THE BAND
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NEWS & ARTICLES
DAVE ROBB
FILLING STATION
FOR LOSERS
Songs of Gundermann
Gerhard Gundermann was an East German musician and miner from the Lusatian egion of south-east Germany. He came to the fore as a political singer during the protests leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He performed his two occupations side-by-side for years – he regularly went straight from shift work, operating an excavator in an open cast mine, to his gigs. He died in 1998 at the age of 43 at the height of his popularity.
25 years after his death the cultural fascination with the figure of Gundermann remains strong in East Germany. Tribute bands regularly perform his songs; the Gundermann Seilschaft e.V., an organisation based in Gundermann’s hometown of Hoyerswerda, promote musical and cultural events in his memory. He recently came to international attention with Andreas Dresen’s award-winning film Gundermann (2018).
The key to Gundermann’s continuing popularity lies – as well as in his infectious melodies – in the combination of utopianism and harsh realism in his lyrics. In the GDR he developed a new ‘heroic’ narrative to confront the rigid hierarchy of the socialist state. Later, in united Germany, he sang about the growing environmental threat. His songs express his eternal hope in humankind that is aware of its own fallibility, but also of its strength as part of the cycle of nature. In interview Gundermann famously stated: ‘I’d like to be something like a filling station for losers. I’d be happy if people said they needed bread, water and songs by Gundermann.’ His championing of the underdog continues to strike a chord with audiences living in a society that only deals in victory.
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HAVE YOUR SAY
My name is Dave Robb. I am a Reader in Music at Queen’s University Belfast. As part of an AHRC-funded Fellowship I have written research articles and translated and recorded ten songs by the East German protest singer Gerhard Gundermann. I am using this questionnaire to measure the impact of this work. I intend to draw on this data for an Impact Case Study to go forward for the Research Excellence Framework 2029. Any responses used will be quoted anonymously. Some may appear in online material published by Queen’s University. By submitting this you are agreeing to its use as described above.
Queen’s University Belfast’s AEL Ethics committee has approved this research project.