Biermann stated he was crestfallen to be shut overseas he held so pricey, regardless of all its shortcomings. Whereas a whole bunch of individuals have been risking their lives crossing illegally to the West, Biermann’s coronary heart pined for the East. “With me, every little thing was at all times the opposite manner round — that’s nearly the basic regulation,” he stated.
Biermann’s expulsion led to protests by East Germany’s most well-known artists, writers and actors, and the federal government reacted with additional repressions on creative expression that remained in place till the autumn of the Berlin Wall, 13 years later.
After Germany’s 1990 reunification — during which he performed an necessary position — Biermann remained energetic, although much less within the highlight. He continued to be a revered determine on the German left, at the same time as he voiced unpopular opinions amongst his comrades: He supported the American-led conflict in Iraq, and criticized the peace motion that grew in opposition to it.
Standing in entrance of the bridge’s wrought iron eagle in Berlin, Biermann recalled writing one among his hottest songs, “The Ballad of the Prussian Icarus,” after he and Ginsburg crossed the bridge in 1976 and took footage in entrance of the fowl. They made a wager over which ones would carry the iron creature into verse, Biermann recalled.
That music, which grew to become one among his finest recognized, is typical Biermann, a lyrical critique of the East German state that notes:
The barbed wire slowly grows deepInto the pores and skin, the chest and boneInto the mind’s grey cells
As vacationer boats handed beneath its perch on the bridge, the identical eagle regarded out on a really totally different world. If Biermann now has an official place in German historical past, it’s due to the half he performed in shaping it.
Wolf Biermann: A Poet and Songwriter From Germany
By means of Jan. 14, 2024, on the German Historic Museum, in Berlin; dhm.de.
