Former FDP leader Christian Lindner is hit by a cream pie during an election campaign appearance. The photo is a still from a video clip showing the entire incident.

GREIFSWALD 09.01.2025

Stefan Sauer
dpa photographer, 
Stralsund

It was actually an event where I wasn’t expecting anything special. It was election campaign season, and Christian Lindner, the then leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), was speaking in Greifswald. As usual, bags were checked at the entrance, and there were lots of young people there. I set up my camera and just let it run, hoping to capture some exciting sound bites for the report.  

As a video editor, I was the only one from dpa there – no additional reporter was on the assignment. In the editorial office, we like to say that if you have video, you have everything. You have moving images, you can extract photos from them, you have sound bites that can be used for audio and text reporting. And that’s exactly what happened when the cream pie flew.

I had filmed the attack itself from a good angle. After the incident and the ensuing commotion in the hall, I collected statements from those present, including Lindner himself. I sent around five gigabytes of material back to headquarters in Berlin. Original sound bites and cutaway shots. Everything had to happen very quickly. The video was exceptionally popular because we had exclusive rights to the attack for dpa customers. Almost all the major broadcasters used the material.