Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30

Subject: Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Nov 06 - 04:56 PM

West/East/West German singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann has celebrated his 70th birthday this month (15th) and his most famous concert was 30 years ago this month as well (13th).

In my eyes he is in a class of his own among the German singer/songwriters. In five hundred years from now, if there is but one poem from the last 50 years printed in the schoolbooks it will be one of his. He has given back the German language the old and nearly died out word "Ballade".

He has written hundreds of poems and songs and translated many more. He does not translate, he does rewrite them. He has "translated" and sung Shakespeare, Dylan, and even (a tiny bit of) Tom Lehrer turning a parody into a serious song, he has "translated" Russian folksongs, he has "translated" from Yiddish and sung Katzenelson's Dos lid vunm ojsgehargetn jidischen folk. He's the best we have since Heine and Brecht.

The Cologne concert 30 years ago is for me still the most impressive concert I've ever seen (not live, I'm sorry to say). I can't see it even today without being deeply moved. He had been forbidden to sing in public for more than a decade. As a singer/songwriter, from his late 20s until close to his 40th birthday he had been restricted to sing in his living room.

The concert in Cologne was his first public concert after that long break. He didn't know at the time of that concert that his forced exile (16th) from the GDR was already decided by the party before he was allowed to travel to West Germany. He sung, discussed, and recited longer that a normal concert takes including the half time break before he even considered taking a break in that concert. He said something like 'You don't have to beg me singing some more song you'll have to beg me to stop. His opening song (one way or the other, the Earth will turn red...) in Cologne is legendary for it took roughly 20 minutes (I haven't counted) including intermezzoes.

The way he did deal with a several thousands audience after a decade of singing only to a dozen or so of close friends without a micro is a miracle.

I've seen him singing shortly after his forced exile. I don't think I'll ever see a more moving concert.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Nov 06 - 06:21 PM

I have his Ballads & Songs translated by Steve Gooch and published by Pluto Press in London in 1977. In the introduction he writes:

When did I begin so sing? I began to sing under the Nazis. During this time my mother taught me all the Communist workers' songs. That's the first thing. Then she got it into my head that I wasn't allowed to sing them and - so far as my child's head could understand - she also taught me why I wasn't allowed to sing them. And I obeyed everything she taught me. I knew all the songs and sang them - at home - knowing that I was forbidden to sing them. So I always sang them in the morning from 5 to 7. That sounds odd but there was a very simple reason for it. My mother went to work in a factory - my father was in a concentration camp, in fact he was killed by the time 1942 came round. So I lay in bed for two hours alone and was frightened and sang. Then at 7 my aunt came and fetched me to spend the day with her till my mother came home. And these two hours a day were, so to speak, my singing academy.


In 1953 he went to live in the GDR at a time when the tide was all the other way. In 1976, as Wolfgang describes, he was stripped of his citizenship while in the former 'West' Germany. I had just returned myself to England after a year in the GDR and was unable to understand why my erstwhile host home had behaved so cruelly towards such a fine artist. I understand a little better now.

Subject: RE: Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30
From: alanabit
Date: 20 Nov 06 - 12:21 PM

I believe my best friend, Gerd Lewandowski, of the satirical Kabarett goup Liederschlag, was at that concert. He has told me about it often and says that it was a unique and moving event.

Subject: RE: Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Jul 23 - 10:05 AM

Wolf Biermann is now 86 years old.
Berlin's German Historical Museum is honoring him with an exhibition,
and the New York Times interviewed him for
Saturday, 8 July, 2023.

He sounds remarkable and irreplaceable.

Subject: RE: Nov 06: Biermann 70, Cologne concert 30
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 11 Jul 23 - 06:12 AM

Thanks to keberoxu for the note about the Berlin exhibition in honour of Wolf Biermann. There is a very good article in the Guardian today (11 July 2023) about the exhibition, and about Biermann's life and his songs. I love the quote from Gabriele Stotzer "His words and music went straight to the gut and we learned the songs by heart."
Guardian article 11 July 2023 Wolf Biermann Exhibition
A lot of his songs are available on YouTube, but the 1977 Pluto Press English translation of his songs Ballads and Songs is long out of print.
Matthew