Getting the Hoff
Many of my early preconceptions about Germany have been shattered over the years. I was annoyed the first time I realised not all German trains ran on time, and surprised that things weren’t as efficient as I’d been led to believe, but I’ve only ever been hurt by the truth behind one of my assumptions: not everyone here loves David Hasselhoff. I know, it’s ridiculous, but true. I believed for decades that the Hoff was the unofficial king of the Germans, that he effectively reunited Germany with his sweet 80s rock anthems, so it was with deep sadness that I discovered these “truths” apparently had absolutely no basis in reality. When a German tells you, with their typical bracing levels of directness, that David Hasselhoff is simply some American actor, you tend to believe them.
It wasn’t just one conversation either, in my first few years of living here, I would often ask people about Hasselhoff. Call it new arrival exuberance or typical British ignorance of other countries, but I was genuinely interested to know what people thought. Some would say they liked Knight Rider or Baywatch, but didn’t really care about the actor. Others knew his music, but they weren’t fans, and they certainly didn’t have any of his music on their playlists. In the worst cases, people would just shrug and say “who?”.
I don’t know why the realisation upset me so much, it’s not as if I’d been burning a candle for Hasselhoff either. Sure, I like Knight Rider, but I always preferred The A-Team and as a child, the Baywatch theme was a signal to turn the TV off. Looking back, my first two years here were a series of realisations about Germany that showed how little I actually knew about the country to which I’d chosen to move. I’ve come to understand this was a natural part of the adjustment, something many people who move countries experience. However, at the time, realising so much in such a short period felt like the earth was moving beneath my feet.
For a long time I blamed pop culture for my ignorance. English speaking media actively promotes Hasselhoff’s connection to Germany every chance it gets. Whenever Herr Hasselhoff is interviewed, there’s an inevitable question about the time he sang Looking for Freedom, while suspended on a cherry picker, high above a massive crowd at the Berlin Wall. If a German appears on a British or American TV show, there will usually be a reference to Hasselhoff, while other times, such as in the film Dodge Ball, Hasselhoff is shown as a capable German speaker.
In reality, I just didn’t know that much about Germany, but I’ve gradually managed to find my feet. After a few years of living here I felt I understood Germany, as much as anyone could, and I now have some truths to work with, instead of half-baked misconceptions. Yet, something still isn’t right. Every so often I see someone wandering by wearing a T-shirt referencing Hasselhoff. In the days when I was still capable of clubbing, I would marvel at the pandemonium that would break out when the DJ played the Baywatch theme, and people would stampede to the dance floor. Occasionally I catch a radio station playing one of his songs, not ironically, just playing it like any other song on their playlist, and what's more they wouldn’t even comment on it. In the UK, if Hasselhoff’s music is on the radio, it’s usually because he’s in the studio promoting something, or in the news for something or other. It’s almost always tongue in cheek.
Thinking about it, 2019 was probably the year I began to question the narrative I’d been sold about Hasselhoff not being a big deal in Germany. One night, as my wife and I settled down to watch TV, we flicked through the channels. Suddenly a familiar face appeared on the screen. It was the Hoff, but instead of his usual jovial appearance, he looked furious. It turned out that he had been booked on one of Germany’s most popular political chat shows, Markus Lanz. What made the whole experience even more surreal was the object of Hasselhoff’s fury: the leader of one of Germany’s major political parties, Christian Lindner of the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP). As Hasselhoff shouted at him in English, Linder looked increasingly more annoyed. It’s not the greatest political exchange in history, but it was incredibly funny seeing David Hasselhoff take a German politician to task over the environment and climate change. As I watched transfixed, a thought began to creep into my head: maybe Hasselhoff is the king of Germany. The audience seemed to think so, they clapped nearly every point he made.
My realisation that my early conversations with Germans may not have been an accurate sample of public opinion was completed a couple of years later, when in the midsts of the pandemic and the vaccine roll out, the German government financed a series of adverts to promote taking the vaccine. In this moment, when Germany needed a trustworthy face to win over a skeptical public, who do you think they turned to? Declaring “Ärmel hoch!” In his best Californian accented German, there was David Hasselhoff, reassuring the German public that the vaccine was safe.
My saga with David Hasselhoff continues to this day, whether it’s recording an advert for a Weinfest held in a small town or Playmobil releasing a Knight Rider playset, Hasselhoff is very much a fixture. It’s clear that the Baywatch star isn’t everyone’s cup of Kräutertee, but he certainly has cultural currency, as I assumed a decade ago. This knowledge is reassuring, like a pillar of certainty has been repaired and placed back where it belongs. I may not be any further forward in understanding Germany, but there’s at least some certainties to which I can still cling.
Image Credit
Photo by Joey Banks on Unsplash
Photo by Viviana Rishe on Unsplash
