Frank Baier

Frank Baier performing with a ukulele

Frank Baier (born February 12, 1943 near Braunschweig ) is a German folk singer and songwriter , musician , author and engineer who lives and works in a colliery settlement in the Ruhr area today .

Life

Frank Baier lived in the Ruhr area from 1949 and grew up in Essen-Frohnhausen . He completed his training as a materials tester in the foundry of the steel producer Krupp in Essen. He then studied process engineering at the Niederrhein / Krefeld University of Applied Sciences with an engineering degree.

plant

1960s: skiffle scene and early days

Baier already played the harmonica as a four-year-old , at the age of eleven he learned to play the ukulele in the youth movement and on trampoline trips through Europe . His first handwritten travel song book was created here. The guitar , banjo , button accordion , bandoneon and harp were later added as instruments .

At the end of the 1950s, Baier joined the lively Essen skiffle scene through his occupation with spirituals and blues . He became the front singer of the Saints Rambler Skifflegroup in Essen-Frohnhausen.

From 1966 to 1969 Baier took part in the festivals at Waldeck Castle in the Hunsrück as a visitor . This and the Essen Song Days in 1968 were key experiences for him in his development as a songwriter. During the Easter marches he was inspired by the appearances of the blues singer Fasia Jansen with the Düsseldorf skiffle combo Die 4 Conrads .

Now Baier began to write his own songs with German texts. Quite soon, his own song texts became more socially critical and political through the joint studio work with the author and lyricist Thomas Rother .

1970s: Ensemble work

The setting of Rother texts by the songwriter Bernd Witthüser was groundbreaking for Frank Baier . Baier sang some of these Witthüser songs in his first concerts. Around 1970/71, Baier founded the Kattong group together with Rolf Hucklenbruch and Harald Golbach , which soon made a name for itself with political texts at numerous concerts in correctional facilities and welfare homes. Kattong also played several times in the opening act for the West Berlin group Ton Steine Scherben .

In 1971 Baier's songs appeared for the first time on the anthology LP Guitar vorm Bauch . In the same year, the single followed songs in front of and behind bars . In 1972 more songs appeared on the first Kattong- LP Stiehl dem Volk (Patience) . The Kattong single Rotes Liebeslied (texts by Thomas Rother) was published in 1972 by the state board of the Young Socialists in North Rhine-Westphalia; it was temporarily not allowed to be played on Bayerischer Rundfunk due to concerns about the content.

In 1973 Baier formed the duo BaierWestrupp together with the musician Walter Westrupp, whom he still knew from the skiffle scene in the early 1960s . Both musicians composed and wrote lyrics and played several instruments during their performances. They controlled u. a. Children's songs for TV series such as Sesame Street and Die Sendung mit der Maus , as well as music for the Zisch Family TV series .

At the same time, Baier began playing an electrically amplified ukulele as a guest musician in Westrupp's skiffle formation Walter hc Meier Gang . This eventually resulted in the Walter hc Meier pump ensemble , which made a name for itself throughout the Federal Republic of Germany with skiffle music and German lyrics (including the songs Baby Barré and Segeroth-Skiffle ).

Baier's nickname "Pump" now spread across the music scene; the name came from his time in the youth movement.

1970s and 1980s: Engagement in the Ruhr area

In the mid-1970s, Frank Baier moved to the working-class district of Bruckhausen in Duisburg . He responded to the social debate there with the song Foreigner Questions . In Duisburg-Bruckhausen, Baier also began to deal with the history of the miners' movement, its literature and its songs. This resulted in decades of commitment to which Baier owes the names "Pottpoet", "Ruhrpottbarde" and later "Mister Ruhrgebiet". Frank Baier wrote several articles in an anthology about workers 'and miners' songs in the Ruhr area - a. a. for a documentation of the 3rd Duisburger Akzente 1979 ( songs and people on site ). He collected historical music records and texts, interviewed living working class singers and recorded their performances on phonograms. Baier set some of the historical texts to music anew (e.g. Der Wage Day - 1911 and On the Black List - 1889 ). In addition to Heinrich Kämchen (1847–1912), these worker-poets also included the miners Johannes Grohnke and Johannes Leschinski, who, according to him, reported to him particularly vividly about the battles of the Red Ruhr Army in March 1920 and sang their own songs.

Cooperation with the writers of the Dortmunder Gruppe 61 and the literary workshops in the Ruhr area soon became important for Baier ; He was particularly interested in texts by Josef Reding , Thomas Rother, Lieselotte Rauner , Richard Limpert , Josef Büscher and Hugo Ernst Buyer , which he also set to music several times.

