GDR from below
| GDR from below | |
|---|---|
| Studio album from Zwitschermaschine / Schleim-Keim | |
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Publication |
1983 |
| Label (s) | Aggressive rock productions |
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Format (s) |
LP |
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Title (number) |
12 (5/7) |
|
running time |
26 min 32 s |
| occupation | Twitter machine:
Slime Germ:
|
|
Sören "Egon" Naumann |
|
|
Studio (s) |
Andeck Baumgärtel / Hermsdorf near Dresden home studio , January 1983 |
DDR von unten (sometimes also eNDe or DDR von unten / eNDe ) was a split LP by the two GDR punk bands Zwitschermaschine and Schleim-Keim . The album came from the GDR to West Berlin by conspiratorial means . The album, published in 1983 by the independent label Aggressive Rockproduktionen , is considered the GDR's first punk album, but was only officially released in the West . For years it was the only release of this kind. The creation of the album occupied the Ministry of State Security for several years, with the repression almost exclusively affecting the band Schleim-Keim. Two unofficial collaborators (IM) were involved in its creation, including the then highly valued alternative writer Sascha Anderson .
History of origin
Dimitri Hegemann from the West Berlin city magazine tip met the band Rosa Extra at a party in East Berlin in 1982 . Surprised by the fact that there was a kind of counterculture in the GDR, the idea of a record production in the West grew in him. So he visited Karl-Ulrich Walterbach from Aggressive Rock Productions and was able to convince him of the idea. Hegemann had an entry permit to East Berlin and was able to follow the creation process of the album. Since Rosa Extra could not manage the project alone and were dependent on help, the group turned to Sascha Anderson . The freelance writer had numerous contacts with intellectual and artistic circles who revolted against the GDR regime. His own band Zwitschermaschine eventually became the second group to participate in the album, which was now planned as a split release . Sascha Anderson also wrote an essay that was supposed to reflect the zeitgeist of the GDR underground and was about his group. The essay was later published in the inlay. Sören “Egon” Naumann was included in the plan, the driver and technician knew about the recording techniques and agreed to produce the songs . It was decided to sign another band and therefore established contacts with Dieter “Otze” Ehrlich von Schleim-Keim . In contrast to Zwitschermaschine and Rosa Extra, the rather angry and aggressive band should be included as a complement to the more artistic style of the two bands.
In early 1983 Anderson found a home studio in Hermsdorf near Dresden, where the songs could be recorded. Andeck Baumgärtel, blues musician with the group "Mustang", had set up a private studio on the ground floor of his home. A drum kit from the Czech brand “ Amati ” was also available. The studio technology was not optimal and also not up to date. In particular, the mixer from " Vermona " did not work properly, and the plastic microphones for the drum kit failed more often. Only the vocal micro from RFT was up to date. The recording was done on Tesla tape machines with magnetic tapes from ORWO . The recordings took place on a January weekend in 1983.
The first recording session denied Pink Extra, the genuine Casio - Synthesizer brought - then a rarity in the GDR. The complete sample was recorded and archived for later use. Schleim-Keim, who, in contrast to the other two bands, had a line-up that is usual for punk (guitar, bass, drums), came the next day. They played a fast and simple punk style that relied mainly on hardness. Drums and vocals were recorded by Dieter Ehrlich, his brother Klaus on the guitar and Andreas Deubach took over the bass. Lastly, the twittering machine played their songs. The line-up was Sascha Anderson, Cornelia Schleime and Michael Rom on the microphone, Lothar Fiedler on the guitar, Matthias Zeidler on the bass and Wolfgang Grossmann on the drums. Volker Palma played the violin and trombone.
Shortly after the recordings were finished, Rosa Extra visited Günther Spalda from the Ministry for State Security (MfS). This was not a coincidence, as the Ministry had learned about the production of the record from the unofficial staff (IMs) Sascha Anderson and Sören Naumann. The MfS threatened the group with five to ten years imprisonment if they did not deliver the tape with their recordings. The group, in which the freelance writers Bert Papenfuß-Gorek and Stefan Döring were also involved, tried at the time to obtain state classification. The only possibility in the GDR to be recognized as a professional musician, to record sound carriers and to perform official appearances was this classification by a committee made up of functionaries of the SED , music journalists, musicologists and prominent musicians. After a lengthy discussion, the members therefore decided to hand over the master tape to the MfS. The band later achieved the classification under the name Hard Pop .
