#Wolf Biermann

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Du, lass dich nicht verhärten in dieser harten Zeit. Die allzu hart sind, brechen. Die allzu spitz sind, stechen und brechen ab sogleich.

You, don't let yourself become hardened in these hard times. Those that are too hard will break. Those that are too sharp will sting and break off immediately.

Wolf Biermann (*1936), German singer-songwriter and lyricist

[palatinewolfsblog]

Untitled (for all my combative Friends from the US.)

And as an add-on here's a poem for you from one of my favorite German Singers/Songwriters:

Wolf Biermann.

Encouragement

You, don't let yourself become hardened

in these hard times

those that are too hard

break

Those who are all too pointed,

sting and break off immediately.

You, don't let yourself become bitter

in these bitter times

the rulers tremble

- with you're behind bars -

but not because of your suffering.

You, don't be frightened

in these frightening times

that's what they want to achieve

they want us to lay down our arms

before the great fight.

You, don't let yourself be used up

use your time

You can't hide

You need us and we need

your cheerfulness.

We don't want to be silent

in these silent times

the green is sprouting from the twigs

we want to show it to everyone

then they will know.

Translation by - yours truly...

[rwpohl]

żuraw i czapla, krystyna krupska 1988

[plattenabendonline]

Wolf Biermann & Klaus Lenz Sextett - Enfant perdu (1973)

DJane Luzie

[mycstilleblog]

Egon Krenz: Gestaltung und Veränderung. Erinnerungen. Rezension

Egon Krenz, einstiger Staatschef der DDR legt seine Memoiren vor. Meine Rezension zum ersten Teil seiner Memoiren unter dem Titel „Egon Krenz. Aufbruch und Aufstieg“ (»dass ein gutes Deutschland blühe«) leitete ich folgendermaßen ein: „Menschen müssen immer auch im Kontext der Zeit verstanden werden, in welche sie hineingeboren und fortan aufgewachsen sind. Und auf welche Weise sie sozialisiert…

[sinoeurovoices]

啃骨頭與照妖鏡

編者按：本刊一年來連續刊出德國著名詩人、歌手沃爾夫‧比爾曼Wolf Biermann的自傳體小說《唱垮柏林牆的傳奇詩人》（原書名Warte nicht auf bessre Zeiten!…

[bernamegeh]

Wolf Biermann Kimdir

Biermann’ın babası Hamburg Limanı’nda çalışan Komünist direniş üyelerindendir. 1943 yılında Auschwitz Toplama Kampı’nda Nazi savaş gemilerine sabotaj düzenlediği iddiası ile öldürülmüştür. II. Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra 1953 yılında Sosyalist Gençlik Önderleri üyesi olur. 17 yaşında okulu bitirdikten sonra komünist ideallerini yaşayacağına inandığı Doğu Almanya’ya göç etmeye karar…

[intellectures]

Leben und Tod eines Paradiesvogels

Bis heute ist der Tod von Matthias Domaschk ungeklärt. Spiegel-Reporter Peter Wensierski zeichnet die Ereignisse um seinen Tod in »Jena-Paradies« nach und liefert zwischen den Zeilen einige Antworten zur Ost-Debatte. Continue reading Untitled

[theprofessorofdesire]

[bauerntanz]

Rückblick

(M)ein #Sonneberg-Rückblick: Mehr als Protestwählende und das was #Monitor und #Wolf_Biermann analysieren. @georgrestle

Noch (m)ein Sonneberg-Rückblick: Der Monitor-Beitrag über die Landratswahl im thürinigischen Sonneberg ordnet das Geschehen richtig ein. Die Wahl des AfD-Politikers ist kein Ausdruck bloßen Protestes sondern viel mehr, wenn auch im zweitkleinsten Landkreis der Republik. Man muss Wolf Biermann nicht mögen um  seine Analyse hinzuzusetzen, dass zwei Diktaturen nacheinander und dann eine nach…

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Ich habe Angst vor Leuten, die immer nur die Menschheit lieben und niemals einzelne Menschen.

I am afraid of people who only ever love humanity and never individual people.