This focus of work was reflected in the LP My father was a miner in 1978 . It was created in cooperation and a. with the songwriter Fasia Jansen , the bandoneon orchestra Gut-Ton and the Kassel university lecturer Manfred Voss.

1970s and 1980s: Political engagement

Around 1978/79 Baier became more politically and socially involved in the anti-nuclear power movement and the squatter scene. Solidarity records were made during these years: his first LP Bauer Maas - songs against atomic energy turned against the construction of the Schneller Brüter nuclear power plant in Kalkar ; she supported a legal process against the nuclear power plant. With the second LP, Schöner Wohnen - but fix , Baier got involved in a legal aid fund for arrested squatters from Bochum, Dortmund and Essen.

Baier became a member of a citizens' initiative that was able to prevent the Rheinpreußen colliery settlement in Duisburg- Homberg from being demolished, among other things with three hunger strikes. Later, Baier was one of the founding members of the resulting housing association Rheinpreußensiedlung eG. The EP / CD Rheinpreußen calls Alarm testifies to this commitment: it contains songs from the struggle to preserve the 100-year-old colliery colony.

In an additional stanza to Heinrich Kämchen's historical song On the Black List , Baier criticized the restrictions of the so-called radical decree ; and with his Radiothek song he got involved in the debate about the abolition of the WDR youth broadcast Five after seven - Radiothek . Both songs appeared on Baier's LP Auf der Schwarzliste in 1981 . For political reasons, Baier's songs were only allowed to be broadcast on WDR again in the late 1980s - until then they were on the index for almost ten years.

In 1980/81, together with Detlev Puls, Baier published the book Workers' Songs from the Ruhr Area ; it contained texts and notes, alongside historical documents and stories from the lives of the workers.

In 1982/83 Baier undertook a concert tour to Madagascar at the invitation of the German-Malagasy cultural cooperative Cercle Germano-Malgache (CGM), where he cooperated with the songwriter Tselonia and the group Rossy . At concerts with a 4-hour song program with German-French-Malagasy translations of the songs, they reached several thousand listeners. With its trilingual song love - the person - the revolution opened the station Radio Television Madagascar (RTM) for several months every day his daily breakfast program. Since then, the ukulele instrument in Madagascar has been particularly associated with Frank Baier.

In 1984, together with the Turkish composer and song researcher Mesut Cobancaoglu , Baier developed a German-Turkish song project that they both pursued together for about three years. One result was the joint LP Turkish-German songs: Why are you sighing, Wasserrad? and concerts throughout the Federal Republic of Germany .

1990s: expansions in the musical field

Frank Baier interrupted his songwriting activity in 1988 and until 1995 concentrated on singing with overtones in the Düsseldorf Obertonchor . Here he met the bass singer Frank Sievert, who soon taught him how to make harps.

In the meantime, Baier also added a self-made harp to his instruments in 1991; it was created under the guidance of Frank Sievert. Starting in 1996/97, Baier studied the Celtic harp for six semesters at the Niederrheinische Musikschule in Duisburg and soon began to compose his own pieces on the harp (including the song of the lyre ).

In the meantime, Baier's first ukulele school appeared in 1996 - a textbook with notes, chord fingerings and a CD; it contains children's songs and skiffle pieces for ukulele.

Increased activity in the 21st century

His guest appearance at the Rudolstadt dance and folk festival in 2002 as part of a regional focus there, Focus Regional Ruhr : in the form of a combination of traditional Ruhr songs with rap . From this concert resulted u. a. a collaboration between Baier and the rap formation Sons of Gastarbeita with later appearances Baier & Bänd or the old man and the rappers . Their joint March Rap 1920 was number 1 on the German song list for several months in 2006 . In 2003, together with the group Die Grenzgänger and the Bremen musician Michael Zachcial, Baier recorded the CD 1920 - Songs of the March Revolution ; Thematically, they dealt with the fighting between the Red Ruhr Army and the Freikorps in the Ruhr region after the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch in March 1920. In 2006, Die Grenzgänger and Frank Baier received the “German Record Critics Award 2” for these recordings and the 1920 CD booklet / 2006 ".

In 2003, the anthology Folk & Liedermacher an Rhein & Ruhr appeared , in which Baier reported in a comprehensive article Living - Fighting - Solidarizing - Ruhr Area about the Ruhr music scene from the Easter marches from 1962 to 1996.