With these new developments, Schleim-Keim was awarded a full LP page instead of half. Schleim-Keim chose an alias so that the recordings could not be assigned to them. At least the "SK" as an abbreviation should remain, so that after "Salt-Potato" one agreed on "Sau-Kerle".
The two remaining master tapes were brought to Günther Fischer , a well-known composer for whom Anderson had written some texts. He transferred the recordings from the ORWO - to higher quality magnetic tapes, as the quality was considered out of date in the Federal Republic of Germany . Anderson's contacts with diplomats from West Berlin finally brought the recordings to the other side of the wall . In West Berlin, the tape was handed over to Ralf Kerbach , a former member of Zwitschermaschine and now a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany . It is still unclear whether Kerbach added an additional guitar track to the recordings of his former band or not. The recordings were then given to Karl-Ulrich Walterbach, who then took care of the publication.
publication
| A-side (chirping machine) | B-side (pig guys) |
|---|---|
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The record was released on LP in 1983 under the serial number AG 0019 . The first edition was between 1,500 and 4,000 copies, depending on the source.
The title of the LP was DDR from below , sometimes also eNDe is associated, as this inscription is on both the front and back cover. There was also speculation that the lettering eNDe was supposed to create associations with the abbreviation ND for Neues Deutschland , the party newspaper of the SED . However, this is denied by parts of the band members. Rather, this publication should mark the end of Twitter's machine. What is certain, however, is that Sascha Anderson had already used the acrostic in various poems since 1982. He also confirmed the former interpretation in his biography .
The record was never published in the GDR. Only a few copies made it to the GDR. Sascha Anderson was able to hide three copies in the toilet of a train and smuggle them in. Dieter Ehrlich probably had his record from Anderson's possession. He is said to have promised and withheld money for the production in advance, so that Ehrlich broke in and stole 120 West marks next to the record. When he was arrested, his mother hid the record from the Stasi. The record was circulating in the GDR as a cassette, with the twittering machine on the A side and Schleim-Keim on the B side.
Republication
| Original publication 1983 | Version from Höhnie Records 2000 |
|---|---|
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The record was never re-released in its entirety. There is therefore no CD version. Sascha Anderson used parts of the recordings for another split release with his group "Fabrik" under the title Alles Geld der Welt sucht Geld (1998) in CD format. The Schleime composition go over river was also compiled for the book Tension. Power. Resistance. Magnetic tape background GDR 1979–1990. attached.
The songs on the Schleim-Keim side were published in various different versions on the group's later records. It was France under the title Faustrecht re-recorded and from household appliances was rabbits . Only the two titles Ende and Alles ist rot are reserved exclusively for the GDR from below . As part of the re-release of various recordings by Schleim-Keim on Höhnie Records, their page was added as a limited EP to the vinyl version of the album Nothing Win Nothing Lost Vol. 1 - The Stotterheim Tapes 1984-87 (2000). The titles were put into a different order, and they were now trading under the later song names.
Cover design
The front cover is part of Kerbach's Totenreklame cycle , a series of images that he used for the volume of poetry totenreklame, a journey by Sascha Anderson. The picture, which, like the other illustrations in this cycle, was taken during a 7,000 km journey through the GDR, was not published in the collection of poems. The cover shows an anthropomorphic animal figure striking a misshapen, rectangular object with a key-shaped object. A budget book page was chosen as the background . The background is gray, in a diagonally arranged white field is written large GDR from below with the subtitle Record with 2 groups and text supplement . Under the picture is ENDe . The reverse was illustrated by Cornelia Schleime . There you can see the drawing of a female torso and head. In addition, there are several objects that cannot be clearly identified, arranged in the form of a shelf. Schleime's style of drawing was based on Kerbach's style. The background is the same, and the signature eNDe is in the same place. In the booklet on page 2 there is an essay by Anderson under the heading From a Contributor , with which Anderson put his thoughts on the band's history on paper in lower case . Another page contains a statement by Karl-Ulrich Walterbach on the confiscation of the first Slime LP because of the songs Germany must die and bull pigs . Pages 1 and 4 contain some of the lyrics of the two groups in handwriting on torn-out pages of notepad.
