Michael Naumann: A Stuttering Nightmare for a Card-Carrying Member of the German Anti-American Left

Michael Naumann (from the left-wing weekly "Die Zeit") is one of Germany's most venomous and polemic anti-American journalists (examples from DMK: 1, 2, 3). As candidate of the Social Democrats he is currently running for major of Hamburg.

Imagine, then, my delight to learn of his devastating performance in a pre-election debate with Ole von Beust, Hamburg's current conservative major. Unfortunately, there is no English translation available for his gaffe. Suffice to say that Naumann promised the "abolition" of children ("Wir wollen die Kinder ... abschaffen") (first clip). In the second clip (38 seconds into the clip) he suffered from a severe and - for a politician - potentially lethal stuttering problem.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Thanks, Michael. You made my day.

Comments

[IlPadrone]

Love you guys and love this stuttering performance, but you're incorrect in imputing him to say, "the abolition...of children." What he says is:

"Wir wollen die Kinder-, und Bildungs-, und Studiengebuehren abschaffen....wir wollen dafuer sorgen dass die Kinder wieder Zeit haben zu spielen....zum Sport..."

Correctly translated: "We want to abolish the child, education, and tuition fees...we want therefore to make sure that the children again have time to play...for sport..."

[mh from Frankfurt]

I suggest the easiest thing would be to take the post down. The previous comment is simply correct - Naumann says no such thing as you imply (whatever else he might have said) and sadly the only thing it proves is that you didn't listen carefully enough. Which is a shame as I think the site generally useful.

[WhatDoIKnow]

What in the world are "Kindergebühren"? I don't remember any child fees in Germany.

By the way, SZ has also noticed this.