Germany - Berlin Part 1

 We re-enter Germany, the eastern half this time which used to be the German Democratic Republic and we start with the capital Berlin.  I know Berlin mostly from the time when the Wall was still up and visited the eastern half of the city often, because I was curious to see beyond the black and white propaganda from both sides.  Most notably I spent 4 weeks in the East as a volunteer in 1987 as part of the Student Summer, a summer camp which eastern students were expected to attend to get a taste of manual labour.  We were a group of 30 westerners invited participate and were accommodated in a military style camp with a thousand students from various communist countries working alongside them in public parks.  It was a fascinating experience!  We were even invited to attend a discussion forum inside the Brandenburg Gate, which was a no-go area in no-mans land on the wall.  I thought it would be a tale to tell the grandkids and was gutted when they opened the gate up to all and sundry to walk through 2 years later.

Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse, the main border crossing into East Berlin at the time

Under the Brandenburg Gate in 1987

Me and some of my work mates at the Volkspark in East Berlin

They even put on a number of cultural and music events for us and we saw the likes of the Pudhys, a legendary East German rock band, but also western acts such as Scottish folk rock band Runrig.

Here is a taste of the music of the Pudhys from a re-union concert after the fall of the Wall:

Moving into more modern times folk band 17 Hippies were founded in Berlin in 1995.  Their music largely played on acoustic instruments is influenced by a number of different folk styles including chanson, Balkan, klezmer and American folk, sung in German, French and English.  Here's a Balkan style song of theirs called Frau von Ungefähr (Woman of approximately), which features on their 20th anniversary album Anatomy: 

Berlin has long been a cultural melting pot, attracting creative types to its relatively low living costs, lively cultural scene and its people more open to outside influences than perhaps other parts of Germany.  During the Cold War many young people were actively lured to Berlin by the West German government, male Berliners were exempt from the otherwise compulsory military service, re-locating to West Berlin was subsidised by the state.  This lively and international scene is still very much in evidence.  Fusion band Out Of Nations is one such example.  A relatively new ensemble of 6 musicians carrying 6 different passports was founded in Berlin by American born Lety ElNaggar of Mexican and Egyptian heritage.  Their jazz/funk sounds carry influences from the Middle East and Latin flavours and is a deliberate attempt to blur nationalities.  This is the title track from their 2018 album Quest:

Sven Regner, founder of German rock band Element of Crime, was actually born in Bremen and in fact went to the same school as I did there, just a couple of years above me.  He did move to Berlin in 1982, where he founded the band in 1985.  He writes most of their songs, initially in English, but now in German and they are inspired by chanson, rock and pop.  Here's a nice melancholic song called Wenn es dunkel und kalt wird in Berlin (When it's getting dark and cold in Berlin) from their 2018 album Schafe, Monster und Mäuse (Sheep, Monsters and Mice):

Berlin based Hungarian speed-folk band The Transsylvanians was established in 1995 by Hungarian violinist and composer András Tiborcz.  Their self-proclaimed 'speed-folk' incorporates elements of rap, rock, Bartok, ska and punk.  Here's a song from their 2000 album Denevér called Tulipán:

Berlin has long had been influenced by the east with all the shifting of borders near it.  Singer and accordionist Irina Doubrovskaya arrived in the city from Russia after the fall of the Wall.  She was a musician in the underground scene of the old Soviet Union and she met up with some more in Berlin and together they formed ErsatzMusik in 2006.  They produce an alternative Russian folk with occasional blues intonations. Their initial recordings were just to share with friends and family, but they were persuaded that they were good enough to share their music with the wider public. Their last 2 albums NavyBlue Nonesuch (2014) and Vedmedya (2018) are available as free downloads on their website.  This is a song from the latter album called Lezginka:

We'll leave it at that for the moment and continue with some more music from Berlin next time.  Until then you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.