biography
pronunciation:
[beerman]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1936– )
|
| biography:
| Poet and songwriter, born in Hamburg, N Germany, the son of a communist worker killed in Auschwitz. In 1953 he went to the German Democratic Republic, where he studied and was engaged by the Brecht-Ensemble theatrical troupe in East Berlin. His increasingly critical political songs brought him into conflict with the authorities: in 1963 he was expelled from the ruling German Socialist Unity Party (SED); two years later the state banned his work; and finally in 1976, when he was performing in the Federal Republic of Germany, he was stripped of his citizenship. Settling in Hamburg, he continued to tour and perform his songs, which pillory both communism and capitalism, while frequently striking a highly personal note. They include Die Drahtharfe (1965), Mit Marx- und Engelszungen (1968), Für meine Genossen (1973), Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1973), Loblieder und Haßgesänge (1977), Nachlaß I (1977), Der Friedensclown (1977), Affenfels und Barrikade (1986), and the collected Alte Lieder (1991). |
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