When one of the biggest German rock bands turns 40, something special is needed for their milestone birthday. But what do you give the musicians of Toten Hosen, who actually have everything?
The new ARD documentary “Away game: Die Toten Hosen in Ost-Berlin” solves the problem impressively. Or, as Hosen singer Campino put it after the Berlin premiere at the end of March: “The film reminds us very well why we exist at all. I can’t imagine a better birthday present.”
You don’t even have to be a fan of punk or Die Toten Hosen to be interested in this 75-minute documentary (on April 13 at 10:50 p.m. on the first; already from April 10, the band’s birthday, on the ARD- media library).
“Auswartspiel” is not a flat homage to the Düsseldorf rock icons, founded in 1982 (even if the musicians come across as very likeable in the film). But much more: a bow to the rebellious, courageous East musician colleagues of the Hosen – and “a piece of contemporary history, now completely independent of punk rock”, as guitarist Michael “Breiti” Breitkopf stated.
So what happened back then, almost 40 years ago, in the capital of what was then the GDR?
A flashback
Almost a year after the semi-official band foundation with a debut concert in Bremen in April 1982, the Toten Hosen pulled off a cheeky coup: Prepared by the clever British music manager Mark Reeder, Campino, Andi, Breiti, Kuddel and Trini fooled the GDR Stasi. They smooth out their shaggy punk looks and drive across the heavily guarded border in their dilapidated yellow tour bus for a “secret concert”.
The goal: a church in East Berlin that organizes blues and rock fairs under the suspicious gaze of the real socialist state. Together with the Toten Hosen, already admired by GDR punks, the East band Planlos around singer Michael “Pankow” Boehlke and drummer Bernd Michael Lade (who will be successful as a “Tatort” commissioner after reunification) will perform.
“East-West Through the Glasses of Punk”
“Away Game” now tells the story of this meeting of two worlds and the illegal punk performance with sensitivity and wit in rare archive recordings and current interviews. Where film documents are missing, the memory is sometimes reproduced with cartoons. “East-West through the glasses of punk”, is how director Martin Groß explains the claim of his film.
The emotional highlights include the reunion of the musicians and a tribute concert by Hosen in the Berlin church, tears can be seen glistening. An ex-Stasi henchman takes on the role of the bogeyman – one nevertheless feels respect for the fact that he put his point of view in front of a camera.
Today it is clear that the appearance of the Toten Hosen in the early 1980s together with Planlos (who were later perfidiously shut down by the Stasi) was a signal of solidarity for the Eastern punk scene. In the film, Campino (59) says: “It was a kind of underground scouting, which I thought was awesome all my life.” And Planlos drummer Lade (57) says: “It was all prelude to the fall of the GDR.”
Bow to Planlos
It is not only in the TV documentary that it is noticeable how deeply the most popular German punk rock band (besides the doctors) bows to their Eastern colleagues. “Through this film project you can see what brilliant guys these haphazard guys were,” affirmed Campino at the Berlin premiere. The fact that the young musicians in the GDR never allowed themselves to be corrupted – “that still impresses me,” says the Hosen singer. “Against you, we’re really just a kid’s birthday party.”
And Hosen guitarist Breiti added: “We were always aware that they were very courageous and had a much heavier program than we have ever come close to. (…) It was clear to us: If the whole thing blows up, then we’ll land for one night in a holding cell, and then we’ll be thrown out again. But for all the people in the East that would have had very different consequences.”
At the Berliner Hosen concert in August, the Planlos musicians are now supposed to appear as guests. With the “Alles aus Liebe” anniversary tour of the Düsseldorf band from June 10th (starting in the rival metropolis of Cologne on the Rhine), four successful band decades will be celebrated. In numbers: 17 studio and 8 live records, 7 compilations – since 1990, the Hosen have been number 1 in the album charts eleven times.
In response to a question from the German Press Agency, Campino (bourgeois: Andreas Frege) emphasizes that “definitely not” the band thought of such a long existence 40 years ago. “We only lived for the moment then, and basically we still do today.” As a band, you now feel “a huge gratitude for how long we’ve been able to pull this off and that our audience is still not fed up with us”. (dpa)