The Stadtbild Controversy: Merz's Problematic City Vision
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has ignited a fierce national debate with comments made during a speech in Brandenburg on 14th October 2025 that have dominated political discourse for over a month. The controversy centres around his use of the term "stadtbild" - technically meaning cityscape - which he suggested remained problematic despite progress on migration.
When pressed by journalists to clarify his remarks days later, Merz notably doubled down, telling reporters to "ask your daughters" what he meant while refusing to provide further explanation. This vague statement has provoked widespread criticism, with public figures organising demonstrations and publishing open letters condemning what many perceive as a racist dog-whistle.
The timing couldn't be more significant, with far-right AfD party celebrating the attention ahead of next year's regional elections. Critics argue that Merz's ambiguity allows space for connection to the far-right concept of "remigration" - a policy amounting to ethnic cleansing through mass deportation.
Haftbefehl: The Unlikely Cultural Phenomenon
Simultaneously, Germany has become captivated by a very different story - the resurgence of rapper Aykut Anhan, known professionally as Haftbefehl. After nearly two years away from public life, the Offenbach-born artist has returned with a Netflix documentary titled "Babo - The Haftbefehl Story" that immediately soared to the top of the platform's German charts.
The documentary presents an unflinching portrayal of addiction, familial trauma within migrant families, and mental health struggles in Germany's music industry. Haftbefehl, the son of a Turkish mother and Zaza-Kurdish father, has built his career on brutally honest depictions of crime and survival, crafting his unique artistic voice through a linguistic blend of German, Turkish, Zazaki and English.
What makes Haftbefehl's success particularly noteworthy is his status as one of the few gangsta rappers from marginalised communities to achieve mainstream acceptance within Germany's cultural establishment while maintaining authenticity to his roots.
Cultural Appreciation Versus Social Exclusion
The coincidence of these two events reveals a profound contradiction in contemporary German society. While the ruling Christian Democrats appear to view Germans of colour as aesthetic intrusions in an idealised urban landscape, the nation enthusiastically consumes art born from the very exclusion these communities experience.
This pattern extends beyond music to other aspects of German culture:
- Luxury kebab shops offering "elevated" versions of Turkish-German staples with truffle and asparagus
- Berlin DJs sampling North African melodies
- Influencers treating headscarves as summer fashion accessories
The aesthetics of migrant life become commercially valuable while the people behind them remain, at best, suspect and at worst, problems to be removed through policies like increased deportations of asylum seekers.
Educational Battles and Integration Questions
This cultural tension has reached Germany's education system, where the student council in Haftbefehl's birthplace of Offenbach has petitioned to include his music in school curricula to better reflect post-migrant identities. However, Hesse's ministry of culture and education has rejected the proposal, citing the artist's "propensity for crime" and allegations of sexism and antisemitism.
As one student told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "Haftbefehl is the answer to the stadtbild debate. I don't relate to Goethe or Kafka." This sentiment highlights the generational divide in cultural understanding and the pressing need for educational materials that resonate with contemporary German youth.
The pressure to conform to traditional integration ideals remains deeply ingrained, even among post-migrant youth themselves. Yet Merz's vision of an ideal cityscape raises fundamental questions about whether those who don't fit this picture can ever feel truly at home in Germany, regardless of their level of assimilation.
One of the most poignant moments in the Babo documentary captures this contradiction perfectly: Aykut Anhan sits on the floor singing along to traditional German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey's "In Meinem Garten" - a man perpetually viewed as not belonging to the Chancellor's ideal stadtbild, yet profoundly shaped by and shaping German culture in ways that challenge simplistic definitions of national identity.
