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Accused Gzuz in court: Just a "boy prank"?
Photo: Marcus Brandt / dpa
Kristoffer Jonas Klauß, better known as Gzuz, in court - that was a one-man show far away from the concert stage.
The Hamburg rapper acted cheeky, disrespectful, downright cheeky;
he appeared drunk at times, pretended to be disinterested, and enraged the judge.
That was in the summer of 2020, in the first instance.
The court sentenced the frontman of the Hamburg hip-hop group 187 Strassenbande to prison and a fine of more than half a million euros.
The 33-year-old appealed.
This Monday, almost a year and a half later, Gzuz appears in the Hamburg district court in an unusual role: subdued, almost embarrassed, almost sympathetic.
He still marches in his shirtsleeves and legs apart through the corridors, but in the dock he hastily stuffs the showy gold chain under his black polo shirt, adjusts his collar and crosses his tattooed arms behind his back.
He wants to do better than the first time.
In every sense.
Crystal meth and marijuana on the plate
Judge Nicole Dietrich takes note of it and summarizes the allegations and the verdict from the first instance: Because of violations of the weapons law, drug possession, attempted theft and bodily harm, district judge Johann Krieten had the musician – who was on probation at the time of the crime – sentenced to a prison term of one year and six months and a fine of 300 daily rates of 1700 euros each.
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Judge Dietrich told the accused that he could remain silent or provide information.
How would he handle it?
In the first trial, the rapper made no statement, now Gzuz has his lawyer make a statement on his behalf, and then he answers all the questions himself.
And a lot of things don't sound half as constructed as one might think.
When searching Gzuz's apartment, the investigators found a total of 17 grams of marijuana in a mason jar, in a can, on a plate, in a plastic bag, a smoked joint in the bathroom, 2.5 grams of crystal meth and a so-called Polish firecracker underneath Sofa.
"I don't smoke in the loo!"
He was smoking pot at the time, yes, but at the time of the search he was already living with his fiancée, the mother of his two daughters, says Gzuz. At the time, the apartment was used by a buddy who also admitted in the first trial that he owned the drugs. Storing marijuana in so many different containers? “I never went to that much trouble!” says Gzuz in court. And: "I don't smoke in the toilet!" Only the substance in the plastic bag could have been his.
The accusation that he wanted to steal an oxygen bottle from an ambulance at a gas station on February 13, 2020 can also be explained from the defendant's point of view. It was true that he climbed into the unlocked car and "staggered around" in it. “I was pretty drunk.” However, he neither threatened anyone nor wanted to steal the device. 'It was a boy's prank. I don't have any use for an oxygen tank, I don't even know what to do with it.” It sounds almost funny.
The fact that he fired several shots from a blank gun on New Year's Eve 2019, had himself filmed and the video ended up online was not what he wanted.
He simply "didn't think about it," claims Gzuz, but no one buys it.
The fact that he is prohibited from carrying weapons of any kind was "not on his list" and the weapons found during another search belonged to his father-in-law.
500 euros and a season ticket for the victim
It is correct that in the early morning of March 8, 2020 on the Reeperbahn he hit a 19-year-old with his flat hand. He went through the night before, the woman and her friends asked him for a selfie. He agreed. However, the woman ran after him and wanted a selfie with him alone. He felt pressured, says Gzuz, and thought she was filming him. He didn't want that and reached out, but didn't want to hurt her.
He immediately apologized to the 19-year-old, later paid her damages of 500 euros and promised to put her on the guest list at his concerts in the future.
"She was happy about that and withdrew the criminal complaint," says Gzuz.
"I don't understand why Judge Krieten still sentenced him to eight months imprisonment without parole for assault.
"Did a lot of nonsense"
Gzuz lets his lawyer Ulf Dreckmann explain that the magistrate only wanted to bring him in and sentence him.
“Who, if not you, should go to jail?” Krieten is said to have said, failing to understand that Gzuz and Kristoffer Jonas Klauß are not one and the same person.
But that the rapper Gzuz is an artificial figure and his "rough texts" are art.
"I know that I don't always manage to find the balance and that it has often failed in the past," says Gzuz.
Judge Dietrich comments: "We're already close to the edge of philosophy." She looks at the allegedly remorseful rapper firmly: "It seems as if spring 2020 was a very restless time in your life: quite a lot trouble in a relatively short period of time.
What was happening?"
The 33-year-old leans forward to the microphone.
"I drank a lot back then, did a lot of nonsense." Maybe that's the good thing about the last trial, which ended with such a severe verdict, says Gzuz, who has been convicted several times.
"It was like a break."