Vergessene Arbeitskämpfe - Ein Punk-Abend

Punk – Arbeit dem System

Utopie und Ernüchterung.

Punk in the GDR had been around since the early 1980s.

The centres of punk culture at the time were Berlin, Dresden, Erfurt, Halle and Leipzig. Being different and showing it was our elixir of life. Appearance and dress codes stood in maximum contrast to the desired image of the socialist personality. At first, the state was baffled by the movement considering their emergence to be set up by the class enemy to provoke the divide between youth and state leadership. For Mielke, only a heavy-handed approach was an option. In 1983, orders were issued to crush the youth movement. Confidential informants for the Stasi were infiltrating the scene. The stories told in the film too much future by Colonel, Mike Göde, Daniel Kaiser, Mita Schamal, Cornelia Schleime and Bernd Stracke recall the repressions they faced.

With some 2,500 visitors and 16 bands from the GDR, other socialist countries, West Germany as well as from Italy and West Berlin, the „Alösa Spring Festival“ on 21 and 22 April 1988 was the highlight of this era. Punk looked, felt and sounded like an expression of freedom in an unfree state.

PLANLOS

Eine Ostberliner Punklegende der 1980er Jahre, seit 2022 wieder aktiv.

Ich steh in der Schlange am Currystand,
Ich dreh mich nicht um, ich hab dich erkannt.
Du bist mein Schatten, wohin ich komme,
Ein schwarzer Fleck in der Sonne.
Wenn ich laut denke, dann bist du da,
Wo ist der Monitor hinter der Kamera
…
Du steigst in meinen Freund und horchst mich aus,
Berichtest die Lügen wie du sie brauchst.
Hyäne bedroht, bedroht durch ’ne Maus,
Maus hinter Gittern, Hyäne kommt raus.

Planlos Schlange, 1982

PLANLOS started in 1980 in the „shadow of the Berlin wall“ as one of the first east German punk bands. The formation was due to the liberating turmoil punk music triggered in the overregulated state GDR. PLANLOS was not interested in becoming famous and wealthy, they wanted to be seen and heard within the small punk scene and conspiratorial circles.

In 1983, PLANLOS was one of the most visible and accomplished bands of GDR’s punk underground. No doubt this was due to their dissidence being more nuanced than that of most other punks, with politically explicit lyrics that also fascinated because of their dark, uneasy poetry. PLANLOS‘ songs rank among the classics of GDR punk rock; songs and lyrics are firmly anchored in the logbook of GDR subculture. Hardly any other band embodied the charisma of East Berlin punks in quite the same way.

PLANLOS were part of the first GDR punk festival at the Christuskirche in Halle in 1983. In the same year, the band landed a major coup when they performed alongside West Germany’s Die Toten Hosen in a conspiratorial concert in the parish hall of East Berlin’s Erlöserkirche. The documentary Auswärtsspiel offers footage from this event, it premiered in 2022 and was repeatedly broadcast on German television.

PLANLOS always managed to successfully stand in the way of their own bright future in the GDR. Thanks to their resilience, they never made a legal appearance; the band played almost exclusively in church asylums. When the State Security caught wind, the fab and fulminous clamour suffered massive repression. PLANLOS disbanded in 1983 as a result of the pressure of being under constant surveillance and blackmailing attempts in the band’s private sphere.

PLANLOS reunited in July 2022 playing live gigs with original frontman and singer Michael “Pankow“ Boehlke and founding member, lyricist and guitarist Micha Kobs. Maik Reichenbach, founding member of the legendary Leipzig punk band L’Attentat, is on bass, with both bands sharing a common past and decade-long friendships and alliances. The shift from the past to the present is made by including guitarist Stefan Mißfeld and drummer Hans Frithjof Tismar, both from western Germany, who bring in a great deal of experience having played in various bands.

In this constellation, PLANLOS have performed at the “Jamel rocks the Förster” festival to an audience of several thousands; as part of the line-up during the Toten Hosen jubilee tour celebrating their 40^th band anniversary at the Tempelhofer Feld to 60,000 fans; they played live on Radio Eins station and they also gave concerts with Team Scheisse and Ruts DC.

facebook.com/planlos.eastside

Moloch are a Berlin-based band established around the early 2010s. The album Nur Motten nennen es Licht, released in late 2022 on ELFENART RECORDS, is their fourth record. German punk, dark and gloomy, inspired by the early 80s, with a modern twist and present-day themes. A blend of bitter sarcasm and melancholia. Two guitars, one bass, one drum. Punk. Period.

https://random-events-in-a-dying-universe.bandcamp.com/album/nur-motten-nennen-es-licht

https://moloch.blog/