Music style and lyrics
Twittering machine was already in the process of disintegration at the time of the recording. After Ralf Kerbach left, Sascha Anderson took over the leadership of the group, and so the pieces looked like he was going it alone. Four of the five texts come from him, parts of the original line-up of Kerbach, Schleime and Rom were only used in the arrangement. The song All or nothing comes from a session of the band in the summer of 1982 in the theater of the young generation in Dresden with Kerbach on guitar. Every satellite has a killer satellite was, just like Geh über die Grenz , already published in 1982 in poetry in Sascha Anderson's collection of the same name with illustrations by Ralf Kerbach. Musically, the pieces are strongly discordant , with a quick change between calm and angry passages. Volker Palma's trombone and violin entries are spartan and - like the rest of the music - for the most part without a fixed rhythm. Borrowings from jazz were taken over and gave the music a sound typical of art punk . The texts are performed by the three singers as spoken chants . In terms of style, the music is reminiscent of the beginnings of post-industrial bands like Einstürzende Neubauten as well as punk and no-wave performers like Patti Smith and Lydia Lunch . Inspiration was also the music of the Stranglers , but also from Krautrock bands like Can .
“The recordings of the finished LP are more like a solo presentation of Anderson lyrisms. We didn't start that way, but that was where we got. That was no longer punk, it was the exuberant secretions of a self-promoter. "
Sascha Anderson, on the other hand, describes the collaboration as “equal” in a later interview. The lyrical texts deal with topics such as borders ( go over the border , go over a river ) and consumption (all or nothing and much more) . The motif of the satellite appears twice.
Opposite is the B-side of the album. Schleim-Keim, or Sau-Kerle, play typical three-chord punk, which mainly focuses on speed and hardness. Most of the lyrics come from Dieter Ehrlich, while the music was written jointly. Dieter Ehrlich's singing is dark and angry, "with a Thuringian touch". The lyrics were mostly built around the chorus , individual stanzas were repeated several times. In contrast to the later published versions on CD and LP, the songs are much harder due to the poor production. The texts can hardly be understood in places. Songs like underground is strategy , shit norm and everything is red are not very subtle, but to a large extent subversive and socially critical. Scheiß Norm is about the compulsion to conform in the GDR, while underground is strategy offers the anarchist underground struggle as a proposed solution . Ende , the only song that fell through at the Ministry of State Security, attacks hypocrisy in the East. Household appliances , on the other hand, is more of a fun song in which the lyrical self imagines itself to be a rabbit . Spione im Café is about the "everyday paranoia " that was widespread in the GDR. France (actually: law of the thumb ) describes the omnipresent police violence and the arbitrariness of arrests in the GDR ("The cops catch you off the street, because you're just dirt (...) they punch you in the mouth for You're just a lousy pig (...) They do what they want with you (...) Get your ass out of the bunk ".)
Aftermath
After the recordings were completed, the members of Schleim-Keim were observed and monitored by the state security. On January 28, 1983, the members were declared "missing". After about two months of observation, interviews with parents and supervisors of Klaus Ehrlich and Deubach (Dieter Ehrlich was at this time unemployed) all three members were in on March 29, 1983 remand taken. While Deubach and Klaus Ehrlich were released after a few days, Dieter Ehrlich remained in custody for four weeks, two of them in solitary confinement. In particular, the text on “Ende” (“I haven't been ashamed of my homeland for a long time, the GDR (…) I'm through with it / careerists and fascists and only false communists”) caught the attention of the State Security Service. The remaining lyrics have been described as partial
"Very primitively designed expressions of a pessimistic way of life with anarchist features, general dissatisfaction and a fundamental opposition to the state order."
The statements of the group were not taken seriously enough, especially since, from the point of view of the MfS, “primitive personalities” were at work. Ehrlich stated during the interrogation that the texts refer to the social conditions in South Africa . The interrogators therefore “could not nail him”. Nevertheless, the penalties of Section 219 of the Criminal Code (illegal contact establishment) remained. Ehrlich was pressured by solitary confinement and the announcement of a heavy sentence. He was released after a month and handed over to his mother. All confiscated items were returned to him. However, this was not without reason: He was listed as an "unofficial criminal police officer for operational tasks" (IKMO) under the code name "Richard". This activity lasted a year and a half: In exchange for small sums of money and cigarettes, Ehrlich reported on the punk movement that the MfS had just observed. Ehrlich was repeatedly arrested for short periods of time until the end of the GDR. Dimitri Hegemann, who set the stone rolling for the plate, was banned from entering the GDR and for a while was not even allowed to use the transit route to West Germany .
