#560 Speaking Under Extreme Pressure: What Every Leader Can Learn From Friedrich Merz's Speech After the Pride Berlin Terrorist Attack | Article by Niels Brabandt

Speaking Under Extreme Pressure: What Every Leader Can Learn From Friedrich Merz's Speech After the Pride Berlin Terrorist Attack

When a head of government has to speak within hours of a terrorist attack, there is no room for a second draft. In this week's episode of The Leadership Podcast, Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc, who was present at the Berlin Pride terrorist attack and was later interviewed by Spiegel TV about it, gives an English-language, line-by-line analysis of the speech German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered at the memorial service in the Sophienkirche. The analysis is explicitly not political. It is a case study in public speaking under extreme pressure, built for anyone who may one day have to stand in front of a camera, a workforce or a newsroom with no time to prepare.

A Strong Opening Sets the Tone

Merz opened without the usual formalities, no “dear ladies and gentlemen,” no thanks for attendance, and moved straight to the victims. Brabandt highlights this as the first test of any crisis statement: formulaic openings signal that a speaker is reciting a script rather than meeting the moment. Equally deliberate was Merz's precise language, calling the attack an “Islamist terrorist attack” rather than leaving the description vague, a distinction Brabandt argues protects both accuracy and public trust.

One Word Can Undo Careful Preparation

The speech's first serious misstep, according to Brabandt, was a small one: addressing the audience with a strictly binary “Teilnehmerin und Teilnehmer” in front of a community for whom that phrasing carries real weight. It is a reminder, Brabandt notes, that knowing your audience is not a soft skill, it is a precondition for being heard at all, whether the audience is a queer community at a memorial or a workforce receiving difficult news.

Sequence Is Strategy

Brabandt also flags a structural error that many executives repeat under pressure: telling people not to be intimidated before naming the actual threat. Reassurance placed ahead of context lands as hollow. Placing the threat first, then the reassurance, gives an audience something concrete to feel resilient about, a small adjustment with a large effect on how a message is received.

Hypocrisy Is the One Thing Rhetoric Cannot Fix

The most damaging moment of the speech, in Brabandt's assessment, was not a phrasing error but a credibility gap. Merz pledged to defend “the freedom of our society” across party lines, months after his government blocked the Pride flag from flying over the Bundestag and cut funding to queer youth services. For Brabandt, this is the lesson every leader needs to internalise: no communications training can paper over a contradiction between what a leader says and what their organisation has actually done. Audiences notice immediately, and once credibility breaks, the rest of the message stops landing.

Endings Are Remembered Longest

Even the closing line, “thank you very much for your attention,” draws sharp criticism from Brabandt, who calls it the weakest possible way to end a high-stakes address. A strong ending, he argues, should leave the audience with a statement of resolve, not a formality borrowed from a routine meeting. Taken together, Brabandt scores the speech four out of ten, a generous mark, he notes, given the platform and the moment.

What Business Leaders Should Take Into Their Next Crisis

Brabandt closes with a real-world example from one of his own clients, where a workplace fatality forced a department head to address the press within fifteen minutes, with no preparation. The message for executives is direct: crisis speaking skills are built long before the crisis happens. A precise opening, genuine knowledge of the audience, the right sequence between threat and reassurance, consistency between words and track record, and a strong close are not optional extras. They are the difference between a leader who is believed and one who is not.

Niels Brabandt

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More on this topic in this week's videocast and podcast with Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify

For the videocast’s and podcast’s transcript, read below this article.

