Dieter Birr

	Chart positions ; Explanation of the data
	Albums
	machine
	Newcomers
	Rock Legenden Vol. 2 (with Karat , City and Matthias Reim )
	All winter again

Dieter Birr (2014)

Dieter "Maschine" Birr (born March 18, 1944 in Köslin / Pomerania ) is a German singer , guitarist and composer . He was a long-time member of the rock band Puhdys, which dissolved in 2016 .

Life

Dieter Birr was trained as a universal grinder and at the same time taught himself to play the guitar. From 1966 to 1972 he studied dance music, music theory and guitar at the Friedrichshain Music School in East Berlin . Until 1969 he was a member of the bands Telestars, Luniks (with Fritz Puppel , among others ), Jupiters, Peter Baptist Combo and Evgeni-Kantschew-Quintett. In 1969 he became the front man of the Puhdys, who became the most commercially successful rock band in GDR history . Birr composed around 250 songs for the band. He got his nickname "machine" after a band colleague called him "eating machine".

In 1974, Birr was seen in a supporting role in the DEFA film Elective Affinities .

In 1986 Amiga released his first solo album Intim . The album was sold more than 100,000 times. In 1989 the Puhdys disbanded for the time being, in 1990 Birr founded the band Machine & Men. In the meantime he was a lyricist, among others for Dunja Rajter and the Wildecker Herzbuben . From 1992 the Puhdys continued their career.

Julia Neigel , Wolfgang Niedecken and Toni Krahl worked as duet partners on his second solo album, called Maschine , which was released in 2014 . In addition to new pieces, the album contains a number of new recordings of well-known Puhdys hits, including Go to Her and When a Person Lives from the 1970s. Also on his 70th birthday in 2014, Birr's autobiography Machine - The Biography was published.

In 2016, the third solo album, Neubeginner , was released after the Puhdys ended . In 2017 he sang the song Karl May with Romano , which appeared on his album Copyshop . In 2019 he performed at Lieder auf Banz with Julia Neigel.

At the end of 2019, Birr sued the court for the sole copyrights as the composer of the early Puhdys songs, for which the band has previously been specified as a composer collective. It became public that the band had fallen out with Birr since 2013.

Birr lives in Neuenhagen near Berlin and has been married for a second time since 1979. He has two children. His son Andy Birr is the guitarist and drummer for the pop band Bell, Book & Candle .

Awards

1982: National Prize of the GDR 2nd class for art and literature for all members of the Puhdys "for the standard-setting achievements in the creation and interpretation of nationally and internationally massively effective rock music of the GDR"

Discography (solo albums)

1986: Intim ( Amiga )
2014: Machine (Universal)
2016: Neubeginner (Heart of Berlin)
2018: All winters again (Universal)

Autobiography

Machine - The biography. Together with Wolfgang Martin. New life, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-355-01818-0 .

literature

Rainer Bratfisch: Birr, Dieter ("machine") . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Dieter Birr - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Official website
Portrait at deutsche-mugge.de
“I don't even know what else I should do” - Dieter Birr in an interview with Die Tageszeitung (taz) on February 4, 2017, pp. 46–47.

Individual evidence

↑ Chart tracking at musicline.de ( Memento from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
↑ Machine - When a human is alive. The Tagesspiegel of March 18, 2014, accessed on April 9, 2014
↑ Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR. 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 235.
↑ Kristina Wolf: When dreams die - Puhdys between vision and reality , K. Wolf Selbstverlag, 1993, p. 74.
↑ Interview with Dieter Birr 2014 at deutsche-mugge.de, accessed on April 26, 2020
↑ The endless belt. pnn.de from January 3, 2009, accessed October 5, 2016
↑ Dieter "Machine" Birr from the Puhdys: "I am the composer". In: Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .

personal data
SURNAME	Birr, Dieter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Machine (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German rock musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	March 18, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Koslin

[1] Chart tracking at musicline.de ( Memento from April 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

[2] Machine - When a human is alive. The Tagesspiegel of March 18, 2014, accessed on April 9, 2014

[3] Götz Hintze: Rock Lexicon of the GDR. 2nd Edition. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-303-9 , p. 235.

[4] Kristina Wolf: When dreams die - Puhdys between vision and reality , K. Wolf Selbstverlag, 1993, p. 74.

[5] Interview with Dieter Birr 2014 at deutsche-mugge.de, accessed on April 26, 2020

[6] The endless belt. pnn.de from January 3, 2009, accessed October 5, 2016

[7] Dieter "Machine" Birr from the Puhdys: "I am the composer". In: Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .


Studio albums	The Puhdys (1974) • Puhdys (1975) • Sturmvogel (1978) • Rock 'n' Roll Music (1976) • Perlenfischer (1977) • 10 Wild Years (1979) • Hot As Snow (1980) • Far from Home (1981 ) • Shadow Rider (1982) • Computer Career (1983) • The Book (1984) • Without Makeup (1986) • New Heroes (1989) • Anniversary Album (1989) • Times Are Changing (1994) • Free As The Vultures (1997 ) • Wild Peace (1999) • Satisfied? (2000) • December days (2001) • Undercover (2003) • Everything has its time (2005) • December nights ( 2006) • Adventure - the anniversary album (2009) • It was beautiful (2012) • Holy nights (2013)
Collaboration albums	Ostrock in Classic Vol. 1 (2007) • Ostrock in Classic Vol. 2 (2009) • Ostrock in Classic Gold Edition (2010) • Rock Legends (2015) • and much more.
Live albums	Live in Friedrichstadtpalast (1979) • Live in Saxony (1984) • Live - 25 years of total action (1994) • Live in flagranti (1996) • Acoustic: The Hits Live (2009) • Live from the O2 World (2011)
Video albums	Musikladen (2002) • The 3000th concert (2002) • December days (2004) • Puhdys - Kultband des Ostens (2009) • Live from the O2-World (2010)