Concert for Berlin
The concert for Berlin took place on Sunday, November 12th, 1989 - three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall - with around 50,000 visitors spread over the day in West Berlin's Deutschlandhalle . With the help of this first major German-German rock concert, which lasted eleven hours, young people from East Berlin and the GDR in particular were to be welcomed to the West.
Organization and process
In order to express the joy of the fall of the wall and to set an example with music, the Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) decided on November 10th to hold a rock concert with free admission. The concert was organized within just two days by editors of the popular radio show SF-Beat - one of the first youth programs. Conny Konzack and Vivi Eickelberg acted as private organizers . Originally the concert was supposed to take place at the Reichstag. Due to security concerns, however, it was held in the Deutschlandhalle far to the west of the city. There was no official announcement or even professional advertising for the concert; Just the announcement of the then SFB reporter Holger Senft live in the Berliner Abendschau on November 11th caused a rush of visitors.
The concert for Berlin was not broadcast live on television because the SFB broadcast a classical concert from the Berlin Philharmonic instead . The radio (via the VHF stations SFB 2 , Bayern 2 , hr3 , Bremen Vier and NDR 2 ) broadcast live to large parts of West Germany for several hours. It started around 1:00 p.m. and didn't end until just before midnight. Speeches were made possible between the individual appearances and during the renovation breaks. So some musicians took the floor and described their current emotional world.
Many artists made their mood clear in the announcements between the contributions, for example Melissa Etheridge :
"As an American, I am very proud to be here at this time in history. But as a human being I wish you both - east and west - peace and freedom - now and forever! "
The lead singer of the Cologne rock group BAP , Wolfgang Niedecken , tried to determine how high the audience share of the guests from the GDR was. When he asked who everything was from the GDR, about half of the audience raised their hands.
The concert was moderated by Steffen Simon , who also read out greetings from other - not present - artists:
“… When the artists heard about it - on Friday morning / Friday morning - we received a flood of offers. They all wanted to play here. Not all can play. Not all of them started a band either ... "
As the political events came thick and fast these days, Simon also informed about such profound changes in his announcement:
"... The Defense Minister of the GDR has just announced on the current camera that the shooting order has been lifted at the inner-German borders ! ... "
Participating artists
Line-up (still incomplete)
Opening of the concert by Rausch , ... Mad Romeo , Pankow (title: Gut 'Nacht, Gib mir'nzeichen, ... ), BAP (June 10th; Alexandra, not only do; Ahl men, slippery; Do it magic; to be continued; City in no man's land; Dä Deckel vum Clown; Drei Wünsch free; Verdamp long ago; Pänz, Pänz, Pänz), Ulla Meinecke in a duet with Konstantin Wecker (strolling is luxury / alarm clock solo: enough is not enough when summer is not far ist, Die Weiße Rose), Melissa Etheridge (My Back Door, No Souvenirs, Testify, Bring Me Some Water, The Way I Do), Udo Lindenberg (special train to Pankow, girls from East Berlin, street fever, Horizont ...), Die Zöllner (Hör mich ...), Die 3 Tornados with their last appearance, Joe Cocker & Band (Shelter Me, You Can Leave Your Hat On, Up Where We Belong, When the Night Comes, Unchain My Heart, With a Little Help from My Friends), Silly (Bataillon d'amour, Lost Children, Out of the Track, Everything is getting better, ...), Marius Müller-Westernhagen (... Freedom, ...), An gelika Weiz , Die Toten Hosen (Here comes Alex, love song, 1000 good reasons, ...), Heinz Rudolf Kunze (... The open sea, Find Mabel, yours is my whole heart, my own way), Nina Hagen (... My Way ; I know there will be a miracle one day (Zarah Leander); TV goggles; Where Is the Party, Ave Maria), Pannach and Kunert (The day the wall came down ...), the Puhdys and Nena (... miracles happen).
