Rezo
Rezo in 2019
Personal information
Born (1992-08-14) 14 August 1992 (age 31)
Wuppertal, Germany
NationalityGerman
Websitehttps://sprk.store
YouTube information
Also known asRezo
Channels
Years active2015–present
Genre(s)Music, comedy, vlog
Subscribers1.7 million (main channel)
1.6 million (second channel)
1.1 million (third channel)
435.000 (fourth channel)
Total views170 million (main channel)
160 million (second channel)
NetworkHome of Talents, Leonine Studios[1]
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers

Rezo is a German YouTuber who in 2019 ignited a fiery political debate with his video "Die Zerstörung der CDU".[2] In it, he heavily criticized the then ruling grand coalition in Germany, especially the coalition leading party CDU.

He publishes on four YouTube channels and multiple other social media platforms.

Rezo owns a podcast together with his best friend Julien Bam called hobbylos. * https://open.spotify.com/show/6UUIXmp1V0fK4ZpK7vzAbQ?si=VrVbsZ1KRamUrruTsopwdAthe podcast

Early life and education

Rezo was born in Wuppertal in 1992[3][4][5] [6][7] and grew up in a pastor's family.[8] From the age of 14 until one and a half years before his master's degree, he played in various bands. He plays the guitar. A distinguishing feature is his blue-colored hair. According to his own information, Rezo studied computer science at the Technical University of Dortmund and graduated in 2016 with a Master of Science.[9] He currently resides in Aachen.[3]

Career

Since September 2012, Rezo has had his own channel on YouTube, with almost 1.75 million users as of 2019 which is mostly about music, including his own performances, as covers, mashups or remixes. On his second channel Rezo ja lol ey he usually jokes and converses with other YouTubers about line-ups, bizarre chat messages or hate comments.[3]

In 2018, he created an ensemble cast music video of Hall of Fame (song) with 100 YouTube creators to celebrate having reached a million subscribers.[10]

On 18 May 2019, one week before the 2019 European Parliament election, Rezo published under his second YouTube channel Rezo ja lol ey[11][12] a 54-minute video named "Die Zerstörung der CDU", which literally means "The destruction of/by the CDU", in which he said that essential political positions, especially of the parties CDU/CSU and SPD, are destroying "our lives and our future". The 55-minute video, with a list of 247 references and citations of scientific literature, accused the governing conservative alliance for a range of unsustainable policies such as inactivity in politics of global warming, making politics for the rich, war and internet censorship. He explicitly warned against voting for the right-wing populist AfD, as they would "only make the world worse". Towards the end, he stated: "You always say that young people should be political, in which case you have to get to grips with it when they think your politics are shit". His video went viral, received more than 13 million views within the first eleven days and triggered a broad social debate.[13][14][15][16] On 24 May 2019, two days ahead of the vote, Rezo was joined by more than 90 known bloggers in a three-minute followup video entitled A Statement of 90+ Youtubers which summarized the statements of the first video. They asked voters not to back Angela Merkel's bloc or the SPD, because of their politics of global warming.[17][18]

In May 2019, after the EU election the leader of the CDU, Merkel's successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced she wanted to "regulate" political opinion in election campaigns. This was met with a wide political backlash. Bundestag Vice President Claudia Roth stated: "For years, the Union (CDU/CSU) has said that populist-right-wing discourse shifting, sometimes even national-right-wing agitation should not be approached too hard." As soon as a blogger expressed himself critically, "[Kramp-Karrenbauer] fabulates about the restriction of freedom of expression in the election campaign, one can only hope that it is rooted in helplessness and not in political conviction."[19] In spite of the backlash, Kramp-Karrenbauer put the item "asymmetrical campaigning" on the agenda for a meeting of her party leadership on 2 July 2019.[20][21]

In September 2019, Rezo won a Goldene Kamera Digital Award as a special jury prize.[22]

After the Halle synagogue shooting in October 2019, Rezo took to Twitter to criticise German interior minister Horst Seehofer for suggesting increased surveillance of the country's gaming community. Rezo accused Seehofer and the CSU of incompetent leadership.[23]

