements.
"When I saw the video for the first time, I thought it was a failed parody by Wendler of Xavier Naidoo"
RTL entertainment director Kai Sturm
"It all caught us off guard," said RTL entertainment director Kai Sturm to SPIEGEL.
"When I saw the video for the first time, I thought it was a failed parody by Wendler of Xavier Naidoo."
It was only after a conversation with Michael Wendler's manager, Markus Krampe, that it became clear that the pop singer was serious.
Before that, there had been no signs that Wendler thought that way, says Sturm.
On Thursday evening, Krampe said in a special edition of the RTL program "Pocher - dangerously honest!"
about the statements of his client: "It's a shock for me too."
Some fans suspected a PR coup of the pop star.
"It was clear to me that we had to talk to psychologists"
"Of course I have already noticed that he has changed in the last few weeks with regard to the corona measures," Krampe told SPIEGEL.
Shortly before Wendler's departure for the US a week ago, Krampe had "an uneasy feeling".
He says: "It was clear to me that we had to talk to psychologists."
"He was completely changed, I couldn't get through to him at all"
Markus Krampe
Until a phone call on Thursday, the manager was not aware of how serious Wendler was.
Krampe was on the highway when Wendler told him on the phone that he was talking to Attila Hildmann.
"If you get caught in such a trap, you are quickly lost," says Krampe.
"He was completely changed, I couldn't get through to him at all."
Krampe wanted to keep him from publishing the Instagram stories, but Wendler posted the videos while Krampe was on the phone.
Krampe distances himself from Wendler's attitude.
Wouldn't it be logical to distance yourself from Wendler as a business partner?
"No," says Krampe.
"I'm more concerned about his health. I just hope he comes to his senses."
Kaufland distances itself from Wendler
A few hours before the story, a reference to a Kaufland commercial on YouTube was posted on Wendler's Instagram channel.
Wendler was to be the face of a new advertising campaign for the retail chain.
Nothing will come of it now.
At the request of SPIEGEL, a spokeswoman for the supermarket chain announced that Michael Wendler was "according to his current statements no longer a suitable advertising medium for Kaufland".
You distance yourself "emphatically" from his statements.
The commercial has been deleted.
According to a report by "Heilbronner Voice", Wendler has now billed EUR 200,000 due to the broken advertising deal with Kaufland.
At the end of the Instagram story, Wendler is no longer advertising his channels on the same platform, on Facebook or YouTube - all of which are "censored" - but for his new channel on Telegram, an app that is popular as an alternative platform for Right-wing extremists, radical Corona opponents and conspiracy ideologues.
51,000 subscribers to Telegram
As of Friday evening, Wendler's Telegram channel already had more than 53,000 subscribers.
So far, he has mainly forwarded contributions by corona deniers from other groups, and also shares conspiracy myths from ex-Tagesschau spokeswoman Eva Herman - and vegan chef Attila Hildmann.
Hildmann repeatedly spreads anti-Semitic conspiracy ideologies there, posting comments like "Thumbs Down Blitzkrieg".
On Thursday morning on his public Telegram channel, which has almost 90,000 followers, Hildmann published a kind of announcement of the Wendler scandal: "Something will happen today."
"He knows that Germany is no longer governed democratically"
Attila Hildmann
"We know each other from 'Let's Dance'", says Attila Hildmann to SPIEGEL, "he is a person I value."
The two have had no contact since the dance show in 2016 - until Wendler Hildmann called in the night from Wednesday to Thursday and told him that he wanted to quit RTL.
"He knows that Germany is no longer governed democratically," says Hildmann.
"He has followed exactly what Xavier and I have been doing in the last six months of our political awareness-raising work," he calls it. He adds: "I am the number 1 enemy of the regime, so it stands to reason that he will attack me turns. "
Attila Hildmann speaks of Michael Wendler styling himself as "a German hero" for him.
How Wendler thinks about Corona could already be seen on a Sunday in September.
On that day the commercial was shot in a Kaufland market in Berlin-Spandau, which Kaufland published on Thursday and deleted again in the evening.
When Wendler and his partner Laura Müller appeared for the filming, they explained to the perplexed TV team that they did not believe in the corona virus and would not wear masks.
That's what someone who was there told.
Each of the several dozen TV people, dancers, extras and Kaufland employees wore a mask that day.
The producers of the Kaufland commercial tried to bring Wendler to his senses - also by pointing out that, according to the contract, he was obliged to wear a mask during the shooting breaks, which he signed.
"In order not to have to wear a mask, Wendler preferred to go outside between takes and make out with Laura."
Wendler's manager Krampe was also present that day.
He explains that Wendler did not have to wear a mask after a nose operation.
And Laura Müller didn't want to wear a mask.
Krampe tried to convince them otherwise - unsuccessfully.
Icon: The mirror