Berlin. It's about a drastic event in the history of the GDR - the expatriation of the songwriter Wolf Biermann in 1976. But in the end Angela Merkel comes to talk about the present in autumn 2026. "We as citizens must stand up loudly and decisively for this state again," says the ex-chancellor from the CDU - and adds: "It is a fight for something for which, fortunately, you will not be persecuted. But so that you are not persecuted one day, you have to commit yourself to the values of our state today."
The former head of government came to the Kino International in Berlin for an event organized by the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED Dictatorship. Biermann, who turns 90 on November 15, sits next to her in the front row. “Festival of the Critical Spirit” is written large on the screen - and a little smaller above it: “50 years of Biermann’s expatriation”. Merkel, who grew up in the GDR and was 22 years old at the time, gives a kind of celebratory speech. She uses them for some personal comments, but also for an appeal.
“Our country is united, but yet excited and torn,” said the off-duty Chancellor. "We suspect that democracy is more vulnerable than we thought, that it needs more than just free elections. It needs us, the citizens who want to live in a democracy." Merkel speaks of a mandate for everyone to actively commit to this free state - for example, to the dignity of every human being, to freedom of expression and also to the protection of minorities.
“In this respect, we also need encouragement today, albeit under completely different circumstances,” says Merkel, drawing on the evening’s occasion. “Wolf Biermann is also so close to us because his songs are such encouragements to act.”
Before her speech, Biermann sang a few songs with his guitar - in his inimitable style, as Merkel says. "He begs and he accuses and always with passion. And with that he fills the rooms, he inspires the imagination, and if everything goes well, then he even gives courage."
In her tribute, Merkel describes the stages in Biermann's life, who moved from Hamburg to the GDR at the age of 16 and wanted to help build communism. However, he quickly came into conflict with the ruling SED party with critical songs and poems and was banned from performing for years. After a concert in Cologne on November 13, 1976, he was not allowed to return to the GDR and his citizenship was revoked. This triggered protests and solidarity actions in the GDR's cultural scene.
Biermann's Cologne concert was the first opportunity for Merkel to "experience him singing in images and color," as she explains - in a broadcast on ARD a few days later. “I drove home from my place of study in Leipzig to Templin in order to watch the concert, as of course I couldn’t see any Western programs in the student dormitory.” Otherwise she only heard the songs on tape recordings that her father obtained.
For Biermann, despite the brutal manner in which he lost his "homeland", expatriation was a further step in breaking away from belief in communism, says Merkel - and for the GDR, with the subsequent departure of so many artists, a further step on the way to its end. At the end of her speech, when she spoke of Biermann as an encourager, Merkel said: "Dear Wolf, that's why we need your voice not only today, but also in the future. All the best and many thanks to you, the almost ninety-year-old."
Biermann is then asked on the cinema stage how he and Merkel relate to each other. “When people complain about them, I defend them,” is the first thing he says. They are just friends. And he gradually learned that you can be that way even if you have different opinions. “Of course, that assumes that you overcome your cowardice in front of your own friend.” He wasn't able to learn tolerance under the dictatorship, but then he was able to learn it in the West. “This is of great benefit to me in my relationship with Angela Merkel.”
The last question in the small stage conversation is how moved he is after everything that so many people in the packed hall are now happy to listen to him at the celebratory event. Biermann comes to mind when he was there when the premiere of the film “Trace of the Stones” in this cinema was disrupted by the GDR state security. “Of course it’s deeply moving that we lasted longer than these bastards.”
You have to understand such a victory yourself, if only so that you can better endure the next defeats. “So that you don’t get tired.” For him, it is a great encouragement, says Biermann in front of the backdrop of the GDR-style cinema: "Not only that I am still alive, but that you are still alive. And on an evening like this it shows that this is possible here in this Ulbricht and Honecker box. Isn't that wonderful?"
