Before CBS Saturday Morning officially headed off into its uncertain future, co-host Michelle Miller used her final episode to interview German author Daniel Kehlmann about his recent novel about G.W. Pabst, the silent film director who originally fled the Nazis only to return and make propaganda movies. Naturally, much of the conversation was about life in a dictatorship, but unnaturally, towards the end of their conversation, Kehlmann would compare the current United States to the East Germany his wife grew up in, and Miller offered up little resistance to the crazy idea.
Miller declared that “Kehlmann splits his time between Berlin and New York with his teenage son and his wife, an international human rights lawyer who grew up under East Germany's communist rule. For them, this subject feels very personal.”
Kehlmann insisted that “she sees a lot of what she experienced in her childhood in the GDR happening in America now.”
Miller could only shake her head and weakly offer, “A lot of people would disagree.”
Doubling down, Kehlmann proclaimed that, “I mean, what I would say to that is it really depends where and who you are. For us, visa holders, free speech is practically suspended. Our lawyers are telling us 'be very careful, they can take away your visa, so don't go to demonstrations,' don't say, for example, what I just said to you.”
As the duo laughed at the last part, Miller wondered, “Why are you saying what you just said to me?”
“Well, because someone has to. Someone has to,” Kehlmann insisted.
One annoying aspect of comparing Trump’s America to East Germany or Nazi Germany is the sense that the people making the analogy don’t actually believe it. Despite the timing of CBS’s interview, Kehlmann’s book has been out for months, and he’s done plenty of interviews where either he or his host suggested or flat out declared the U.S. is in a similarly dark place. Ironically, the reason Miller interviewed Kehlmann now was because he was in New York to be honored by the New York Public Library because despite all his warnings about not having free speech, he keeps speaking, and nothing bad has happened to him.
Here is a transcript for the November 22 show:
CBS Saturday Morning
11/22/2025
8:49 AM ET
MICHELLE MILLER: Kehlmann splits his time between Berlin and New York with his teenage son and his wife, an international human rights lawyer who grew up under East Germany's communist rule. For them, this subject feels very personal.
DANIEL KEHLMANN: She sees a lot of what she experienced in her childhood in the GDR happening in America now.
MILLER: A lot of people would disagree.
KEHLMANN: I mean, what I would say to that is it really depends where and who you are. For us, visa holders, free speech is practically suspended. Our lawyers are telling us "be very careful, they can take away your visa, so don't go to demonstrations," don't say, for example, what I just said to you.
MILLER: Why are you saying what you just said to me?
KEHLMANN: Well, because someone has to. Someone has to.
