"Now I've come from the rain to the liquid manure," said the singer-songwriter after his expatriation from the GDR. He went to the GDR voluntarily. Today he lives in Hamburg, where he was born 85 years ago. A portrait.
The singer-songwriter and writer Wolf Biermann is a "Hamburger Jung":He was born on November 15, 1936 in the Hanseatic city where he still lives today. His father, a shipyard worker and Jew, was part of the communist resistance and was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the Second World War, Wolf Biermann is one of the few working class children to attend the Heinrich Hertz High School in Hamburg. And he distinguished himself early on politically:in 1950, the 13-year-old represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the 1st Germany meeting of the FDJ in the GDR.
Biermann's adopted home is the GDR
After finishing school in Hamburg, the 17-year-old decides to move to East Germany. One reason for this is said to have been Margot Honecker, whom he has known since childhood. Decades later, he is accused of having been her patron. Biermann lived in a boarding school in Gadebusch near Schwerin for two years. He then studied political economy at Berlin's Humboldt University, and later also philosophy and mathematics. In the meantime he works as an assistant director at the "Berliner Ensemble".
"Berliner Brautgang":Forbidden piece from the construction of the Wall
Biermann begins to write poems and songs. In 1961 he founded the East Berlin Workers' and Students' Theater (b.a.t.). However, his staging of the play "Berliner Brautgang", which deals with the building of the Wall, was banned and the theater was closed before the premiere. The GDR state, which Biermann had chosen as his home of his own free will, forbids him to perform as an artist - initially for six months. He was also not accepted into the SED, although he was a candidate for two years.
"Wolf Biermann (East) visiting Wolfgang Neuss (West)"
From a convinced GDR citizen to a harsh critic of the SED:Biermann's attitude and lyrics earned him a ban on performing in the GDR.After an appearance in the East Berlin cabaret "Die Distel", Biermann had his first guest appearance in the Federal Republic in 1964. In 1965 he sang in a program by Wolfgang Neuss in Frankfurt am Main. An LP entitled "Wolf Biermann (East) visiting Wolfgang Neuss (West)" will soon be released. In the same year, Biermann also published the volume of poetry "Die Drahtharfe" in West Germany. As a result, the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED imposed a total ban on him appearing and publishing. He had committed "class treason" and was obscene, the reason given.
"Chausseestraße 131":apartment, recording studio and LP
For a long time, Biermann refrained from releasing records in the Federal Republic because he hoped that his songs would eventually appear on the GDR record labels Amiga or Eterna. Now he's taking matters into his own hands:since he can't use a recording studio, the recordings for his first long-playing record East are made in his apartment - with the help of western technology that he had smuggled in. The apartment is at Chausseestraße 131, which is also the name of the record.
Expatriation after the Cologne concert in 1976
In November 1976, Wolf Biermann gave his first concert on a German stage since Easter 1965 in front of 6,800 spectators in the Cologne sports hall, which was almost sold out.Further publications in the Federal Republic also find their way to the GDR and are secretly passed on there. After eleven years of being banned from working, Biermann performed for the first time in September 1976 - at a concert in Prenzlau's Nikolaikirche. He is now married to doctor Christine Barg, and they have three children. In November he is going to Cologne to perform.
After a concert at IG Metall, which was broadcast by ARD, he was no longer allowed to return to East Berlin. During his performance he sometimes criticized the GDR. The leaders of the GDR use the occasion to get rid of the unwanted. Biermann is locked out - expatriated. It later becomes clear:the GDR leadership had planned the action well in advance before Biermann left the country.
Other artists protest - and leave the GDR
The singer-songwriter's expatriation was drastic for the dissidents in the GDR. Intellectuals protest against this in a petition. Signatures are being collected in East and West - in vain. In the years that followed, reprisals and harassment persuaded many other artists and intellectuals to leave the GDR. In 1977, Biermann's former partner, the actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her daughter Catharina from a previous marriage, now known as the singer Nina Hagen, also came to Germany.
Biermann:"Only those who change remain true to themselves"
Wolf Biermann received his belongings in such boxes after he was expatriated from the GDR.Biermann continues to criticize the GDR in his texts - and makes a career for himself in the West. In 1989 he received the Friedrich Hölderlin Prize from the city of Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, in 1991 the Mörike Prize and the Georg Büchner Prize. In 1993 the city of Düsseldorf awarded him the Heinrich Heine Prize. On May 17, 1998 he received the German National Prize from the German National Foundation, in 2006 the Joachim Ringelnatz Prize for Poetry and the Great Federal Cross of Merit. A year later he was awarded honorary citizenship by the city of Berlin.
Biermann now lives in Hamburg again. He is the father of ten children in total. His former partner Eva-Maria Hagen wrote the book "Eva und der Wolf" (published in 1998) about her life and her love for Biermann.
Biermann archive in the holdings of the Berlin State Library
Among other things, the GDR passport of the singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann is in the inventory of the Berlin State Library.The songwriter's archive and diaries have now been transferred to the holdings of the Berlin State Library. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, to which the State Library belongs, justifies the acquisition of Biermann's private and professional notes with the fact that he was "one of the most important political voices of the resistance in the GDR" and also stimulated important debates in reunified Germany.