Munich freedom (band)

Münchener Freiheit
General information
Genre (s)	pop
founding	1980
Founding members
Vocals , guitar , keyboard	Stefan Zauner (until 2011)
Guitar , vocals	Aron Strobel
bass	Freddie Erdmann (until 1983)
Drums	Günter Stolz (until 1983)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar	Tim Wilhelm (since 2012)
Guitar, vocals	Aron Strobel
Bass, vocals	Michael "Micha" Kunzi (since 1983)
Keyboard	Alexander "Alex" Grünwald (since 1983)
Drums	Renard Henry "Rennie" Hatzke (since 1983)

Münchener Freiheit is a German music group from Munich .

Band history

The band Münchener Freiheit was founded on October 4, 1980 by singer and keyboardist Stefan Zauner (born June 30, 1952 in Göttingen ) and guitarist Aron Strobel (born January 26, 1958 in Schwäbisch Gmünd-Bargau ) and is based in a café of the same name in Munich named. Zauner had previously worked on Amon Düül 2 . Other members of the band are Michael Kunzi (born August 27, 1958 in Stuttgart ), Alexander Grünwald (born September 7, 1954 in Mindelheim ) and Renard Henry Hatzke (born November 30, 1955 in Edmonton , Alberta Province , Canada ).

The band achieved initial success with the albums Umsteiger and Licht, which were still heavily influenced by the Neue Deutsche Welle . In 1984 the band made it into the charts for the first time with the song Oh Baby from the album Herzschlag einer Stadt . The band presented all three of the album's singles in the ZDF hit parade , and with SOS they won them in February 1985. The big breakthrough came in 1986: The single Ohne dich (I'm not going to sleep tonight) was in the German top 10 for weeks and even climbed to the top of the charts in Switzerland and Austria. This was followed by other hits such as a thousand times you and As long as you can still live dreams and several gold-plated albums, including Von Anfang and Traumziel (both 1986). The band's collaboration with Swiss producer Armand Volker , who created the band's typical sound, which is characterized by elaborate (up to a hundred-track) vocal recordings, was particularly influential . At that time the songs were mostly composed by the Zauner / Strobel team.

This also applied to Fantasie in 1988 , the band's biggest album chart success (number four in the German album charts ). After the group was also internationally successful with the album Fantasy with English lyrics, which was released at the same time (band name: Freiheit, chart success : Keeping the Dream Alive, 14th place, early 1989), the band became quieter in the 1990s. The last big hit was the Hubert Kah composition Love at First Sight in 1992 .

In 1993 the band represented Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest . Her title Much Too Far came in Millstreet only in 18th place.

From the mid-1990s to 2010, most of the songs were produced by Stefan Zauner.

In 2001 the band Blumfeld stated that they had been permanently influenced by Munich freedom.

In the fall of 2008, the hit Ohne dich der Münchener Freiheit was included in the book Die 100 Schlager des Jahrhundert .

Large-scale advertising campaigns on Sat.1 and for the product Alice from HanseNet ensured a comeback in 2009. For the first time in 18 years, a single from Münchener Freiheit made it into the top 50 of the German charts. The album Eigenwege even reached the top 10.

In October 2010, Münchener Freiheit celebrated their 30th anniversary as a band. In addition, a new studio album was released with the title Without Limit and the single from it Since the night . There was also an expanded reissue of the best-of album Alle Jahre - alle Hits, which was completed with the singles that were released after the first release. All old albums were also re-released in sets of two.

In November 2011 it became known that singer and founding member Stefan Zauner had left the band to devote himself to his own projects in the future. Stephan Thielen was hired as the new singer, who was to produce albums with the band and perform at concerts. However, the designated new singer had to withdraw from the band due to massive vocal cord problems. Shortly thereafter, Tim Wilhelm was found as the band's new singer. Tim Wilhelm has a classical vocal training and is an actor. Wilhelm has been known to the band for a long time through some studio productions.

Stefan Zauner has published meanwhile, three solo CDs: sense of time , fabulous and Ludo .

