The charity show “A Heart for Children” once again pulled out all the entertainment stops. A huge line-up of stars answer the donation phones. Tennis player Alexander Zverev lets a 13-year-old beat him devastatingly at the table tennis table and transfers 1,000 euros for every ball he misses. Oliver and Amira Pocher can be seen side by side again for a brief moment. Roland Kaiser comes out as a huge fan of Mick Jagger. Bright children’s eyes clearly demonstrate that you can do a lot of good in the world with money spent wisely. And Germany is generous: exactly 21,216,573 euros are raised for children in need, as presenter Johannes B. Kerner and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder reveal at the end of the show from Berlin.
Still, it’s the serious moments that resonate the most. No wonder, given the world situation between the war in Ukraine, the Middle East conflict and an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in Germany. In a show that’s actually about children, it’s a 102-year-old who creates the most important moment. Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer has an urgent appeal to the TV audience: “When I came back from America in 2010, after living there for 64 years, I could not have imagined that something like this could happen again. It has “It started back then,” she says live to millions at the ZDF and “Bild” charity gala. The petite woman speaks calmly, calmly, but with a firm voice: “What was done to people back then must never happen again.”
It is not the only appearance in which the shadows of war and crisis briefly darken the glossy Christmas backdrop. World star Wladimir Klitschko appears sad but determined as he speaks about the suffering of children in his home country of Ukraine. It’s about “getting our abducted children back. Since the beginning of the war in 2014, hundreds of thousands have been abducted, stolen and recruited. Later, after three, four, five years of propaganda, they were brainwashed and given weapons.” There are cases where family members fought on both sides of the front. “My commitment is to get the abducted children back to their families and relatives who are still alive.” Klitschko’s brief conclusion: “Children need cuddles, not balls.”
Things become more conciliatory when pop star Mick Jagger donates a special pressing of a Rolling Stones record to “A Heart for Children” – and Roland Kaiser promptly buys it at auction. “It is important to offer children every chance of a normal life with protection and education in order to realize their potential,” said Jagger in a video call with Kerner. Pop singer Kaiser then makes the highest bid and donates 10,000 euros for the test pressing of the record “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven” by the Rolling Stones and Lady Gaga – one of ten in the world. “Mick Jagger is my hero,” says Kaiser. But he will give the record to a friend for Christmas – an even bigger Stones fan.
