Love Songs from the GDR

Suse Jank was only five years old when the Berlin Wall fell, and her memories of life in the GDR seem as though they belong to a distant past. But she does have vivid memories of the songs her father sang to her. He would pick up his guitar and sing to Suse and her sister the sentimental or romantic songs of bands such as Silly, Rent, Lift or singers such as Veronika Fischer or Petra Zieger.

Now, Jank and her band recreate those pop songs of the GDR in a version bound to appeal to contemporary audiences. Her newest CD, due out on November 30, is called "Ostpoesie" or East Poetry. But her CD is not an "Ostalgie" trip, Jank insists. We perform this music not because of any loyalty to the ideology of the former East, she says, but simply because these songs have charm, originality and a certain timeless quality. Jank believes they deserve a fresh interpretation.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

So, too, does her pianist and arranger, Clemens Süßenbach, who accompanies her on "Ostpoesie." Süßenbach is a jazz pianist who has lived all his life in Zehlendorf, in the West, but he fell in love with GDR rock and pop after Jank introduced him to some of its classic hits.

These are fascinating songs, says Süßenbach, especially as many were written to express individuality and desire in a time of political repression.  When I first heard Silly's song "SOS", I thought: Cool! A pop song about ships. Only later did I figure out that a critique of the political system ran right through the song.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

For Jank, these are primarily songs from her childhood, and she takes great care in choosing her repertoire, paying special attention to the texts. They often have a wonderful visual poetry about them, she says. Listen to her sing Manfred Krug's "Wenn du schläfst mein Kind," or "When you sleep, my child," and you will know what she means.

Jank's crystal clear voice and heartfelt rendition of these forgotten songs from the GDR often move her audiences, sometimes to tears. It hardly matters whether she and her band play in the "newcomer" states of the Federal Republic or in the old West.

Photo: SUPERillu/Handelmann

You can catch Suse Jank and her international band (the other three members are from Sweden, Italy and Armenia) at their record-release celebratory performance at the B-Flat jazz club on Monday, November 30 -- the day "Ostpoesie" hits the music stores.

Suse Jank and her band will perform in B-Flat, Rosenthalerstr. 13, 10119 Berlin, on Monday, November 30, at 21:00. Tickets are 10 EUR, 8 EUR reduced price. Nearest stop is S-Bahn Hackescher Markt. More information is at www.b-flat-berlin.de


If you miss them at B-Flat, you can hear Jank and her band on December 12 at 17:00 at the Amerika Gedenkbibliothek, Blücherplatz 1, 10961 Berlin (Kreuzberg).

Check It Out: Berlin gets a new Library

Check it out! At Berlin's new library, Humboldt University's Jakob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum, you can do so  -- literally.

At last Berlin has a library that matches the standards of public and university libraries in most world cities. The average university library in Germany has tended to be faintly depressing: bicycle-cluttered entrances, dreary coin-operated lockers (mostly malfunctioning), disheveled lounge areas and grubby vending machines, cranky photocopiers, even crankier librarians, and uncomfortable, elbow-rubbing work spaces.

The Grimm Zentrum is an entirely new ball game.

Photo: Stefan Müller

Open for business at the start of the Winter Semester, the library throws open its doors to the public today for an Open Day. The new building replaces the old main library and twelve branch libraries of the Humboldt University, covering the humanities, economics, social and cultural sciences. Spiffy new technology allows you to check out and return books, and access all the information you need electronically.

If  the first few weeks are anything to go by, today should be a knockout success. The maximum capacity of 5000 visitors daily has already been reached. According to Olaf Eigenbrodt in administrative services, this is more than the number of visitors all the former branch libraries of Humboldt University combined received in a week!

Photo: Stefan Müller

Much of the Grimm Zentrum's success has to do with its architecture and interior design, conceived by the Swiss architect Max Dudler. It most unique feature is the main reading rooms, which Dudler has constructed as suspended galleries from each of the five floors above the central area. The combination of warm, dark cherry wood and cool, elegant glass creates an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere in which to work. From the reading rooms you look out over at the stacks on either side as through a wooden lattice work.

