« The super rich make the world gross »
Servus Konstantin Wecker, they have long been on stage after their vertebral fracture and rehab. You were last on rehab in Thailand, and the new tour started in March. How are you doing?
Konstantin Wecker: The broken back vertebra is now healed quite well. If the political situation were not so terrible, I couldn’t complain much.
What do you say in view of the recent contemporary and political developments in Germany?
ALARM CLOCK: After this frightening Bundestag election I wrote a small statement. I am pleased with the gain of the left, but as an artist, anarchist and anti -fascist, I think this election result is dismay – even if it was expected. The new government with a former sexist Blackrock Manager as Chancellor will be back on social injustice and racist, inhumane migration policy. What encourages me are 250,000 people in Munich And the many millions in the country that have built barricades against the racist agitation. We need a new movement! And we artists have to be incredible. If the AfD In any way, sovereignty over culture is achieved, then this is our end.
And that’s not only the case in Germany, but also in many other countries and in the USA It is similar. Are we just on the way to a time of fascism and autocratic structures?
ALARM CLOCK: Yes, unfortunately. I think that is simply not to be separated from capitalism and the incredible power -obsessed rule of the super rich worldwide. Of course, you have the opportunity to tell people all sorts of things that the refugees are fault of everything and so on. Basically, however, they are Billionairewho took our breath away and made the world so gross. Despite this situation, I do not let the hope of utopias to be robbed. Little I see as an artist how I can encourage people to stand by themselves and not to run after any ideologies. This is also reflected in the current program “Songs of my life“Again. I myself was blessed with incredible happiness, also with my parents’ house. I often put this luck with the many stupidities that I committed in the course of my life. But I survived to some extent.
I meet more and more people who say they would no longer endure it in this Germany. Would you emigrate if the AfD 2029 or 2033 came to power?
ALARM CLOCK: Maybe if I were younger. But at the moment I don’t even know where. For example, I love being in Italybut there is a woman Meloni On the trigger. And when I was almost 78, I will probably not leave Germany. But now I notice it all the more as I am incredibly courageous all the writers I revered like Stefan Zweig, Erich Mühsam or Mascha Kaléko at the time. Fortunately, we are not as far as it was then. I can still appear here without being arrested.
Would you have imagined in 1990 where the merger of the two German countries would end politically? Because the torn wall was replaced by an invisible wall and the earlier frustration with new frustration.
ALARM CLOCK: No, never. I have my song ‘Say no!’ Written shortly after the turn. But I never thought that this song would get such a meaning.
What mistakes have been made that there was such a political development that, especially in the east, drove millions of right -wing populists?
ALARM CLOCK: I was in contact with political fighters of the GDR shortly before the turn. They wanted a fall of the SED dictatorship, but they didn’t want capitalism to overrun the country. In my first concert after the reunification, fur traders were outside in the foyer and tried to sell furs. You have to imagine that. The first to take the GDR at the time were fur and car dealers, insurance agents and pimps.
At that time, Oskar Lafontaine asked to develop the GDR as a separate country. Would that have been the better way from today’s perspective?
Alarm clock (think for a long time): I don’t know that. Today we just have to find other ways to solve the problems. This is good for the young left, which has set out to show the economically left the right way. This means not only to limit yourself to the migration topic, but above all means to promote justice in this country again that really support the needy. In addition to the left, this program has no other party in mind.
This may be due to the fact that the parties that are governing, i.e. in power, are of course difficult in view of the financial situation?
ALARM CLOCK: That’s why I am an avowed anarcho. It is the power that causes us the problems. Politicians who absolutely want to stay in power do everything for their power, but not always the best for people.
They call themselves an anarchist. What makes such a person in your view?
ALARM CLOCK: I also have to say that when I was 17, I read Henry Miller, who was the real artist, yes, he even has the obligation to be anarchist. That already shaped me. Then I dealt intensively with the Munich Räter Republic. There were so many poets that I was enthusiastic about, in the first way Erich Mühsam and Gustav Landauer. Then I was more and more concerned with the topic of anarchy. In the end, it is about striving for a rule -free world. This utopia, which all want to talk to us all over again, we all carry them deep in our hearts. For an artist like me, it is an obligation to adhere to this utopia.
Why don’t you give up your dream of a free society despite all the current setbacks? Because the crowd runs after those who exclude the other?
ALARM CLOCK: Yes, most grew up with other ideas. But my parents’ house saved me from the start. Above all, early dealing with literature and poetry always had me captured the idea of the company -free society. In this context, it is also interesting that all despots first want to abolish free culture.
Because culture inspires imagination and that is dangerous for the dictators?
ALARM CLOCK: And access to his innermost, to the feelings, to the emotions is also dangerous for the rulers. The longing for love lives in all of us. That shouldn’t be different with despots. It is interesting that I have already written so much on this topic as a young man because I always trusted my poetry. It was always a lot of wiser and wiser when I was. It was a gift, I didn’t have to work out.
At this point a look at the German music scene. It is as colorful than for a long time and there are again a lot of songwriters or singer-songwriters. How do you like this development?
ALARM CLOCK: I think the development is quite exciting. However, I notice what everyone realizes: people no longer buy CDs, but only stream. Many artists suffer from this today, including those of my label. It works for myself, because I have a set audience, some of which still has CD players (he laughs).
It is difficult for the young generation to finance the livelihood with music. Because hardly anyone can live from the streaming proceeds.
ALARM CLOCK: Yes, unfortunately that is true. This has to be rethinked and new paths have to be found with which artists can finance themselves, which is mainly done today through concert revenue.
Do you think that songs or singer songwriting has another broad effect as in the 1960s and 1970s?
ALARM CLOCK: I think so. About other channels, of course. But the nice thing about most songwriters is that they are true to the motto of my song « I sing because I have a song ». They don’t make music to please, but because they want to express something. You do it out of conviction. They do not gage according to the kind of awareness you get in the jungle camp.
And you yourself. How long do you want to be on stage? Have you come to an end or do you leave it open?
ALARM CLOCK: As long as it works, I try to stay – especially in these times. A few years ago, a woman anonymously wrote me a letter. It says: ‘Dear alarm clock, I am always laughed at because I get involved in refugee homes – even from my own family. Now I was in your concert and have to tell you: It gave me courage and I keep going. ‘ This is a nice news for a singer like me. This is almost an obligation as long as I can stand on stage to encourage people.
To person
Konstantin Wecker, born in Munich in 1947, is a German musician, songwriter, composer, actor and author. He is one of the most famous German songwriters. In the 1990s, Wecker was in court for his drug addiction. He also processed these experiences in books. Most recently, the album « Songs of my life » appeared by him. On April 4, he appeared in Neu-Ulm, on April 5 in Coburg, on May 8th in Friedrichshafen and on May 12 in Munich.
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