Exile in 1976 spawned mass protest movement and led to exodus of some of GDR’s top artists and actors
The life of East Germany’s most prominent dissident singer-songwriter, Wolf Biermann, is being celebrated for the first time in a major exhibition that examines his pivotal role in the country’s divided postwar history.
Biermann’s banishment from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1976 by communist authorities – who were unable to tolerate his outspoken criticism – not only fuelled his own popularity but helped spread his lyrical, incisive ballads, songs and poems to a far wider audience. It also spawned a mass protest movement, leading to the exodus of some of the GDR’s most popular artists and actors and the imprisonment of scores of freedom of speech campaigners.
About Author
More Stories
Internet shutdowns at record high in Africa as access ‘weaponised’
Australia live news: flood evacuation warnings in NSW and Queensland as waters rise after ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred deluge
Pro-Russia Cǎlin Georgescu barred from Romanian presidential election re-run