Wolf Biermann (*1936), German singer-songwriter and lyricist

[hiphopvibe1]

Chet Hanks & Kim Zolciak hook up in Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets [VIDEO]

Chet Hanks & Kim Zolciak hook up in Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets Continue reading Chet Hanks & Kim Zolciak hook up in Surreal Life: Villa of Secrets [VIDEO]

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Jonas Soubeyrand - Paul's friend

From wir.sehen.euch IG

CHEAT THE SYSTEM: Since everyone had to work in East Germany, Paul Landers and his friend, puppeteer and creator of Klausthal Puppet Theatre Jonas Biermann Soubeyrand, found a clever way to cheat the system. «Paul officially became Jonas's parents' household help and can therefore organise music and other nonsense without being bothered. The scene helps each other and, as you can see, across the generations», Soubeyrand wrote in Eine Puppe packt aus, his documentary novel written under his artist name Klaus Thaler. «Paul's motto 'Doing is always better than not doing' is something Jonas still takes to heart today and also instils this wisdom in his offspring.»

📷: Archiv Soubeyrand, from Eine Puppe packt aus

---

and indeed, Jonas Soubeyrand was involved with die Firma

so i think we have found Jonas from Paul and Jonas 🥰

---

Mr. Soubeyrand more recently with his puppets

and a longer article with mention of Paul and Die Firma

[piecesofneptune]

so sad about how most of the American Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan girlies don’t know about Wolf Biermann

START KNOWING HIM

[urapunk2023]

Nina Hagen: The Godmother of Punk Never Sacrificed Her Authenticity

Nina Hagen: The Godmother of Punk. Given her title for her influence on the German underground music scene, not many outside of the punk world know who she is. With her mesmerizing voice, bold and often outrageous fashion, and her fierce activism, Nina Hagen was an inspiration. In the 1980s her music spread internationally, having a huge breakthrough in the United States, and to this day Hagen is still making music. In 2022 she released the album Unity at 67. Nina’s art is largely influenced by growing up in East Berlin and how she learned to rebel against a government trying to silence her. Never toning down her art, Hagen has maintained her success without ever sacrificing the authenticity and proactivity of her music.

         Born 1955, Hagen was born and raised in East Berlin. Hagen grew up in a fractured time; the East Berlin government had sealed its people in with the Berlin Wall and speaking out against the government was dangerous. Both of Hagen’s parents were in the public’s eyes, as her father, Hans Oliva-Hagen, was a successful scriptwriter and her mother, Eva-Maria Hagen, was a well-known singer and actress. Her father’s side of the family were victims of the holocaust. Both her grandfather and grandmother were murdered at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and her father survived imprisonment in Moabit between 1941 to 1945. Her parents divorced when she was two and, further adding to her fractured beginnings as she saw her father infrequently in her childhood. She began studying dance and music at a young age, and by the time she was nine she was considered an Opera prodigy. When listening to her music you can hear this training, as it allows her to produce an incredible sound in her music.

When Hagen was 11, her mother started her relationship with Wolf Biermann who she later married. She was heavily influenced by her mother’s theatrical background and her stepfathers anti-establishment political beliefs and songs. By the age of twelve she was active in political protests against the socialist East German government and was dishonorably discharged from the “Free German Youth” group. Her start in politics and activism in East Berlin would carry on into her art. At sixteen she formed a cover band after dropping out of school, and the group traveled across Poland playing songs by Tina Turner and Janis Joplin. From there she formed a new band called Automobil and became very well known in East Berlin. Their most popular song, “You forgot the colour film,” was a commentary on the Communist state. Through her music she was able to speak out against the censorship in East Berlin, and how it washed out the culture like film without color. However, at this stage of her career the East German government began recognizing her stepfathers activism as a threat to the state, leading to his expulsion from East Berlin. Hagen and her mother now had to try to escape East Berlin to join him, which was nearly impossible at this time. In 1976, Hagen claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter to the authorities and threatened to become "the next" Wolf Biermann if she was not allowed to rejoin him. They took her threats seriously and she and her mother were able to escape.

