Heino — born Heinz Georg Kramm — is a living legend of German popular music. With more than 55 million records sold and around 1,200 songs recorded, the 87‑year‑old has been a fixture of the Schlager scene for decades. His deep voice, blond side‑part and ever‑present dark sunglasses (worn partly to conceal an eye condition called exophthalmos) have become his trademarks. Heino’s repertoire, which celebrates love, homeland and a nostalgic vision of Germany, has even found unexpected audiences: he has sung at heavy‑metal festivals and shared a stage with well‑known bands in recent years.
That long career has also been punctuated by controversy. In 1977 Heino released a recording of the German national anthem that included all three verses of “Das Lied der Deutschen,” a decision that offended many because the first two verses carry associations with Germany’s nationalist past. He later said the then‑Chancellor Willy Brandt broke off relations with him over the recording. In 2018 another storm erupted when an album he gave to a state minister included songs that had at times been performed by members of the SS; Heino defended himself by arguing that songs alone are not to blame if they are misused or instrumentalized. Earlier, in 1998, a right‑wing publisher was found to be distributing a cassette of his EMI‑produced recordings; Heino said he had been unaware of that publisher’s involvement.
Despite these flashpoints, Heino has repeatedly rejected being embraced by the far right. He has spoken out against neo‑Nazi and skinhead supporters, once saying bluntly, “I hate brown bald heads,” a reference to the brown uniforms of the Nazi Party.
That stance has now led him into a legal confrontation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD). A regional AfD politician in Brandenburg, Felix Teichner, posted campaign material on social media that read, “On Sunday, Heino would vote for Felix.” Heino’s team called the use of his name and image an outrage and demanded the party stop. Teichner eventually signed a cease‑and‑desist declaration, but Heino is reportedly considering seeking damages as well.
The episode has drawn wide attention because the AfD has been rising in the polls and because it is unusual for a politician to appropriate a pop star’s name so directly. Political scientist Niklas Ferch of Justus Liebig University notes that such legal defeats rarely dent the AfD’s core support; they may even feed the party’s populist narrative about criticizing elites. Ferch also points out the broader overlap between pop culture and politics, with both spheres competing for attention and influence.
Ferch finds it notable that Heino, whose Schlager music is often stereotyped as nostalgic or reactionary, has taken a public and legal stand against the AfD. That decision carries risks. When entertainers challenge political actors, they can alienate parts of their audience and invite accusations that they are driven by money rather than principle. On social media some of Heino’s followers reacted angrily, urging him to drop the lawsuit or suggesting he was motivated by financial gain. Heino, however, has declined to pursue the matter further on his own Instagram account.
Whatever the legal outcome, the dispute highlights the tensions that arise when politicians try to enlist cultural figures for their campaigns and when artists assert control over how their names and images are used in political messaging.