From the milieu of YouTuber Felix von der Laden emerged a four-part documentary about the history of German YouTube. Actually, the series is well received because it caters to a sense of nostalgia for those who are around 30 today. The first episode on Gronkh’s channel reached over 1.3 million views. But one person who could actually be a star of this doc doesn’t think much of it.
What kind of doc is this? It is a 4-part docu-series by Paul Sydow, who worked for YouTuber Felix von der Laden in 2017.
The doc is being released on 4 different channels. The first episode Everything to the Beginning
premiered on February 9 on Gronkh’s channel and has now reached 1.3 million views.
The doc follows a relaxed format: passages from that time are shown, and protagonists reflect on their past behavior and circumstances from today’s perspective. This is a classic documentary retrospective format, as one knows it from linear television.
Many people in their 30s are having a total nostalgia flash
This is the general criticism of the doc: The doc is well received by many fans because it is a total nostalgia flash, especially for people around 30 years old. Many grew up with Gronkh’s Let’s Plays when they were still in school. This can be clearly seen in the comments under the videos.
The creators, who were still very young at the time, were celebrated like pop stars by their peers. In the comments, many long for that time and say: We didn’t even know we were having the best time back then.
While the first episode focused on YouTube pioneers in the 2000s like Gronkh, Dner, or ColdMirror, who came from a “do-it-yourself” hobby corner and first had to build structures, the second episode is already set during the “hype era” of the 2010s, when the first YouTubers professionalized and the first real money flowed, as pioneers like Christoph Krachten (‘Mediakraft’) recognized that money could be made there.
However, not everything is celebrated by fans, and there is already criticism that it seems only a certain bubble, i.e., a part of the diverse German YouTube, is being considered. Some conflicts, such as the one involving Mediakraft, are omitted, or the significant influence that the USA has on YouTube Germany is downplayed. However, in many comments, it is also said that the doc simply transports the viewers back into their own youth and excites them.
The more critical perspective on the doc, represented by film critic David Hain (via YouTube), is approximately: It is all well made and has strong images and sound effects, skillfully playing with the emotions. But the doc seems very jumpy, only hinting at conflict without elaborating on it.
This is less a doc to inform but rather wants to take people who already know everything and were there on a nostalgia trip.
YouTuber Vik harshly criticizes the doc
Who has a personal problem with the doc? A central figure in German YouTube at the time when the second episode takes place is Vik, who was then known as iBlali.
He criticized on the platform X on February 17 that he only appears for 1 second in the doc and that too in direct connection with Lord Abbadon, from whom he has publicly distanced himself for 12 years. They could have just left him out.
Lord Abbadon was a YouTuber accused of luring underage girls into online groups and getting them to send him lewd pictures. This is known as grooming.
This further annoys Vik: In addition, in the second episode, “a certain person is felt to be shown 100 times and highlighted very positively,” whom should not have been given a platform.
He finds this hurtful.
Whom does he mean? Vik apparently means YouTuber Simon Unge. He appears in the video only in a minor role, and the doc seems to purposely want to only skim over him, even though he was closely connected to Felix von der Laden, the main figure of the second episode, at that time.
However, they even go into Unge’s longboard tour in 2014 and present him as one of the major innovators in the scene. However, he is not one of the people who reflect on that time from today’s perspective.
Central figure of the doc was involved in a scandal in 2024
Why does it annoy Vik so much? Unge was involved in a scandal in 2024, which ended with him withdrawing from Twitch and YouTube.
Vik accused Unge in May 2024 of making his life in the influencer paradise Madeira a personal hell. The publicly jovial and relaxed Unge was said to be a sly bastard privately, who considered Madeira as “his island”. Unge allegedly ensured that Vik only faced rejection everywhere on the island.
Here’s what it’s about: The doc is quite elaborate, the scandal involving Unge occurred in May 2024 – it is quite possible that the segments showing Unge were created during a time when Unge was unproblematic.
Or it could be that the videos were already finished a long time ago and were just withheld until the excitement about Unge had subsided.
Vik’s anger is understandable because it hits him three times here:
- First, it is, of course, a factor that the doc then quite arbitrarily decides who is important enough to be included in the doc and who is not. And Vik probably lands in the “not”
- Then the only scene they show with him is also completely off
- And then the whole complex surrounding Unge is left out
But for many others, the doc seems to work just as it should: a trip back into their own youth.
More about the conflict of Simon Unge and about the island of Madeira can be read here: YouTuber reports how life in the influencer paradise became his personal hell