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Podcast and Videocast Transcript

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Now, I want to attack that Pride Berlin and the speech of Chancellor Friedrich Merz afterwards. Quite a number of people texted me and said they heard that there was a speech, and they thought, this has tremendous pressure for the Chancellor, and of course it does after a terrorist attack. And especially the internationals asked if I could analyze the speech in English, because they heard the speech in German; however, there was very little coverage of the content of that speech, because they are interested in how to handle public speaking under extreme pressure.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So, first things first, as a background: if someone hasn't followed this channel recently, I was there at the Berlin Pride terrorist attack. I was about half a mile away when the terrorist attack happened. I was not directly affected by it; I left the evening protest early and went to a safe space in which I was when the news broke that the terrorist attack happened. So I saw from a place which was on a higher level, with windows to the outside, I saw how police and firemen were flogging toward the area, securing everyone there. So thank you very much for the emergency services here.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

We're going to analyze the speech here, and very important to me is: this is nothing about politics. We will not do this on political grounds. We will not make political statements. It's about rhetorics, what you should and should not do in these moments. Because yes, this is tremendous pressure, and often, as a leader, sooner or later you will face this pressure. So we're going to talk about public speaking under extreme pressure, the analysis of Friedrich Merz's speech after the Berlin Pride terrorist attack.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

What happened was, on a Sunday, there was a memorial where I was also on site already in the morning, at the Brandenburg Gate, which was extremely tough. I was afterwards interviewed by Spiegel TV, Spiegel Magazin, an international news outlet, and after that we had a memorial at the Sophienkirche, which is a church in central Berlin, and then we had a march of grief toward the Brandenburg Gate, from the church to the Brandenburg Gate, where we remained for quite some hours.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And I'm going to quote the public speech here. Very important: I'm allowed to do that. Fair use, fair dealing act, and quotation rates under German law, so I have the right to quote the sources. Because there is no recording available of the speech. Obviously, people wanted to enjoy a moment—no, not enjoy, they have a moment in church, in peace, in a safe space—but of course this is, for historical reasons, publicly recorded in writing.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So the question always is: how do you open such a speech? Because when you walk there, you know that the eyes of the world, of the nation at least, look at you at that moment. The pressure is insane. So you need to perform. You need to deliver a great speech. You cannot get away with, "Oh, I'm not such a great speaker." Impossible. No chance.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So how did Friedrich Merz open that speech? Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany, leader of the Conservative Party back in the days, now the Chancellor of Germany, opened with the words: "It is a tragic event, and at the same time a despicable act that brings us together." By the way, this is all a translation, of course. I translated the whole speech from German to English. He didn't speak in English. So this is a good and strong opening.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

You do not open with, "Dear ladies and gentlemen," you do not open with, "Thank you, everyone, for coming." "Thank you, everyone, for your participation." Not none of these formulaic. Nothing of these formulaic statements. Because these are extremely boring, and also they are lacking respect. Because people think you took something off the shelf and say, "Oh, here we are." So it's a strong opening. Well done him here.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

He then goes on with, "My thoughts, our thoughts, are with the victims of this Islamist terrorist attack last night, with their families and with their friends." Another strong line. Very important here: you address the victims first. You are sorry for what happened. And very important here, very important here, is that you say who did that. Because saying here that it's an Islamist terrorist attack is extremely important. And that term is extremely well crafted. Because he could have said "something with Islam." No, it's not everyone who is of Islamic faith, because terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Islamism is the problem, not Islam itself. That's what I already said in the interview. So "Islamist terrorist attack" very clearly defines what happened here.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