From 2008, Baier worked on his next work, Der Pott singt, for four years . He compiled songs, texts and interviews from his private archive, from archives in the Ruhr region and from the German Folk Song Archive in Freiburg. In this context, a selection from his sound recordings of historical workers' songs from the Ruhr area was transcribed. The result was the 460-page book Glück auf - Liederbuch Ruhr : a text and sheet music collection of the most famous 100 songs from the Ruhr area with photos from selected sources and archives and an extensive lexicon section (with history, stories and backgrounds).

Shortly after Baier's 75th birthday in February 2018, the CD Wat'n Theater, man - Frank Baier 2017 was released , which contains songs from 1976 to 2016 and reached number 2 on the monthly list of best songs. In April 2018, Baier was the winner of the history competition Hau rein , which the Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr und Emscher e. V. organized; the jury paid tribute to Baier's long-standing contribution to the processing, interpretation and updating of the Ruhr area's lieder as well as his cultural and political commitment.

Private life

After graduating from university, Frank Baier worked as an engineer in the postal and telecommunications department until 1996. The father of two has lived in the Rhein Prussia settlement of Duisburg-Homberg with his archive in an old colliery house since 1981.

Works

Discography

1971 - Guitar in front of my stomach - songs on the edge (soloist) (LP, Verlag Schwann)
1971 - songs in front of and behind bars (single, Verlag Schwann)
1972 - Rotes Liebeslied (Kattong) (single, publisher: Young Socialists in the SPD)
1972 - Steal Patience from the People (Kattong), (LP, Verlag Schwann)
1974 - German songwriters - Songfestivel Ingelheim. Live recording (participation, BaierWestrupp) (LP, Verlag Electrola Songbird)
1976 - Dat must also bring something Späßken (BaierWestrupp) (LP, Verlag Plans)
1976 - Walter hc Meier pump (LP, Verlag Electrola - Songbird)
1978 - My father was a miner - Bergarbeiterlieder (collaboration) (LP, Verlag Plans, 2004 as a new CD edition)
1978 - Farmer Maas. Songs against atomic energy (LP, Pass-op production)
1979 - 10 years later. Songs from the play Eurovia (EP, publisher 'pläne')
1980 - Songs and music from the Ruhr area vom Pütt and vonne Maloche (participation) (LP Verlag Gruner & Jahr, Marifon LP)
1981 - Radiothek on the move - That's it: Radiothek. Excerpts from the last radio broadcast from December 30, 1980 (participation) (LP, blackmailing from the series Legal - Illegal - Scheissegal, not authorized by the copyright holder WDR )
1981 - On the black list (LP, publisher 'plans')
1982 - We want to live. Songs against downfall (collaboration with the song "Richard") (LP, FolkFreak publishing house)
1982 - Better living but fix !! Songs, Reggae, Rock & Steam - Coal for urban warfare (LP, Pass-op production)
1985 - Philippines - Songs of Freedom - Jess Santiago (collaboration with the song "Halina") (MC, Verlag Pario-Freundeskreis e.V., Agphi and DPSG Paderborn)
1986 - Turkish-German songs: "Why do you sigh, water wheel" (Frank Baier with Mesut Cobancaoglu) (LP, publisher 'pläne')
1989 - When the tenants got naughty. Songs from the Rheinpreußen-Siedlung (EP, Verlag 'plan' & Housing Cooperative Rheinpreußen)
1991 - Spirit come - Christian Bollmann with Oberton-Chor Düsseldorf Projekt 90 (CD, Verlag Lichthaus Musik)
1998 - Potato cabbage fire. Poems by Hugo Ernst Buyer - Songs by Frank Baier (CD, Open Ear publisher)
2001 - songs from Madagascar. Frank Baier - Rossy - Tselonia. Tana, January 1983 (CD, self-published / publisher Open Ear, remaster 2009)
2002 - Frankie and Johnny (with Werner Gradaus) (CD, self-published)
2003 - Portrait (CD, publisher 'plan', new edition of the LPs Dat must also bring something Späßken and on the black list)
2003 - Heaven anne Emscher. Die AkkordWorker: Frank Baier and Barney Brandts (CD, self-published)
2004 - My father was a miner (CD, publisher 'pläne')
2005 - Rhine Prussia calls the alarm. Songs from the Rheinpreussensiedlung (participation) (CD, publisher 'pläne', partly a new edition of We want to live )
2005 - Minority March. 40 years of German song at plans (collaboration with the song Runter vom Balkon ) (CD, Verlag Plans)
2006-1920. Songs of the March Revolution (with Die Grenzgänger and Sons of Gastarbeita ) (CD, Verlag Müller-Lüdenscheid - reissued in 2015 under the title Keine Bange, Leschinsky )
2008 - Who we sing for. Songwriter in Germany (collaboration: Frank Baier and BaierWestrupp) (CD, Bear Family publishing house)
2010 - Midnight Chants - Jooschen Engelke. The lost songs of Jooschen Engelke (participation) (CD, Verlag Conträr Musik)
2011 - Let's get together in Venezuela. Songs for the World Conference on Women (with the song "Halina") (CD, Le Gilles publishing house)
2012 - Heat the fire up again (collaboration with the song Wunderbar ) (CD, self-published by Zeitgeist-Ensemble Ruhr)
2015 - Lieder zur Lage - 1970s (Kattong) (CD, self-published by Frank Baier)
2015 - Chants of the Ruhr Area from 1870 to 1980 (LP, JumpUp Productions)
2018 - Wat'n Theater, man - Frank Baier 2017 (CD, self-published by Frank Baier)

