X-Nico

11 unusual facts about Wolf Biermann


Flak tower

The G-Tower, known as Mont Klamott (Rubble Mountain) in Berlin, was the inspiration for songs by singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann and the rock band Silly.

Hans Bunge

On 7 January 1966, the politically unconventional Bunge, who was friends with Wolf Biermann, Heiner Muller and Robert Havermann, was dismissed from the Academy as a result of the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party).

In 1976 he was one of the signatories of a letter protesting against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann.

Manfred Krug

In 1976 the East German government (GDR) forbade Krug to work as an actor and singer because he participated in protests against the expulsion and stripping of GDR citizenship of Wolf Biermann.

William Lewis Moore

Another tribute song (in German) for William Moore was written by socialist German singer/songwriter Wolf Biermann.

Wolf Biermann

A performance in April 1965 in Frankfurt am Main on Wolfgang Neuss' cabaret program was recorded and released as an LP titled Wolf Biermann (Ost) zu Gast bei Wolfgang Neuss (West).

His mother, Emma (née Dietrich), was a Communist Party activist, and his father, Dagobert Biermann, worked on the Hamburg docks.

Wolf Biermann: "Chausseestraße 131" (LP, 1969): recorded in his home in East Berlin, published in the West.

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.

In 1977, he was joined in West Germany by his wife at the time, actress Eva-Maria Hagen and her daughter Catharina (Nina Hagen).

Wolfgang Thierse

But when he joined the protests against the expulsion of singer-songwriter and dissident Wolf Biermann from the GDR he lost his job.


Verena Hoehne

The guests of her interviews and documentaries included Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Elias Canetti, Maria Becker, Ernst Schröder (actor), Karl Paryla, Franz Hohler, Wolf Biermann and Emil Steinberger.