It's extremely important that you cut out, because we had issues. For example, in south of Berlin, there was so-called Die Linke, the far left-wing socialist party, who suddenly put a post online saying, "Oh, there were right-wing conservative forces doing that." Utter nonsense. And of course, once more, these lunatics face zero public scrutiny and zero consequences. Greetings to Die Linke in Neukölln. You obviously lost the plot quite a while ago. This is not some conservative right-wing. This is Islamist terror. Full stop. However, it also clearly cuts between "Islamist terrorist extremists" and "people of Islamic faith," which is something completely different. Something completely different.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Friedrich Merz then goes on, "And above all, I wish those who have been injured a speedy recovery." That's also important, because you want to address that people get back. He then goes on: "I would like to thank the emergency services for their exemplary and swift response, which may have well prevented worse from happening last night." Very good. Address the one that helped. The speech is going strong up to this point.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And I would like to say to the participants of Christopher Street here in Berlin, but also throughout Germany, do not let yourselves, let us not be intimidated. Okay, here we go. So here is something which gets lost in translation. In English you only have the word "participant," which is gender-neutral. In the German version he said "Teilnehmerin und Teilnehmer," which is a male and female binary addressing. And for many people who are not from the queer community, this might now sound like a tiny, tiny error, but so first, there are more than two genders. And by the way, if you know two genders, usually this is done by people who've never seen any kind of education institution from the inside, or at least not long enough. If you look into science, there are more than two genders. And if you want to start that discussion, read up before you open your mouth, because you embarrass yourself. You embarrass yourself.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So he said a binary addressing to the queer community, and that is a massive, massive failure. So at this point, and let's face it, he was already under scrutiny for what he did in the past. We get to that in a minute. From here it went pretty south. And also, in the second paragraph after a terrorist attack, you tell people, "Don't be intimidated." While we are surrounded by thousands of policemen—I was there. We were surrounded by policemen like there is no tomorrow. So simply say, "Don't be intimidated." Well, not everyone has their personal secret service working for them. So simply telling people, "Don't be intimidated," that was really wrong placement. So that was a weak pun. And by the way, if anyone says, "Oh, he's just reading out what speechwriters told him," I know that they have speechwriters. Of course they do. However, you probably should have good speechwriters. I have no idea who wrote this. But certainly, that was not a good part here.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

The next one is, "These acts—" so he goes on, "These acts have only one purpose: they seek to divide our society. They want to take away the most important thing we have, namely our openness and our freedom." Put that one before the second paragraph. If you put that one earlier, so you address that this is now under threat. Then you can say afterwards, "Don't be intimidated." In that order, weak. In the other order, strong. So a really beginner's mistake in structure here. So say the threat, then the help. Not well done here.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So now it goes on: "On behalf of the federal government, I want to say that we will do everything we can do to apprehend the perpetrator or perpetrators as quickly as possible. We will consider the consequence and decide with prudence but also determination." That's, again, a very good line. Because he said, by the way, if anyone doesn't know, they found the terrorist. The terrorist then resisted to be arrested and was shot on the site where they found him. So he's dead. They found that person. But it was also very important to say here, "We will find the perpetrators." It's extremely important here not to say, "Anyone of Islamic faith now can be the next offender," because then what happens is people will walk through their neighborhood, beat up anyone who has a bit of a, bit more of a beard and is not white, so they look Islam-ish to them. And by the way, that happened, unfortunately. In Glasgow, a delivery driver was attacked with traffic cones for only looking like an Islamic person. That is unacceptable in any way. So it was extremely important that he keeps people in check who are only waiting for this. So he says that there will be determination in finding the offender. And they found the offender pretty quickly. Because that offender was unfortunately known to the police, and we wonder why didn't, why haven't they acted earlier. And that's something we have to discuss somewhere else, not part of the episode today.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

It goes on: "These criminals, these extremists, have no place in the heart of our society, and we will not allow this poison of terrorism and this poison against our freedom to continue to spread through our society." Okay, good. So determined, we got that. It goes on: "Regardless of any party political differences of opinion, we will defend the freedom of our society." And this is where the whole speech crashes. In case you don't know, usually during Pride month, on the German parliament, we have a Pride flag to show human rights, equal rights, diversity is important in this country. Well, this didn't happen this year. Because the President of the parliament, Mrs. Klöckner, and the Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, didn't allow it. And we can discuss. There are laws which flags can be on there, and we can discuss these laws on a factual level. However, Friedrich Merz in an interview said, "The parliament isn't a circus tent." That was his quote, word by word. And that went down in history. So you probably shouldn't compare diversity to a circus tent. And when you then put yourself in front of other people saying that you do everything to defend the freedom of our society, you seriously stand there after everything. By the way, on top of that, on top of that, what happened was that he cut the money for youth queer services, help services. Hypocrite. That's the term for Mr. Merz here. And by the way, at this point, people left the speech in protest. It went really south from there.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Look, when you are not part of a certain political movement, if you are not part of supporting a certain community, you can say sorry, you can say we need to do more, you can say, "I think we haven't done enough in the past, I think we will change." We can talk about everything, because anyone simply wants solutions. But pretending that you are fighting with the others while you have done flip-all in the past is a lying hypocrisy that the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany performed here. That is beyond belief. And as far as I know, unprecedented. You did not defend the freedom of society. You had a different idea of society. By the way, Chancellor Friedrich Merz also is the one, when he was an MP, he voted against that rape in marriage is a crime. He voted against that 10, 15 years ago. Just that you know, bit of his mindset here. And of course, he apologized afterwards and said, "Oh, back in the days, you know." No. So that's hypocrisy. And by the way, at that point, you can't save the speech anymore. When you do something like that, you lose any kind of credibility. Everything from here, no one's going to listen. I will go through the rest, but here the speech completely crashes. I have no idea who wrote this. But if you write something like that, know your audience, and know who you write it for, and know the person actually using it later.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

