Visiting friends:Udo Lindenberg in the GDR

In 1983 Udo Lindenberg was allowed to sing in front of a select audience in East Berlin - under the strict surveillance of the Stasi. His dream did not come true until seven years later:he started a tour through the GDR.

by Beatrix Hasse

"Hello Suhl", Udo Lindenberg greets his fans from the GDR in his usual brash tone. The "City Hall of Friendship" in the Thuringian town lives up to its name when, on January 6, 1990, the panic rocker from Hamburg finally meets his fans from the workers' and farmers' state. Around 3,000 made a pilgrimage to the concert hall to see the star live for the first time. "For me, the GDR tour made my biggest dream come true," Lindenberg told the "Express" newspaper at the time.

Rush for concert tickets

A ticket costs 38 marks, and some fans had queued up to 32 hours to get a ticket for the coveted concert. The jubilation is correspondingly great when Udo finally enters the stage after the opening act "The Next" from Halle. Lindenberg is touched:"It's a great day for me as a private person, too, after all the troubles with your top fuzzi Honecker."

Year-long performance ban

Said "difficulties" had lasted for many years and affected far more than the singer's personal relationship with the "upper fuzzi". The Stasi classified the West star's behavior and appearance as decadent. With his easy-going, cool manner, Udo Lindenberg was one of the first German rockers to break into the West German music scene in the early 1970s. And of course the young people in the GDR also secretly heard him on the "class enemy" station.

The panic rocker, who privately visited the other part of Germany from time to time, packed his impressions of the people behind the wall into musical messages "over there", which were longingly absorbed by his fans there - such as songs like "Das Mädchen aus Ostberlin " or 1977 "Rock 'n' Roll Arena in Jena". Lindenberg proclaimed:"I would love to sing with you, my friends in the GDR, a panic tour, it would really work, I often dream of how great it would be." But the GDR authorities didn't want a rock 'n' roll arena in Jena. Kurt Hager, responsible for culture in the Central Committee of the SED, banned him from performing.

The "special train to Pankow"

In letters, Udo Lindenberg kept asking the GDR authorities for "permission to visit" his fans:in vain, the letters went unanswered. In the spring of 1983, the singer decided to contact the head of the GDR state council directly - albeit in his own way. Lindenberg released his legendary song "Sonderzug nach Pankow". In it he appeals to Erich Honecker's supposed rocker heart:"You secretly like to put on your leather jacket and lock yourself in the toilet and listen to West Radio," says the text. "Oh, Erich, hey, are you really such a stubborn rascal, why don't you let me sing in the workers' and farmers' state?" asked Lindenberg, and the song soon stormed the charts in the West. Even the GDR government could do nothing against the power of the little song that was played over and over on the radio. Soon almost everyone knew the lyrics and was singing along.

Lindenberg's performance at the Palace of the Republic in 1983

The dialogue with "Honey" - Lindenberg's nickname for the President of the State Council - was initially on hold. Designations like "stubborn Schrat" in the lyrics were too offensive. Only when Udo Lindenberg apologized in a letter to the head of state did the situation ease up. In September 1983, the singer was finally invited:to the "Festival of Political Songs" in the Palace of the Republic, but without the "special train" in the program. Lindenberg seemed a little closer to his goal, especially since he finally had permission for a tour through the GDR in his pocket.

No entry for the "real" fans

The performance on October 25, 1983 turned out to be rather unspectacular:there was no real atmosphere in front of the selected audience of officials and FDJ members. The "real" Udo fans stood outside the Palace of the Republic and were not allowed in. In the middle of the current retrofit debate, Lindenberg even burst publicly with his statement:"We don't want to see a single rocket anywhere, no Pershing and no SS 20." GDR television broadcast the concert recording, the statement was even included.

The long-awaited tour in the summer of 1984 did not come about after all. An FDJ official canceled:for technical reasons, it was officially said. The FDJ also explained that there was nothing on the current record "Götterhämmerung" that could be enriching for the "recipients". In reality, the state probably feared riots when the panic rocker appeared.

Lindenberg and Honecker - leather jacket and shawm

At Pentecost 1987, thousands of GDR youth heard a concert in the West behind the Wall. Pop stars like David Bowie and the Eurythmics performed. "Gorby!" and "The wall has to go!" the fans shouted and the People's Police cracked down on them. In response to the event, Lindenberg sent a worn leather jacket to Erich Honecker, with an "Indian greeting". The kids aren't hooligans and rioters, they just like rock 'n' roll and being easygoing, it said in the cover letter.

Honecker even reacted - in an unusually relaxed way. He thanked the leather jacket that Lindenberg had given him as a surprise, sent a shawm to the western rock star and wished him lots of fun practicing.

Another gift:"guitars instead of guns"

In September 1987, Udo Lindenberg traveled to Wuppertal to meet the head of the GDR's State Council during his visit to West Germany. Again he had a present for Honecker:an electric guitar with the inscription "guitars instead of ratchets". A forced dialogue followed, Honecker promised to meet again at the Lindenberg concert in the GDR. But again the hope of a tour through the workers' and farmers' state was dashed.

GDR tour dream comes true - with "Whisky ohne Honecker"

When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, all "difficulties" came to an end. With the brand new LP "Bunte Republik Deutschland" in his luggage, Lindenberg sets off to finally catch up on his GDR tour.

At the opening concert in Suhl, the then 43-year-old played the "special train to Pankow" twice, in the original and in a new version. In which it says:"The whiskey is very tasty, we'll drink it now without Erich Honecker." He sings the "Girl from East Berlin" with GDR rock singer Ina Morgenweck and moves the female fans in particular to tears. A sea of ​​sparklers and lighters sways in the hall with ballad classics such as "Horizont". The people on the street made it clear that he was allowed to play here, thanks Lindenberg.

On the second day, Udo made a stop with his panic orchestra in Leipzig, the "hero city" of 1989 - a milestone for musicians and fans. Lindenberg's record company records the concert and releases the live album a little later.

The leather jacket is making a comeback in Rostock

The "panic nightingale" also makes a stop in the north. After the concert in Schwerin, Lindenberg enthused in an interview with NDR radio:"It's a bit like the demos. It's not violent, it's heartfelt and level-headed. Big eyes, great joy, great devotion somehow also with some songs. " It's been a really nice tour so far, the singer rejoiced.

He will play in Rostock a day later, on January 10th. There "Honey's" leather jacket appeared again:fans invite Udo Lindenberg to a clothing store. Its employees had bought the cult rag at the end of the 1980s for 7,500 East German marks in aid of Third World aid. In six cities - Suhl, Erfurt, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Schwerin and Rostock - Lindenberg plays in sold-out concert halls and in front of around 30,000 enthusiastic fans before heading back to the West:The second part of the tour led through 28 cities in Germany.