On October 25, 2013, the album Mehr was released , the single Meerfühl was released on September 27, 2013 and was among the top 10 in many airplay charts. The first album with the new singer Tim Wilhelm was released in two versions: as a normal CD and as a limited edition with the ten greatest hits, newly sung by Tim Wilhelm.

On October 14, 2016, the album Schwerelos der Münchener Freiheit was released with ten new titles.

Cooperations and projects

• 1985: the band participated in the aid project Band for Africa .
• 1991: Zauner and Strobel recorded the album Living in the Sun under the name Deuces Wild . The first single This Boy, a cover version of the Beatles title of the same name , reached number 80 in the German charts.
• 1992: Zauner and Strobel also composed and produced the only album of the same name by the Charade duo , which consisted of the actress Nadeshda Brennicke and Jennifer Wippich , the daughter of the singer of the band Randy Pie, Bernd Wippich . The first two single releases All of You and The Color of Your Eyes reached number 67 and 60 in the German charts, respectively.
• 1997: The band recorded the single Where Do I Belong with the dance trio Mr. President .
• 2010: singer Jay Del Alma recorded a Spanish version of Ohne dich with the band.

Bassist Michael Kunzi is a member of the Tuneverse production team, which has already produced and wrote songs for Sandra (Put Some 80ies in It) and Monrose (Like a Lady) .

Classification in a musical genre

It is unusually difficult to classify the Munich freedom in a musical genre. While the band, which came from the Neue Deutsche Welle , was seen more as a pop band in the 1980s and early 1990s and was regularly featured in relevant youth magazines such as Bravo and in TV programs such as Formula One and Wetten, dass ...? appeared, it has almost only appeared in hit programs since the mid-1990s. It is the same with radio: While their hits were previously played predominantly on rock / pop channels, today they appear, at least with their current productions, predominantly on pop channels (NDR 1, SWR4, etc.). The strong influences of the Beatles and the Beach Boys are still unmistakable . Live the band strikes a much more rocky note than you would expect from their studio recordings.

Discography

→ Main article : Münchener Freiheit (Band) / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1982	Switchers	-	-	-	Release: April 16, 1982
1983	light	-	-	-	Release: May 1983
1984	Heartbeat of a city	-	-	-	Published: November 9, 1984
1986	Dream destination	DE15th gold (34 weeks)DE	-	-	Release date: November 14, 1986 Sales: + 250,000
1988	fantasy	DE4th gold (27 weeks)DE	AT29 (29 weeks) AT	CH14 (4 weeks) CH	Released: March 23, 1988 Sales: + 250,000
1989	Purple moon	DE17th gold (29 weeks)DE	-	-	Release date: November 29, 1989 Sales: + 250,000
1992	love at first sight	DE7th gold (22 weeks)DE	AT21 (21 weeks) AT	CH38 (1 week) CH	Release: Jan 13, 1992 Sales: + 250,000
1994	energy	DE28 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	Published: February 16, 1994
1996	Kidnap me	-	-	-	Release: October 11, 1996
1998	shadow	-	-	-	Published: October 16, 1998
2000	Freedom i mean	DE46 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	Release: April 10, 2000
2002	Kissed awake	DE76 (1 week) DE	-	-	Release: June 3, 2002
2003	time Machine	DE85 (1 week) DE	-	-	Release: July 21, 2003
2004	Great time	DE82 (1 week) DE	-	-	Release: November 22, 2004
2007	XVII	DE57 (1 week) DE	-	-	Release: February 9, 2007
2009	Own ways	DE10 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	Release: March 20, 2009
2010	No limit	DE60 (1 week) DE	-	-	Release: October 1, 2010
2013	More	-	-	-	Release: October 25, 2013
2016	Weightless	-	-	-	Release: October 14, 2016

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Awards

Berolina

• 1987

Golden Europe

• 1986

Golden tuning fork

• 1986, 1987, 1990, 1992

RSH gold

• 1988

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.deutsche-mugge.de/interviews/4226-stefan-zauner.html
2. ^ "Tim Wilhelm is the new singer of Munich Freedom", universal-music.de, March 1, 2012 ( Memento from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH

Web links

• Official website of Münchener Freiheit
• Official tour diary of the band
• Münchener Freiheit at Discogs (English)