Waldemar Hartmann outraged with racist Elif Eralp tweet

Waldemar Hartmann achieved fame throughout Germany as a sports presenter. He was considered approachable, popular and with a penchant for the wheat beer glass - at least since Rudi Völler's "wheat beer" replica in 2003.

Hartmann, 78, is now working on a second career as a right-wing commentator. For some time now, the former football reporter on the Julian Reichelt portal “Nius” has been crooning takes that, analogous to his old job, sound far-right. He describes Friedrich Merz as a “lying chancellor,” his wife as a “weib” and speaks of alleged “climate activists gasping for breath” because he drives an SUV.

Over the weekend, Hartmann's excesses reached a new, racist level. After the SPIEGEL cover story about the fear of Berlin's top left-wing candidate Elif Eralp, Hartmann wrote on X that he simply had a problem with "the fact that a governing mayor of the German capital Berlin is called Elif Eralp."

Serap Güler, Minister of State in the Foreign Office, among others, sharply criticized Hartmann for this. »You can rightly criticize Elif Eralp and her party heavily. They offer enough substantive points for this," Güler also writes at X. "But this is, without any ifs or buts, pure racism. Just racism.«

Other politicians also commented on this. Former Left Party leader Janine Wissler writes at Bluesky: "Anyone who rejects Elif Eralp as Governing Mayor because of her name and the origins of her parents is a racist and nothing else." Former Green Party leader Ricarda Lang writes: "Classic case of: You're not supposed to say the quiet part out loud."

Hartmann himself has not yet commented on the criticism. Nor the right-wing riot and campaign portal that offers him a stage. Hartmann's contribution from Saturday is still available at It is the new spectrum of “Weißbier-Waldi”.