He also made videos on the "climate crisis", denouncing for instance the doubts on the scientific consensus publicly expressed by one of the EU Parliament's Vice-Presidents, Nicola Beer.[24]

References

  1. ^ "YouTube-Star: Leonine Studios verpflichtet Rezo". netzwelt.de (in German). 21 March 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  2. ^ Amelie Duckwitz [de] (Friedrich Ebert Foundation) Influencer als digitale Meinungsführer Archived 25 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine 2020-07-01
  3. ^ a b c David Ruch (23 May 2019). "Das ist der YouTuber, der die CDU "zerstört"". .t-online.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  4. ^ Rezo, Julien Bam (16 November 2018). Wie gut kennen sich rezo und Julien Bam. Event occurs at 2:27–2:33, 8:59–9:04. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  5. ^ "Rezo und die neue Generation Subito". Neue Züricher Zeitung. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019.
  6. ^ Rothe, Yannick von Eisenhart (22 May 2019). "YouTuber Rezo im Interview: "Ich sage nicht, dass die komplette Verantwortung für alle Probleme bei der CDU liegt"". Der Spiegel. Archived from the original on 6 September 2021.
  7. ^ "Interviewpodcast: Rezo, warum willst du Bundeskanzler sein?". Die Zeit. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021.
  8. ^ How well do rezo and Julien Bam know each other?' Archived 16 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine In: YouTube from 16 November 2018, 8:59 min.
  9. ^ Picture with Rezo and an anonymous certificate as Master of Science. Archived 19 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine In: Imgur.
  10. ^ "Rezo: 100 YouTuber singen zusammen". 24 November 2018. Archived from the original on 8 February 2022. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  11. ^ Jonas Schaible (22 May 2019). "Wie sehr kann dieses Video der CDU schaden?". T-online.de (in German). Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 19 November 2021.Jonas Schaible: [1] Archived 13 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine on his YouTube second account.html "Destruction" on YouTube - How much can this video harm the CDU?], T-online.de dated May 22, 2019.
  12. ^ Wie im alten Ägypten - AKK reagiert auf Anti-CDU-Video von Rezo Archived 12 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, n-tv vom 23. Mai 2019.
  13. ^ "German YouTuber Rezo's video attacking Merkel party goes viral". 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2021..
  14. ^ Müller, Enrique (23 May 2019). "Un 'youtuber' pone en jaque al partido de Merkel con un vídeo viral". El País (in Spanish). Madrid. ISSN 1134-6582. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  15. ^ "Un Youtubeur fait trembler la CDU d'Angela Merkel" (in French). 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 19 November 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  16. ^ Schuetze, Christopher F. (25 May 2019). "Youth's Video Takes Aim at Merkel's Party in Run-Up to European Elections". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 29 May 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2021.((cite news)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  17. ^ Shortly before the European elections: Rezo publishes new video - Over 90 Youtuber stand behind him Archived 13 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Westdeutsche Zeitung of 24 May 2019.
  18. ^ Criticism of GroKo and AfD - YouTube stars support Rezo with more video Archived 12 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Der Spiegel, 24 May 2019.
  19. ^ "Ein beispielloser Angriff auf die Meinungsfreiheit" Archived 13 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Die Zeit, 28 May 2019.
  20. ^ Digitale Inkompetenz: AKK lädt CDU mit Fax zur Konferenz ein – und das Internet lacht sich schlapp (in German). Stern.de. 29 May 2019. Archived from the original on 8 November 2020. Retrieved 23 April 2020.
  21. ^ German CDU chief under fire for comments about campaigning on YouTube Archived 14 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Politico, 28 May 2019.
  22. ^ https://www.goldenekamera.de/digitalaward/article227135225/Preistraeger-Special-Award-Rezo.html Archived 25 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine , Goldene Kamera, 26 September 2019.
  23. ^ Schuetze, Christopher F. (18 October 2019). "The German YouTuber Emerging as the Voice of a Generation". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.((cite news)): CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  24. ^ Ruth Ciesinger: Rezos Appell in der Klimakrise: „Ihr habt die Zukunft der jungen Leute in der Hand“ Archived 11 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine. tagesspiegel.de. 4 September 2021, accessed on 5 September 2021. In German.

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