BOOKS & DVDS

Burning Down The Haus:

Punk Rock, Revolution And The Fall Of The Berlin Wall Tim Mohr DIALOGUE

Excellent study of the role of East German punk in the country’s downfall.

In the 1970s, krautrock sought to shun all Anglo-American influences and create a musical identity of its own, West German in origin. In East Germany, things were different. There, the imperative was to shun the blandness of state-approved bands and take inspiration from the radical West. In the late 70s, this meant punk.

Author Tim Mohr traced the very first East German punk – Britta Bergmann, aka Major, who first started wearing safety pins in 1977. In a manner that’s almost novelistic, Mohr traces the others that follow her over the coming months and years – Micha, Pankow, and the fearsome Otze, a huge young man who if refused drinks at a bar would bodily lift the bartender away and serve himself. If being a punk was no picnic in Britain in the 70s,