Wolf Biermann
Wolf Biermann | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Karl Wolf Biermann |
Born | Hamburg, Germany | 15 November 1936
Genres | Folk music, political ballads |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, poet, and dissident |
Years active | 1960–present |
Labels | Broadside Records |
Website | wolf-biermann |
Karl Wolf Biermann (German pronunciation: [ˈvɔlf ˈbiːɐ̯ˌman] ⓘ; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.
Early life
Biermann was born in Hamburg, Germany. His mother, Emma (née Dietrich), was a Communist Party activist, and his father, Dagobert Biermann, worked on the Hamburg docks. Biermann's father, a Jewish member of the German Resistance, was sentenced to six years in prison for sabotaging Nazi ships.[1] In 1942, the Nazis decided to eliminate their Jewish political prisoners and Biermann's father was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was murdered on 22 February 1943.[2][3][4][5]
Biermann was one of the few children of workers who attended the Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium (high school) in
East Germany
Upon finishing school at the age of 17, Biermann emigrated from
In 1960, Biermann met composer
Although a committed communist, Biermann's nonconformist views soon alarmed the East German establishment. In 1963, he was refused membership in the ruling
In 1964, Biermann performed for the first time in
While blacklisted, Biermann continued to write and compose, culminating in his 1968 album Chausseestraße 131, recorded on equipment smuggled from the west in his apartment at Chausseestraße 131 in Mitte, the central borough of Berlin.
To break this isolation, artists like
Deprivation of citizenship
In 1976, while Biermann was on an officially sanctioned tour of West Germany, the GDR government stripped him of his citizenship.[7] As later revealed, the SED Politbüro had made this decision in 1976 and hence way before the first concert in Cologne, which was then used as a justification. Biermann's exile provoked protests by leading East German intellectuals, including actor Armin Mueller-Stahl and novelist Christa Wolf.
In 1977, he was joined in West Germany by his wife at the time, Christine Barg, as well as actress Eva-Maria Hagen, her daughter Catharina (Nina Hagen), and Sibylle Havemann, the daughter of Robert Havemann and mother of two of Biermann's children. In West Germany, his manager was the musician Diether Dehm, who was secretly a Stasi informer reporting on Biermann's activities to the GDR authorities.[12]
After moving to West Germany
Now living in the West, Biermann continued his musical career, criticizing East Germany's Stalinist policies. He was able to perform publicly again in East Germany on 1 and 2 December 1989[7] during the Wende that eventually toppled the Communist government. In 1998, he received the German national prize. He supported the 1999 NATO Kosovo War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[13] In the Arab–Israeli conflict he supports Israel and is critical of the fact, as he sees it, that, under the influence of antisemitic views, a majority of Germans lack both understanding and empathy for the Israeli side.[14] He lives in Hamburg and in France. He is the father of ten children,[15] three of them with his second wife Pamela Biermann, née Rüsche.[16]
Awards
- 1969: Fontane-Preis der Stadt Berlin[17]
- 1971: Jacques-Offenbach-Preis[17]
- 1973: Deutscher Schallplattenpreis[18][19]
- 1975: Deutscher Schallplattenpreis[19]
- 1977: Deutscher Schallplattenpreis[19]
- 1979: Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis for Chanson[20]
- 1989: Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis der Stadt Bad Homburg[17]
- 1991: Mörike-Preis der Stadt Fellbach[17]
- 1991: Georg Büchner Prize[17]
- 1993: Heinrich-Heine-Preis der Stadt Düsseldorf[17]
- 1998: Deutscher Nationalpreis[17]
- 2001: Heinz-Galinski-Preis[21]
- 2006: Joachim-Ringelnatz-Preis für Lyrik[22]
- 2006: Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz[23]
- 2007: Honorary citizen of Berlin[24]
- 2008: Theodor-Lessing-Preis[25]
- 2008: Honorary doctorate Humboldt University of Berlin[26]
- 2017: Point-Alpha-Preis[27]
- 2018: Ernst-Toller-Preis[28]
- 2020: Honorary doctorate from the University of Koblenz-Landau[29]
Selected works
- Wolf Biermann zu Gast bei Wolfgang Neuss (LP, 1965)
- Chausseestraße 131 (LP, 1969): recorded in his home in East Berlin, published in the West. Possessing home-recording charm, one can hear the noises from the streets. The German texts are very sarcastic, ironic, and to the point. This LP was recorded with a recorder smuggled in from West Germany and the title of the album was his address at the time, letting the political police know exactly who and where he was at the time.