While the entire state repression concerned only Schleim-Germ, the Twitter machine was completely spared because the MfS feared that their IM Anderson would be exposed. Sascha Anderson's intelligence agency did not become known to the general public until the early 1990s. In his 1991 Büchner Prize speech, Wolf Biermann gave him the nickname "Gossip Sascha Arschloch", which was then also used in public.
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Although Cornelia Schleime tried not only with a twittering machine, but also through her film productions, to irritate the MfS and to force an exit permit, she was only able to leave the country in 1984 after threatening a hunger strike and a phone call with Ralf Kerbach, which was bugged by the MfS. In this sense, her membership in Zwitschermaschine was only a part of the journey.
“I always thought that if we did this stuff, it would drive my departure further, because I made a number of applications. I just wondered how smoothly everything went. But maybe we owed this to Anderson, who we didn't know at the time that he was assigned to us as an IM. "
She only found out that a best friend at the time had spied on her for the MfS for years when she inspected her files in 1991 in the “ Gauck Authority ”. According to her, this unwanted “undressing” for years gave her at least the ability to develop an “open relationship” with life. She processed her story with Anderson in 2008 in the novel Far away .
Influence and effect
Up until the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, the split LP was one of the four albums that came over the Iron Curtain and one of the few examples of the musical underground and resistance in the GDR. The three other - if not quite as influential - LPs were the album Made in the GDR by L'Attentat , the compilation Live in Paradise (1985) and the LP panem et circensis (1986) by the Weimar punk band Der Rest (KG Rest) . Only years later did " the other bands " such as Die Skeptiker , Müllstation and Feeling B become known. This was mainly due to the fact that most of the bands were not classified as musicians, so they were not allowed to play and were also not given the opportunity to publish their songs on sound carriers.
The LP was an affront for the state's monopoly on recordings . The release of the album showed that despite major technical restrictions and a rigid approach to musicians in the East, a counter-movement was possible. Apart from the Amiga record label , a cassette culture established itself with a few recordings that were passed on and sold. The tape trading was a possibility that state repression to get around and make it accessible to the music of a wider audience.
Individual titles on the B-side were broadcast in 1988 in the program Radio Glasnost of the West Berlin alternative broadcaster Radio 100, which was designed by GDR oppositionists .
Although GDR from below was never officially released in the GDR, the record spread via the cassette market. The GDR punks were almost exclusively interested in the side of the pig guys. It was no longer a secret that the Erfurt band Schleim-Keim was behind it . As a result, Schleim-Keim's popularity increased immensely in the East German punk scene. Around 1991 Schleim-Keim also became a household name in reunified Germany. On the other hand, Zwitschermaschine met with little approval on both sides. In an interview in Ox from August / September 2007, Cornelia Schleime confirmed the impression that Dieter "Otze" Ehrlich is the "only punk rock star in the GDR":
“I see it from the gut as well. We didn't really know her at the beginning, but because we were so different we were attracted to each other. (...) When we circulated in the intellectual, they raced off. They were incredibly real and very personable guys. Nor were they vain, because they were all about music. Otherwise vanities could be observed in all other bands. The SCHLEIM-KEIMs really knocked the sickle apart with the hammer from the GDR flag . "
literature
- Michael Boehlke and Henryk Gericke (editors): Ostpunk! - Too Much Future. Punk in the GDR 1979–1989 . Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-935843-91-7
- Ronald Galenza and Heinz Havemeister (editors): We always want to be good - punk, new wave, hip-hop, independent scene in the GDR 1980–1990 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-306-3
- Anne Hahn and Frank Willmann: Satan, can you forgive me again - Otze Ehrlich, Schleimkeim and all the rest. Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-931555-69-6
- Cornelia Schleime: "Every satellite has a killer satellite", if we had only taken it literally . In: Michael Boehlke and Henryk Gericke (editors): Ostpunk! - Too Much Future. Punk in the GDR 1979–1989 . Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-935843-91-7 , pp. 177–190
- Torsten Preuß: Zone punk in slices: The first punk record from the Middle East. In: Ronald Galenza and Heinz Havemeister (editors): We always want to be good - punk, new wave, hip-hop, independent scene in the GDR 1980–1990 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-306-3 , pp. 66-71
Web links
- Sampler - eNDe / DDR from below , entry in Parocktikum / Wiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ Preuß 1999, p. 66
- ↑ a b c Preuß 1999, p. 69ff.
