Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Zoo Station
(U2) Bono embarks on a surreal journey inspired by a Berlin train station.
1995
Born to Die in Berlin
(The Ramones) Drug-addled musings revealing Berlin's dark
side.
2000
Dickes B
(Seeed) Reggae ode to the 'Big B' (ie Berlin).
2003
Berlin Du Bist So Wunderbar
(Kaiserbase) The beer commercial turned chart buster.
2007
Kreuzberg
(Bloc Party) Looking for true love…
2008
Schwarz zu Blau
(Peter Fox) Perfect portrait of Kottbusser Tor grit and grunge.
2013
Where are We Now?
(David Bowie) Melancholic reminiscence of Bowie's time in
1970s Berlin.
The 1920s
Cabaret may have been born in 1880s Paris, but it became a wild and libidinous grown-up in
1920s Berlin with jazz the dominant sound, especially after American performer Josephine
Baker's headline-grabbing performances at the Theater des Westens dressed in nothing but a
banana skirt. More home-grown cabaret music came in the form of the Berlin Schlager -
light-hearted songs with titles like 'Mein Papagei frisst keine harten Eier' ('My Parakeet
Doesn't Eat Hard-Boiled Eggs'), which teetered on the silly and surreal. The most success-
ful Schlager singing group was the a cappella Comedian Harmonists, who were famous for
their perfect harmonies of voices that sounded like musical instruments.
Another runaway hit was
The Threepenny Opera,
written by Bertolt Brecht with music by
Kurt Weill. It premiered in 1928 with such famous songs as 'Mack the Knife'. Friedrich
Hollaender was another key composer in the cabaret scene, noted for his wit, improvisation-
al talent and clever lyrics. Among his most famous songs is 'Falling in Love Again', sung
by Marlene Dietrich in
Der Blaue Engel
. Like so many other talents (including Weill and
Brecht), Hollaender left Germany when the Nazis brought down the curtain, and continued
his career in Hollywood.
The pulsating 1920s drew numerous classical musicians to Berlin, including Arnold
Schönberg and Paul Hindemith, who taught at the Akademie der Künste and the Berliner
