Biermann trifft Heine: »Ein neues Lied, ein bessres Lied«
Harbour Front Sounds
Brother Heine
The poet and singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann repeatedly refers to Heinrich Heine in his work. Which is no surprise considering both poets take a critical look at Germany as a nation. On this special evening, Wolf Biermann conducts a literary and musical dialogue with Heine about the tragic and the comic in the battle of the world, about love in the play of the sexes, and about displeasure and pleasure in exile.
Heine’s work was banned in all the states of the German Confederation in 1835. The young Wolf Biermann wrote his poem »Germany. A Winter’s Tale«, which is about a German-German journey through the wall, minefields and barbed wire, in East Berlin in the mid-1960s. That provocation ultimately led to his work being banned in 1965.
Only after being expatriated in 1976 was Biermann finally able to meet his revered »cousin« Heinrich Heine in Paris – in the Cemetery of Montmartre. Biermann wrote a song about this first personal encounter, and of course – since this is something both poets have in common – it has a generous dash of mockery and cold-hearted humour expressing a melancholic lust for life.
Festival
Harbour Front Sounds