Books and contributions to anthologies

Miners' songs from the Ruhr area. In: Jörg-Dieter Barz u. a. (Red.): 3. Duisburg accents: Little man, what to do ?! Folk pieces, texts, songs. 3rd-20th May 1979. Duisburg 1979, pp. 247-254.

Contributions to the anthology Kleiner Mann - what to do ?! International democratic songs. Songs and people - on site. Materials, ed. from forum - Volkshochschule der Stadt Duisburg, Duisburg 1979.

Frank Baier, Detlev Puls (ed.): Workers' songs from the Ruhr area. Frankfurt am Main 1981.

Local songs and people. Working methods with old and new songs in the Ruhr area. In: Workers song archive of the Academy of Arts of the GDR / Central House for Cultural Work of the GDR (Ed.): Song and political movement. Materials for the workshop to mark the 30th anniversary of the workers' song archive at the Academy of Arts in the GDR. 13-15 February 1984. (= Scientific articles. 13). Leipzig 1984, pp. 123-134.

Geraniums in the bird cage. Of love, struggle and courage in the Rhine Prussia settlement. In: Hans-Martin Große-Oetringhaus, Sigrid Kruse (ed.): Duisburg at second glance. Texts and pictures about your own city. Duisburg 1994, pp. 140-149.

Ruhr area - living, fighting, showing solidarity. In: Robert v. Zahn (Ed.): Folk & songwriters on the Rhine and Ruhr. Münster (Westf.) 2003, pp. 129–193.

Frank Baier, Jochen Wiegandt (Hrsg.): Glück auf - Liederbuch Ruhr. Songs and Lexicon, Essen 2013.

Awards

2006 - Prize of the German Record Critics (together with Die Grenzgänger and Sons Of Gastarbeita ) for 1920. Songs of the March Revolution with a 68-page booklet, which stayed at number 1 on the German song list for several months
2014 - Mercator badge of honor of the city of Duisburg
2018 - Winner in the competition House of the Forum Geschichtskultur an Ruhr und Emscher e. V.

Articles about Frank Baier in electronic media

Radio

1979 - Song singers matinee : Concert in the large broadcasting hall (WDR, April 29, 1979)
1983 - concert recording ( Radio Television Madagascar , 1983)
1997 - May in the Revier ( Deutsche Welle , May 1997)
2012 - Song collection in the Ruhr area (WDR, December 12, 2012)
2013 - Portrait on Bürgerfunk Duisburg (January 13, 2013)
2014 - Interview in the series Curiosity is sufficient - speaking time (WDR, May 1, 2014)

watch TV

1973 - Rhinoceros: Portrait of the Kattong group ( West German television )
1979 - About our coal pot (West German television)
1997 - May in the Revier ( Deutsche Welle / 3sat )
1999 - Picture Book Germany ( WDR TV )
2008 - Hello neighbor (WDR television)
2013 - local time (WDR television)

literature

Wolfgang Bergmann u. a. (Ed.): Workers' Songbook. Frankfurt am Main 1973.
Basic course in literature II at the Selm municipal high school: Frank Baier, Selm 2015 (Selmer readings 14)
Ernst Klusen, Walter Heimann (ed.): Critical songs of the 70s. Frankfurt am Main 1978.
Don Paulin: Frank Baier. In: ders .: The Folk Music Lexicon. Frankfurt am Main 1980, pp. 31-32.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Baier, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German musician and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH	February 12, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH	Braunschweig