{"id":7799,"date":"2023-10-12T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/blog\/?p=7799"},"modified":"2023-10-17T14:17:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T12:17:30","slug":"whats-that-for-a-harmonium-for-wolf-biermann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/2023\/10\/12\/whats-that-for-a-harmonium-for-wolf-biermann\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s that for? A Harmonium for Wolf Biermann"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What’s that for? A Harmonium for Wolf Biermann<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Verena G\u00fcnther and Sarah Sporys | 12 October 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 13 November 1976, the songwriter Wolf Biermann took the stage in the sold-out Cologne sports arena before more than 8,000 spectators. After 11 years of a performance ban in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), he gave his first \u201creal\u201d concert \u2013 with far-reaching consequences. On the stage stood a harmonium. This very instrument welcomes visitors in the prologue to the DHM exhibition \u201cWolf Biermann. A Poet and a Songwriter in Germany\u201d<\/a> and is an eyecatcher for young and old. Verena G\u00fcnther and Dr Sarah Sporys from the Deutsches Historisches Museum\u2019s department of Education and Communication take a look at the interesting history of the instrument and its importance for developing special programmes for children in the museum.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wolf Biermann at a concert in Cologne 1976, Photo: Barbara Klemm\/Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung \u00a9 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, Frankfurt\/Main. All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The trade union IG Metall<\/em> invited Wolf Biermann to Cologne for the concert on 13 November 1976. Born in Hamburg, the artist had lived in East Germany since 1953, where from 1965 onwards the government had forbidden him to perform or publish in the GDR, but then in 1976 gave him permission to leave the country for concert performances in the Federal Republic of Germany. Biermann could finally give concerts and later described the event as follows: \u201cFor so many years I had been told not to sing that I now had to be told to stop singing.\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/em><\/a> The concert in Cologne lasted for more than four hours. Biermann played many of his best-known songs, such as \u201cErmutigung\u201d (Encouragement), but also new ones like the \u201cKunze\u201d song, in which he expressed his solidarity with the writer Reiner Kunze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This moment of happiness for the artist had far-reaching consequences: on 16 November 1976, while still on tour in West Germany, Wolf Biermann learned that he had been deprived of his GDR citizenship. He continued his tour, stayed in the Federal Republic, and moved back to his native city Hamburg. Wolf Biermann experienced his denaturalisation and especially his first years in West Germany as exile.[2]<\/a> In an open letter, more than 200 East German citizens \u2013 among them many intellectuals and artists \u2013 protested against the revocation of Biermann\u2019s GDR citizenship and the refusal of the government to let him return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Open letter against the revocation of Biermann\u2019s GDR citizenship, 1976 \u00a9 DHM<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are not only fascinating stories to be told about the concert, but also about the harmonium. It was provided to him by a friend of Biermann’s, the filmmaker Carsten Kr\u00fcger. He had purchased it from a church parish in West Berlin for around 300 Marks and transported it \u2013 on the roof of his Volvo estate car \u2013 to all cities where the concerts took place. To be sure, Wolf Biermann was at first not at all enthusiastic about the harmonium. Looking back, Kr\u00fcger reported that Biermann first had to get used to the new harmonium and then complained that it sounded not at all like the one he owned. That harmonium was still in his apartment in Chausseestrasse 131 in East Berlin, where he had sung songs for guests and made recordings in the privacy of his living room until had was ousted from the GDR.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The harmonium from the Cologne concert is an eyecatcher in the prologue of the museum\u2019s exhibition and refers to central topics, people, and moments in Biermann\u2019s life. This instrument, which was built in the 1960s, also raises questions: What kind of an instrument is it and how does it sound? Is it a piano or an organ? How is it played? The harmonium is particularly interesting for children and is therefore a central element in the conception of communication programmes for children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Notebook for children in the exhibition „Wolf Biermann. A poet and songwriter in Germany“ \u00a9 DHM\/ Altnau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A special signet was designed for the exhibition: a wolf symbol can be found at selected object texts. These symbols lead to hands-on stations and can also be seen in the exhibition notebook for children. The notebook encourages young visitors to take a closer look at the objects and study them carefully. The interactive stations, for their part, offer creative areas to deal with central topics of the exhibition. The main intention is for the young people to acquire knowledge about Wolf Biermann\u2019s life and the history of divided Germany in a playful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The harmonium played a different role in the two formats for young visitors. In the exhibition notebook, children are encouraged in an associative exercise to link different concepts with the harmonium. This approach offers connecting points with the experience and knowledge of the target group and provides a starting point for an examination of Wolf Biermann’s music. Our intention is to show that the harmonium looks somewhat like a piano, but sounds and functions more like an accordion. Taking the instrument as a starting point, we want the children to use the interactive stations to examine the songs that Biermann wrote and sang. Our approach in encouraging them to deal with Wolf Biermann\u2019s language is aided by a magnetic panel on the wall where the children can rearrange different excerpts from Biermann\u2019s songs and in this way create their own song texts. The harmonium is also one of the objects that inspired the board game \u201cSweet Life \u2013 Sour Life\u201d. It invites young visitors to follow the course of Wolf Biermann\u2019s life and to get to know the most important stages in his biography by means of the event fields in the boardgame, one of which, for example, deals with the Cologne concert and its consequences. These play stations show that his biography is closely connected to the history of the two German states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n