- aah-ja! (LP, 1974)
References
- ^ "Atlas". Atlas Communications. 30 December 1967. Retrieved 30 December 2017 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 978-3-89192-003-9.
- ^ Liste der Opfer aus Auschwitz. Auschwitz-Todesregister, Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, (List of the Victims of Auschwitz, Auschwitz Death Register, State Museum, Auschwitz-Birkenau) p. 9847/1943 (in German)
- ^ Photo of Wolf Biermann, with description. Retrieved 26 March 2010
- ISBN 978-0-19-511244-3.
- ^ "Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Biografie: Wolf Biermann". Dhm.de. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
- ^ a b c Lutz Kirchenwitz. "Biermann, Wolf * 15.11.1936 Liedermacher". Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
- ^ a b "Wolf Biermann erhält den Ehrendoktor der Humboldt-Universität – und endlich auch sein Diplom". Berliner Zeitung. 8 November 2008.
- ^ "Das Schlimmste war die Entmündigung". Der Spiegel. 13 November 2006.
- ISBN 978-3-89602-060-4.
- ^ Dirk von Nayhauss: "Heimatkunde". Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2010.. Cicero, November 2006.
- ISBN 978-0-8108-6320-0.
- ^ Article in "Der Spiegel": Brachiale Friedensliebe
- ^ Biermann, Wolf (26 October 2006). "Deutschland verrät Israel" [Germany is Betraying Israel]. Die Zeit (in German).
- ^ "The eternal dissident: Singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann turns 80". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
- ^ "Liedermacher Wolf Biermann: "Die Zeit des Fremdgehens ist vorbei!"". Focus Online. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Wolf Biermann". www.literaturportal.de.
- ^ "Wolf Biermann – dissidenten.eu – Biografisches Lexikon". dissidenten.eu.
- ^ a b c "Im Osten war ich Drachentöter, im Westen Wolf, doch niemals Köter. Liedermacher Wolf Biermann" (PDF). nemcina.org (in German). Retrieved 13 September 2023.
- ^ Reininghaus, Frieder (11 April 1980). "Biermanns West-Alltag". Die Zeit (in German). Hamburg. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ "Galinski-Preis für Wolf Biermann und Arno Lustiger | DW | 19.11.2001". DW.COM.
- ^ "Dichterpreis für Biermann". Die Welt (in German). Berlin. 16 June 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ "Mit Ecken und Kanten". Der Spiegel (in German). Hamburg. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ "Biermann ist Ehrenbürger Berlins". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Berlin. 26 March 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ "Lessing-Preis für Biermann". www.bz-berlin.de. 7 March 2008.
- ^ "Diplom und Ehrendoktor für Wolf Biermann — Presseportal". www.hu-berlin.de.
- ^ "Wolf Biermann mit Point-Alpha-Preis ausgezeichnet". Point Alpha Stiftung. 20 June 2017.
- ^ "Preisträgerinnen Archive". 20 September 2021. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
- neue musikzeitung(in German). Regensburg. dpa. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
External links
- Official website
- Wolf Biermann: Bio, excerpts, interviews and articles in the archives of the Prague Writers' Festival
- Biography in German
- Wolf Biermann singing Hasta Siempre on YouTube
- The ghosts are leaving the shadows on "The Life of the others", a film about the Stasi, the East German Secret Police. Biermann comments on its closeness to reality.