The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker
The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker (2012) is an autobiography by Maximilian Hecker written in German that humorously documents and comments self-critically the development of the young author from Berlin singer-songwriter to international pop star. Based on his diaries and tour protocols and partly based on literary models (on the one hand Georg Büchner , Arno Schmidt and Heinrich Böll , on the other hand Florian Illies , Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre , Christian Kracht and Nick Hornby ), Hecker makes use of more numerous structures and language aesthetic means that distinguish his work from a usual autobiography and, due to its striking parallels in form and content, but above all because of its extremely sensitive and radical introspection, make it an idiosyncratic value heriad of modern pop literature .
content
Hecker's debut as a writer describes his shy beginnings as a street musician on the Berlin scene, tells of his sudden discovery, finally records his world tour initiated by the Goethe-Institut, which takes him across all five continents, and describes his amazing career in Far Eastern Asia, in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan. Here Hecker experiences the dubious advantages of fame, the exertions of constant gigs, hopes and disappointments, the hype and loneliness. Sometimes exultant, sometimes saddened to death, torn between home and foreign, between hubris and failure, self-discovery and self-loss, he suffers from his permanent insecurity on the supposedly glamorous parquet, feels like a "pop star dyslexic", hates the compulsion to Perfection, the constant pretense, the constant stress of promoting and the hours of autographing. Just like Lost in Translation, he's mistaken (sometimes like the innocent Scarlett Johansson , sometimes like the aging Bill Murray ), culturally shocked or amused by the exotic metropolises, and just like The Graduate he longs (like the disturbed Dustin Hoffman in a diving suit on Reason of parental swimming pool) after redemption. He is not only looking for this in his music, but also in love with his countless female fans. He almost always finds it in his songs, almost never with the girls.
Then he meets Laura Chan, a Taiwanese singer. Love at first sight. The meeting is similar to a self-encounter. But the girl is already taken and remains unreachable for "Little Maxi", a mere muse like Laura Petrarch . So intoxicating this rise , so deadly the inevitable fall . Consequently, Hecker's fall ends in Tokyo's notorious red-light district in Dogenzaka , where at the low point of his odyssey he finally discovers Nana, an attractive and loving prostitute, his Yoko Ono and "Mother Maria", who seems to understand him and is finally able to comfort him. When he later, back in Berlin, processed his love experience, composed a song especially for Nana and then went to Tokyo to find her on his next tour of Japan in order to give her the CD, he could no longer find her .
When asked about the genesis and background of his book title, which is often misunderstood as presumptuous, Hecker explained in an interview with his publisher: “Shortly before I released my first record, a filmmaker started making a film about me and wanted his film Calling the Rise and Fall of a Berlin pop Romeo . And this title never got out of my mind. My rise and fall is not related to my career. It does not refer to my rise as a musician who is in the press, who is known, who is perhaps an idol in East Asia and who at some point, however, as most musicians or artists do, is forgotten again, but refers to it an inner rise and an inner fall, if you will. Of course I expect from the reader that he also thinks about the irony that lies in this megalomania, that he understands it and that he does not think 'Aha, megalomaniac, arrogant!', But rather that he recognizes the wink of the eye. "
Reviews
- Hecker tells of his experiences and experiences during his self-search in an unadorned way and with a refreshingly sarcastic humor. He describes, for example, how he is sometimes rejected "horny" by graceful "Oceanids" and desirable women. "I am apparently perceived as a youthful, asexual figure, a man with feminine feelings, not a fucker in any case," he writes. In an interview he confesses: "I found it liberating to portray this naked truth in this way too. Even if I am not sure whether I am not partly too open." The book author Hecker is characterized by an almost breakneck honesty, which is directly related to his way of writing songs.
- Maximilian Hecker describes all of this very authentically and in a rousing manner, as it is with all the external fame on the inside. The feeling of being alone in the midst of thousands, the evenings that end up alone in the hotel room or unhappily drunk - far removed from the legendary fame of a star and the women's stories that go with it. How the voice fails and concerts are still cheered, even though everything doesn't feel right. [...] All of this can be read in a gripping and entertaining way in The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker . A really exciting book that tells a story in an appealing way that is actually not a story, but truth. [...] A highly recommended book!
- What can be learned from the records: Hecker, who is all too often reviled as a whining buoy or whimper, means all of this seriously, the longing for death, the search for great love, the suffering of what he calls his "handicap", his " constantly crumbling threatening imitation of a self-confidence ". The fears, the pain, the emotional distress, it's all real - not ironically broken, as it was often assumed in this country. His soul, he writes, "is simply battered, neglected, sucked empty by the shit with women". That's not nice for Hecker, but for the listener. Because because he sings at least as distantly as he writes, it is precisely from these developmental defects that wonderful songs like on "Mirage Of Bliss" emerge.
literature
- Maximilian Hecker: The Rise and Fall of Maximilian Hecker. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-86265-176-4 .
Web links
- Review in whiskey-soda
- Review in musikexpress : "The adventures of the romantic bard, big in Taiwan"
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lpg8Nxbehw
- ↑ http://www.tip-berlin.de/musik-und-party/maximilian-hecker-im-flamingo-club
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 6, 2014 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.
- ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/berlin/tazplan-kultur/artikel/?dig=2012%2F07%2F25%2Fa0145&cHash=dd672c26f6