Details
- Udo Lindenberg modified the text of one of his most famous songs and sang to loud cheers: “… Excuse me, is that the special train from Pankow? We just have to go there; just to West Berlin. You can hardly believe it, it's all like a beautiful dream - but don't be afraid to wake up, we'll go on like this now! ... "
- Joe Cocker and his nine-member band interrupted their current European tour for the concert and were flown in in the afternoon - at the expense of a sponsor from business. After his appearance, Cocker really wanted to go to the wall; However, his driver got stuck in the traffic chaos of those days. With the help of a police escort, he came to the wall and then to Tempelhof Airport to continue the tour to Aarhus in Denmark .
- Singers and musicians from various bands mingled informally during some of the performances. For example, Tamara Danz , Heinz-Rudolf Kunze, Udo Lindenberg, Konstantin Wecker and Ulla Meinecke sang in With a little help from my friends in the background choir of Joe Cocker's band.
- The Toten Hosen also interrupted their current tour for the concert; they were on a tour of France . Guitarist Breiti remembers after 20 years: "It was a feeling of joy and relief that one rarely experiences in this form in a country."
- The last appearance of the evening was made by Nena. Shortly before midnight she sang her newly published song Wunder gescheh'n .
- With the title Set me free. Concert for Berlin November 12, 1989 Holger Senft shot an 80-minute film documentary of the concert with his cameraman Dieter Hoffmann. The world premiere took place on February 16, 1990 in Berlin. The SFB broadcast a short version of 45 minutes (title Concert for Berlin. Rock concert in the Deutschlandhalle ) on November 12, 1989.
- It was planned to release a double LP from the recording of the concert for Berlin . A sample of the record and cover was made. The record never went on sale because it was not possible to agree on the license conditions.
- It was not until October 31, 2014 (for the 25th anniversary) that an excerpt of the concert recording (running time 69 min including the live moderation by Steffen Simon) was released on CD under the title Mauerfall - Das Legendäre Konzert Für Berlin '89 .
Political and social importance
The citizens of Berlin were asked to put radios in their windows in order to make the event audible for everyone on all streets of the city. Thousands followed this request.
In contrast to the usual concerts, this event also had political significance due to the disruptive events of those days. The then Governing Mayor of West Berlin , Walter Momper , made the uniqueness and scope of this first all-German rock concert clear. He addressed the GDR citizens from the stage and said, among other things, that he had opened a border crossing with the then East Berlin Mayor Erhard Krack at Potsdamer Platz and with the Federal President ( Richard von Weizsäcker ) at the opening of the border crossing on the Glienicker Bridge .
This unique concert took place in an emotionally charged atmosphere in a very peaceful atmosphere. At times the hall was overcrowded with over 15,000 people.
Web links
- PDF Description of the film and interview with Holger Senft about his film Set Me Free - Concert for Berlin, November 12, 1989 and its creation; 40th Berlin International Film Festival 1990
Individual evidence
- ↑ Farewell melancholy and pain - The "old lady" Deutschlandhalle had its great time - today it is finally coming to an end . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 30, 2009
- ↑ From Karl-Marx-Platz to Deutschlandhalle (PDF; 69 kB) from DT64 - the book Jugendradio . Thom Verlag, 1993
- ↑ BAP set list of the concert on bap-fan.de
- ^ Concert excerpts in the TV program of the RBB Tschüss Deutschlandhalle -76 years people, animals, emotions ; December 3, 2011
- ^ Matthias Knecht: One, Two, Ultragewalt . ( Memento from November 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Financial Times Deutschland , November 8, 2009
- ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : The day; November 9 to November 12, 1989 . In: Die Welt , November 9, 2009
- ↑ Set me free. Concert for Berlin November 12, 1989 Short info ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on filmportal.de
- ↑ Deutsche Kinemathek ( Memento of the original from July 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fall of the Wall - The Legendary Concert For Berlin '89 , Panorama (Universal Music), EAN 0028947941675, 2014
- ^ Walter Momper: Grenzfall - Berlin in the focus of German history. Bertelsmann, 1991, p. 185.
