Overview
- Mittermeier, whose interview ran Friday in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, told colleagues who complain they “can’t say anything” to go home and become a baker.
- He challenges critics to present an “ominous list” of forbidden words and says none has, citing the N-word as a slur people insist on using only after its harm was made clear.
- He also recounts performing for about 25 years in daily pain, including once with a shattered collarbone, and says therapy made the past six years the best of his last 30.
- He shares that he and his wife lost four children to stillbirths and that being on stage helped him process grief during what he calls extremely dark times.
- Coverage places his remarks in a wider speech debate as Oliver Kalkofe calls the censorship claim “complete nonsense,” and outlets cite recent flashpoints from Jimmy Kimmel’s brief TV suspension in the U.S. to German disputes over a book prize, the Berlinale, and documenta.