The comparison with acting is compelling. Or think of opera singing, for instance. Many operas could never be performed if the singers would have to believe everything what they are singing.

Johann Georg Reißmüller is a very conservative man, former co-editor of one of the most conservative German newspapers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. As a hobby he sings early GDR hymns of the 'comrade Stalin, thou are the light' type, the songs of his youth. Hilarious lyrics, from today's point of view, combined with still beautiful tunes (Eisler, for instance, as composer). He sings the songs without any audible irony, as good as he can deliver them. He just happens to think that this obsolete part of the German culture should not be lost.

Wolfgang