- ↑ See IMB "David Menzer" / "Fritz Müller": Holger Kulick: The village policeman from Prenzlauer Berg. Sascha Anderson's last secrets, in: Horch und Guck , 8th year, issue 28 (4/1999), pp. 1–39.
- ↑ See IMB "Michael Müller": Roland Brauckmann, Heike Möbius: The Dresden Initiative for a "Social Peace Service" ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Horch und Guck, 13th year, issue 46 (2/2004), pp. 42–44
- ↑ Tim Renner and Thomas Meins: NDDW New Music from the GDR - the really existing wave. Sounds , August 1982, accessed November 12, 2009 .
- ↑ a b Preuß 1999, p. 70ff.
- ^ A b Martin Fuchs: Discography of AGR. Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
- ↑ a b Christoph Tannert: Fourth root from twittering machine . In: Ronald Galenza and Heinz Havemeister (eds.): We always want to be good…. Punk, New Wave, HipHop, independent scene in the GDR 1980–1990 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, p. 199 f .
- ↑ a b Sascha Anderson: Every satellite has a killer satellite. Poems. Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-88022-253-3 .
- ↑ Sascha Anderson: Sascha Anderson . DuMont, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-8321-5904-5 .
- ↑ a b Preuß 1999, p. 71
- ↑ a b c Konstantin Hanke: Ostpunk on record. In: Ox . Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
- ↑ a b Hahn / Willmann 2008, p. 129
- ^ Bibliography and discography by Sascha Anderson. Gutleut Verlag, archived from the original on December 30, 2009 ; Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
- ^ Double CD compilation . In: Alexander Pehlemann and Ronald Galenza (eds.): Tension. Power. Resistance. Magnetic tape background GDR 1979–1990 . Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-935843-76-3 .
- ↑ Overview of the publications on the website of Höhnie Records. Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
- ↑ Sascha Anderson: Dead advertising. A travel. Poems and texts. With drawings by Ralf Kerbach . Rotbuch, Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-88022-273-8 .
- ↑ Overview page about the GDR from below . Retrieved September 20, 2009 .
- ↑ a b Schleime 2005, p. 186
- ↑ Schleime 2005, p. 179
- ↑ Ronald Galenza and Christoph Tannert: Sascha Anderson - Twitter machine (interview) . In: Alexander Pehlemann & Ronald Galenza (eds.): Tension. Power. Resistance. Magnetic tape background GDR 1979–1990 . Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-935843-76-3 , p. 42-51 .
- ↑ Dirk Teschner: New times in Thuringia . In: Boehlke / Gericke 2005, p. 128
- ↑ Frank Apunkt Schneider: When the world was still going down: From punk to NDW . Ventil Verlag, Mainz 2007, ISBN 3-931555-88-7 , p. 104 .
- ↑ quoted from the court file BStU, MfS, BV Erfurt, KD Erfurt, AOP 1794/83. Photo print in: Hahn / Willmann 2008, p. 142
- ↑ a b quoted from Hahn / Willmann 2008, p. 131.
- ↑ a b quoted from Hahn / Willmann 2008, p. 132 f.
- ↑ Kulturnik 7423/91 . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1991, pp. 336 f . ( spiegel.de ).
- ↑ Carsten Fiebeler and Michael Boehlke: ostPUNK! too much future . Documentary film. Germany 2007
- ↑ Schneider 2007, pp. 105f.
- ↑ KG rest - panem et circensis
- ↑ The rest
- ↑ Klaus Michael: Make cucumber salad out of this state. Punk and the Exercises of Power . In: Ronald Galenza and Heinz Havemeister (eds.): We always want to be good…. Punk, New Wave, HipHop, independent scene in the GDR 1980–1990 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, p. 72-93 .
- ^ Radio Glasnost
- ↑ Interviews with contemporary witnesses in: Hahn / Willmann 2008, pp. 62, 74, 93