Every architectural and design detail has been carefully considered. The long rectangular shapes of the windows are repeated in the open wood panels on either side of the reading rooms as well as in the table tops (green linoleum, reminiscent of panes of frosted glass), and even in the rectangular shape of the lamps with their transparent shades. Very classy!

If, for a moment, your mind wanders from the book in front of you, you might catch sight of the S-Bahn swooshing silently by.


The Grimm Zentrum ls located in the S-Bahn viaduct right next to the S and U Friedrichstrasse station. Its holdings include 1. 5 million books in stacks, and a further 1 million books in storage. There are 1250 work spaces, many equipped with computers and Internet access. Currently open every weekday from 8 AM to 12 midnight, on weekends from 10 AM to 6 PM.

Berlin Remembers

Berliners remember the confusion, disbelief, overwhelming joy and emotional reunions they experienced twenty years ago to the day, on November 9, 1989.

Today, however, is a day not only for the Berliners but for the rest of the world. Over two thousand journalists and television crews, over thirty heads of state, and hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world are here. This evening they will converge on the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate), a focal point for the commemorations of the fall of the Berlin Wall, although it was never actually part of the Wall.

The Brandenburger Tor as Symbol
Every day Karl-Heinz zur Weihen of the Berlin Senate receives requests from advertisers and film makers to use the gate as a background. One installation artist wanted to drape a giant banana over the columns, another wanted to construct a rainbow above.

Why is the Brandenburger Tor such a powerful symbol?

Commissioned by Frederick William II in the late eighteenth century to replace the old baroque city gates, it was designed by the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans. Inspired by the Propylaea of Athens, Langhans brought the strict lines of neoclassical design to Berlin's city architecture. The double row of six Doric columns marked the outer end of the grand axis of Unter den Linden.

The "Horse Thief"
The gate's most distinctive feature is the copper quadriga  above the central columns, the work of the young sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow.  The quadriga portrays the Roman goddess of victory, riding in her chariot drawn by four horses galloping into the eastern part of the city.

Napoleon bagged the quadriga -- chariot, goddess, horses and all -- when the French army defeated Prussia in 1806, and spirited it away to Paris. It was a matter of pride for the Prussian army when they returned the quadriga to Berlin in a triumphant procession after they had routed Napoleon's forces in 1814. The gate became a "Gate of Victory," and the square in which it stood became (and still is today) the Pariser Platz (Paris Square).

The Victory Gate
The gate remained a symbol of Prussian power and military might as long as the empire lasted. After that, it became the backdrop for military parades and ceremonial receptions. On the night of January 30, 1933, when Hitler was appointed Chancellor, rows of torch-bearing brownshirts paraded through the grand columns.

By 1945 the gate was badly damaged, shot at first by the Germans after Soviet soldiers planted their red flag atop it, then by the Red Army. Reconstruction workers counted 50,000 bullet scars. After 1945, the gate stood within Soviet territory, but nobody stopped Berliners from walking through the gate, past the sign that said: You are now leaving the Soviet sector.

"Open this Gate!"
On August 13, 1961, the sound of power drills filled the square. Cement blocks were laid out in a semi-circle in front of the gate, marking the outer limits of Berlin's Mitte district and the inner boundary of the Soviet-occupied territory. This became one segment of the Berlin Wall. Soon the Brandenburger Tor stood in no-man's land, cut off from the West, accessible in the East only to guests and dignitaries invited by the State.

When John F. Kennedy visited in 1963, the heads of state in East Berlin had red banners hung between the columns to block the view into the east.

"As long as the Brandenburger Tor remains closed," said Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of the Federal Republic and the first head of state of a unified Germany "the German question remains open."

In 1987, Ronald Reagan's words echoed across the world: "Mister Gorbachev, open this gate!"

November 9, 1989
Then, on November 9, 1989, a documentary film camera and a microphone recorded how a woman from Linienstrasse in the former East Berlin, Bärbel Reinke, rushed up to one of the guards in front of the Brandenburger Tor and cried out in anger and frustration: "All I want is to go through these gates and back again. My sons serve in the army of the GDR -- is this all so hard to understand?" Her heart still beats faster, says Bärbel Reinke, when she rides her bicycle through the gate.

This evening, at 6:30 PM, when Daniel Barenboim's orchestra tunes up, I know where I'll be.