Big angle

The unforgettable nightclub of the Berlin Wall

1989: Mstislav Rostropovich plays in front of the Berlin Wall © INA Archive / Screenshot

07/11/2019

From David Bowie to cello of Mtislav Rostropovich, to Renaud and Nina Hagen, the Berlin Wall has inspired many musical works. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of its fall on November 9, 1989, discover the anthology of the Wall soundtrack that separated Germany into two countries for several decades.

Wind of change of Scorpions

With that heady air whistled from the first notes, the song Wind of Change is recognizable among all. Released in 1990, the ballad became an international hit in 1991, and quickly became the "hymn" of the fall of the Wall. A status conferred for all eternity when, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary ceremonies in 1999, the Hanover-born rockers perform their hit, accompanied by 160 cellists under the direction of Rostropovich. While the title does not directly refer to the Wall, his words actually refer to the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival, the first rock festival in the East, in which Scorpions participated.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Suite No. 1 for cello, 1st movement by Mstislav Rostropovich

Hearing the news of the fall of the Wall, Mstislav Rostropovich arrives in Berlin on November 11, 1989, his cello in hand, direction Check Point Charlie. A chair is offered to the Russian virtuoso in exile that most people at the foot of this wall do not recognize. As soon as the first bars of the first movement of Bach's Cello Suite escape from his instrument, the crowd silences to listen to it. " I came here to remember all those who died because of this wall, " said Rostropovich soberly before slipping away. In 1978, he was stripped of his Soviet citizenship by Leonid Brezhnev for " acts that systematically prejudiced the prestige of the Soviet Union ". On January 16, 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev signed the decree of rehabilitation of the musician.

Looking for freedom by David Hasselhoff

Hero of the small screen especially with the series Alert to Malibu , David Hasselhoff whose surname suggests a possible German ancestry participated in 1989 at a New Year's concert in Berlin near the Brandenburg Gate, a few weeks after the fall of the Wall. Protected from the cold Berlin with a scarf on the grounds of piano range and sporting a leather jacket variegated with lights glittering Christmas wreath that does not go out, the actor and singer starts Looking for freedom, an old German tube of 1970s. "Seeking Freedom", a title sufficiently evocative of the freedom of the East Germans to make the song an emblem of the events of November 1989. Further proof of the impact the title on the Germans, a museum dedicated to David Hasselhof opened its doors in Berlin a few years ago.

99 luftballons of Nina Hagen

At the legendary Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin in 1982, the guitarist of the German group Nena, Carlo Karges, sees a flight of balloons in the sky. Perhaps under the effect of psychotropic substances, he imagines space shuttles floating over the Berlin Wall, east side. Carried away by his inspiration, he wrote a song, 99 luftballons (99 balloons) performed by the band's eponymous singer, Nina Hagen. A planetary tube in 1984, the title denounces the arms race between East and West during the Cold War. With the exception of the Germans, the whole world swayed on the punk and funk rhythms of the title, without really understanding the militant words: " 99 balloons, en route to your horizon, that's why a general sent a squadron of planes to their kit, it was to sound the alarm if he did that, and yet there was only 99 balloons on the horizon . "

Another brick in the wall by Roger Waters

Despite its title that seems to refer directly to the Berlin Wall, the huge Pink Floyd tube released in 1979 has nothing to do with the sauerkraut of Berlin in November 1989 ... With the exception that a few months after the fall of the Wall, Roger Waters, Floyd's bassist and most notably composer of the album The Wall , organized a gigantic concert on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Accompanied by the band Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams and Van Morrison, he performs a choral and memorable version of the iconic song Another brick in the wall . For the occasion, an exact replica of the wall, 170 meters long, is destroyed on stage in front of 350,000 East and West Germans in total jubilation.

Nikita from Elton John

Released in 1985, Nikita describes the love feelings of the singer - Elton John - for an East German border guard he can not meet because he is not allowed into the country. Directly inspired by the Cold War, the title depicts the Berlin Wall in the clip. Five months before the fall of the Wall, Elton John gave a concert at Deutschland Hall in Berlin, where he sang including Nikita , and these words that make no secret of the remoteness and separation that the Wall could have generated between many hearts: " Oh I saw you near the wall, ten of your lean lead soldiers lined up, with a look like ice on the fire, heart well buried under the snow".

Heroes of David Bowie

When David Bowie died on January 10, 2016, he became the first rock star to receive the homage of the German Foreign Office through a moving tweet: " Bye David Bowie, you are now among the Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the wall . " The interplanetary tube of the Thin White Duke is part of his trilogy Berlin, three albums composed by the artist in the late seventies in Berlin, where he lived for two years. Heroes recounts the lives of two lovers who gather in the shadow of the "Wall of Shame": "I, I remember, standing at the foot of the wall, and rifles shooting over our heads, and we kissed as if nothing could happen, and shame was on the other side. " But the story of Bowie and the Wall does not stop there. In June 1987, the singer performed near the West Wall, and the speakers of the sound system were deliberately directed to the East, where young Berliners chant " The wall must fall! " Before clashes erupt with the police of the GDR.

Sonderzug nach Pankow by Udo Lindenberg

In 1983, irreverent German rocker Udo Lindenberg was banned from performing in East Germany. He writes Sonderzug nach Pankow (Special Train for Pankow) on a cover of Glenn Miller, a provocative title that directly attacks the secretary general of the GDR, Erich Honecker, represented as an incurable despot who secretly listens to the radio station. West ... Although fearing Udo Lindenberg's influence on East German youth, the regime sent him an invitation to perform in the East a few months later, on the condition that he did not sing Sonderzug nach Pankow .

The lambada by Kaoma

Difficult at first sight to establish a link between the zouk swaying the Caribbean group and the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Tube of the summer 1989, it is almost by chance that the song enters the playlist of the musics of the Wall. One night in November 1989, at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate, jubilant Berliners wiggle their hips against the backdrop of "Lambada", a police officer in uniform joins them to sketch a few dance steps. The scene, immortalized by a television camera, propels the song to the top of the German charts and as a symbol of the joy of the reunion of a people cut in half.

Greta de Renaud

It is in 1975 that Renaud publishes Greta , the last title of his very first album, Lovers of Paname . A love song about an impossible relationship between a West Berliner and an East Berliner separated by the Wall, written in the purest style of the "annoying singer" by swapping the syllables between the verses: " Dis- Why do not you, Greta, why do not you say goodbye, tell me what a big heap, there's a wall between you and me, tell me warum Greta, tell me why Greta, why do you live in East Berlin, why I live in West Berlin ". More than 15 years later, Renaud paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev in his song Welcome Gorby : " You dropped the Berlin wall, if you do not know what to do with the blocks, for your guidance there is room here my cushy, around all the ministries, all the barracks, it will avoid that the populo a day hangs us all these barrels "».

By: Nicolas Sanders

David Bowie - Renaud - Mtislav Rostropovich

Germany