Fresh from East Berlin, Nina Hagen began exploring the London reggae and punk scenes. Newly inspired, she formed the Nina Hagen Band, and the group would go on to get a recording contract with CBS and produce two albums. They covered some songs with German lyrics and wrote original songs featuring Hagen’s unique voice. They were a hit in Germany, with German news magazine, Spiegel, calling the group, "one of the hottest European bands since the Sex Pistols." However, Hagen dissolved the band as she felt that their music was too focused on guitar solos and released one last album with them in 1980 called Unbehagen. During her rise in popularity, Hagen gained a reputation in the European media for being outrageous and scandalous. Her style was ever changing, but often included large teased colorful hair, thick black eyeliner, bright and vibrant lipstick, and her outfits were often adorned with studs, leather, and fur. Growing up under a repressive government, Hagen was never scared to speak her mind. She was most infamous for her appearance on the Austrian talk show Club 2, where she demonstrated to viewers various masturbation positions for women and got in a heated debate with the other panelist. The host was so shocked he did nothing to stop her, and the outrage that followed caused him to step down from the show. The media became far more focused on the scandal around Hagen then the anti-establishment music she was creating.

Entering the 1980s, Hagen moved to the US to start her first English album, and in 1982 released Nunsexmonkrock under Columbia records. The album became her first breakout international success, and the album featured a unique blend of funk and rock sounds. Like much of her work, it was very controversially received, but she still had a successful tour in England, Canada, and the United States. She went on to produce two more successful albums, Fearless and Nina Hagen in Ekstasy, in the United States. In a 1985 Billboard article Kathy Gillis wrote that Hagen’s music contained "a lot of spiritual, social and political talk woven around the songs, all delivered in a dizzying range of voices" while also writing "One never knows what to expect from Nina Hagen, except an interesting show." After a successful few years internationally, her popularity died down, and her later albums sold better in Germany. From 1989 to 2022, Hagen produced eleven albums, bringing her total number of albums to sixteen.

Political activism has always been central to her music, and she continued to speak out on issues throughout her career. She spoke out against the apartheid in South Africa, wrote "Don't Kill The Animals" in 1986 to speak up for animal rights, and wrote the song "Gorbachev Rap" in 1989 to express her approval of the political reforms the Soviet Union. She went on to perform at a women’s festival in Moscow in 1990, and 1998 Hagen participated in an AIDS benefit in New York City where she performed new and old music. In addition to her political music and charity work, Hagen is a human rights activist and has fought against forced psychiatric treatment and been involved in hospice work. This is all to say that Nina Hagen doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk, and has for decades now.

         Nina Hagen is an inspiration because she has never changed her self-expression despite the many forces that tried to silence her. She remained true to her beliefs in East Berlin and the controversy in her career never phased her. Her beliefs and artistic integrity always held up throughout the entirety of her career. Like all female musicians, she delt with sexism in the media and often wasn’t taken seriously by men. In a 1985 interview with David Letterman, he spent most of the interview commenting on her hair and asking her to explain how hair extensions work. Even in her controversial talk show appearance where she talks about masturbation positions for women, she speaks very informatively saying “I’m talking about women’s sexuality.” Any woman speaking so directly about what is sexually satisfying for women was hugely controversial, but Hagen wasn’t afraid to stir the pot. In a 2012 interview about her album Volksbeat, interviewer Deutsche Welle asked why Hagen had written an autobiography. She said, “there are so many idiots that have nothing better to write about Nina Hagen other than that I am a shrill publicity junkie. What kind of a job description is that? If I'd been born a man, then I would have been given a little more respect.” Hagen has never let how the world perceives her affect how she presents herself, and in her career she has used the media attention around her to raise awareness about the causes she cares about.

         Maintaining artistic integrity is hard, especially in a world that demands you fit into a neat box to be commodified. Nina Hagen is a great example of allowing your individuality to speak for itself. In 2022, Hagen released the single United Women of the World, with a colorful music video showing women supporting each other and standing up for their rights. At 68, Hagen still stands up for what she believes in and is unapologetically her wild and vibrant self. During a time in the United States where women’s and LGBTQ+ rights are being threatened every day, it’s time we take a page from Nina Hagen’s book and be loud, stand up and fight for our rights, and unapologetically express ourselves. To quote Hagen, “the main thing is that you remain true to yourself, true to your love, and don't allow anything to be taken away, especially not the freedom to make music.”