It goes on: "Everyone can count on that. Yeah, we saw that. No, we can't." "There are more of us," he says, "than we are stronger and we stand together in our country." Okay, formulaic, but to be expected. He then goes on, "That is the most important thing at such a difficult time." That's an okay phrase. Final bit, and let me say once again, "We will defend the freedom, the openness, and the liberal spirit of our way of life and our society with everything we can do, and we will do so together."

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Well, then we need to see some action right now, and we haven't seen as of yet. Of course, the fact that the perpetrator, that the terrorist was known to police, we need to be tougher on people who are on these offenders list and who are potentially terrorists. We need to be tougher on them.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

But we also need to help people who are now affected by intolerance of society. And you cut every penny out of these organizations. So hopefully you do a U-turn on that one. Because otherwise, I can only repeat it: hypocrite.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And that's not a political statement. That's a statement of weak rhetorics and a failure in presentation, a failure in public speaking under extreme pressure. And now you wonder, how does he finish the speech?

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So maybe he says something like, "We stand up for democracy." Thank you. That would be a strong one. Or he would say something, "We all need to be in this together and overcome across party lines." Thank you. That would also be a really strong ending.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And the Chancellor ended with the words, "Thank you very much for your attention."

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

I am seriously lost for words. I am lost for words when I see that. When I give Rhetorics 101 classes, I tell people, you never end with, "Thank you very much for your attention." If you listen to my podcast episodes—and by the way, my podcast and videocast is not moving the nation, it's not moving the needle in one or the other direction. And even I never, ever end with, "Thank you very much for your attention." So if you have something to say, think of a strong ending.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

There are a million options that you can do at the end, and all of them are stronger than "Thank you very much for your attention," because that's formulaic and that's the weakest you can choose. So overall, because I know people often ask for ratings, rating of that speech: strong start, then bit of a dip. Some mistakes could have been prevented. Massive crash after the middle. Tiny bit of okay phrases afterwards. Massively weak ending. For the means this person has available as the Chancellor and what came out here and the situation he was, 4 out of 10. And that's a generous one. A massively generous one.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So I hope you do better. If you ever need help and you are in a situation of pressure, then just reach out and I'm going to help you. Because I can tell you, as a leader, this situation will come quicker than you think. I'll give you an example of just this week.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

At one of my clients, there's an area where it is forbidden to people to walk through. There's one simple reason: large trucks go through there. Large trucks go there and transport tons, and I mean two and three-digit amounts of tons on their back. You can't walk through there. It's completely forbidden. One employee, because he wants to have a shortcut on his way to the lunch, jumps over two fences, doesn't wear any of the necessary personal protection equipment. Nothing. And you can't walk through there because trucks don't see you. You are too small in comparison to these trucks. These are not trucks you see on the street. These are trucks you see in mines. Massive trucks. Hundreds of tons.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So this person then sees a truck approaching which he overlooked. Instead of running to the side, he starts to step backwards, stumbles, falls over, and the truck runs straight over him. Dead immediately. Leader of that department comes back from lunch break 1:00 p.m., and they said, "Press is going to be here at 1:15, you have to give a speech." Horrific moment. And of course, zero fault, by the way, immediately. Employees told press, "Zero fault for the company." It is simply someone who offended 15 different rules deliberately. And then you simply can't stop people for saving 10 minutes of walk on the way to their lunch. Or not even 10 minutes, probably 3 to 5 minutes.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So very quickly, as a leader, you can be in a situation where you have a catastrophic situation and people look at you and say, "Say something." And then you better be ready. If you need help, reach out. If you now, with this, with the structure I gave you, with how to address, how to open, how to guide better, who to address, in which way, what not to do also, and how to close. If you now put that into action in your organization, everything will be better from there. And I wish you all the best doing that in your organization. And if you now say, "Who?" I think I have about 48 questions here. Feel free to reach out.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So first, when you listen to me or you watch me on YouTube, feel free to leave a like there. Of course, feel free to subscribe to my channel. Of course, you can also leave a comment there. You can also see my interview, which I gave after the terrorist attack, and all the hate comments below that. I gave a couple of answers. And by the way, greetings to the four people. I mean, these people who put hate speech out there, these are clearly not the smartest people, and I think they have not much to do. When you look at the time when they post, they have clearly lots of daily free and spare time. And four people after putting hate speech out there. Not too clever, because your employer find out after I informed them. So four people here, congratulations to now have a bit of more spare time. Maybe rethink your actions next time. Because when you ever go and you side with a terrorist, I'm not going to be nice to you.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

So feel free to leave a comment there, preferably a nice or constructive one. You can, of course, also leave a review under my Apple Podcast, Spotify. Five stars. We very much appreciate it. I do all of this free of charge here, the whole podcast episodes, hundreds of episodes. And we, of course, like to see more people listening to this and watching this. We have great reviews so far, great rankings this year again. So thank you very much for helping us here with a five-star review. And of course, you can also recommend this channel online and offline, anywhere you like, amongst colleagues, friends, absolutely anywhere.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

Of course, you can also look at our YouTube Shorts. I promised you to have daily leadership tips. We kept that promise. More than 400 already online this year. Be sure to, by the way, when you subscribe to my YouTube channel, put the little bell in there so you get a tiny subscription that you actually—by the way, not a free subscription—you get a tiny notification as soon as a new episode is on there so you don't miss out on anything. You can, of course, also follow me on my podcast, Apple Podcast and Spotify. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

If you now say, "Hey, we need someone who helps us with that," and I mean really helps us, we need a trainer, speaker, coach, consultant, mentor, project or interim manager, feel free to contact me anytime. You can go on my website, nb-networks.biz. I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Or simply drop me an email, nb@nb-networks.com. I'm looking forward to seeing you there as well.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And of course, we have live sessions. The next one is pretty soon. When you go to expert.nb-networks.com and you put your email address in there, you only receive one email every Wednesday morning. It's 100% content ad-free guarantee. And you get access to all the videos, all the articles, all the podcasts, videocasts, everything. And only via the leadership letter. Nowhere else.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

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Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And of course, you can also—of course, you can also contact me on social media. Feel free to contact me and connect with me on LinkedIn. You can also, of course, connect with me and follow me on Instagram, leave a like on Facebook, or subscribe to my channel on YouTube, or do all of the above. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

If you reach out to me, no worries. I answer every single message within 24 hours or less. So if you do not get an answer within 24 hours or less, it is always something which most likely means your message ended up somewhere in a deep spam folder. So feel free to contact me again. I'm answering every single message with no exception within 24 hours or less. So I'm looking forward to hearing from you there.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And of course, the most important thing I always say at the end of each episode: apply, apply, apply what you heard in these podcasts and videocasts, because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive aspects that you obviously want to see in your organization. I wish you all the best doing so. Feel free to get in touch anytime. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Niels Brabandt EMBA MBA MSc

And at the end of this podcast, as well as at the end of this videocast, there's only one thing left for me to say: thank you very much for your time. Stay democratic and happy Pride.