More than 100,000 people celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall in an open-air party. In light of the 30th anniversary for the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Germans recall how music through the formation of illegal raves, reunited a divided nation.
Germany, in particular Berlin, is a shrine for modern dance music. Ravers from all corners across the globe pilgrimage out to Berlin to surrender to the music’s intoxicating rhythms. No prejudices. No divisions. Just music.
Sadly, it was not always like this in Berlin.
It’s hard to fathom, but an integrated scene of cultural and musical revolution in Berlin, Germany was merely a distant fantasy thirty years ago due to the division of the Berlin Wall dividing the capital between East and West.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, a cultural unification between East and West took place. Abandoned warehouse and corporate buildings became the breeding makeshift ground for illegal raves and parties. The birth of a musical techno and cultural revolution in Germany.
30 years down the track and the world reviews the cultural miracle that took place. How political divisions and unrest can lead to the creation of unique, raw and powerful music.
MixMag recently interviewed DJ HELL, a musical cultural beacon who experienced the effects of the Fall of the Berlin Wall:
“In the 80s we believed in a so-called “no future generation” – Berlin was a Mecca for outsiders, punks, and different-thinking people. Early ‘80s German punk and new wave music was becoming very strong – it was the first time innovative experimental music was in the spotlight with German lyrics. The music scene was very radical at the time. Lots of people in Berlin weren’t fitting into society and created their own world.”
These punk and rave sentiments inevitably emerged following the fall of the Berlin Wall, becoming a cultural haven for the world of techno.
Party to the People soon became Power to the People.
Heiko Hoffmann, a mere teenager at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall, recalls the profound effect the fall of the Berlin Wall had on him. Addressing the BBC, Hoffman said:
“Just a couple of weeks after the fall of the wall I was dancing in industrial ruins next to people from the east, who just a couple of months earlier I wouldn’t have been able to meet. If someone would tell you today that next week North and South Korea would be reunited, and a radical new form of music that you didn’t know existed before would be coming, and people would be dancing together in spaces that were new and unused for both of them, you would think that’s completely utopian.”
Hoffman describes the fall of the Berlin Wall as an “Utopian” scenario for ravers. From dark times, a new raw and primitive sound emerged. Ravers hungry for change and unification bred not only a musical, but a cultural revolution. The birth of a new and hopeful era for dance music.
As East Berliner Sebastian Szary (member of the duo Modeselektor) recalls to the BBC:
“Anything was possible because there was no rule, the government was still in a grey zone – in a no-man’s land – and the law was not written.”
At the onset of the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, let’s take a cue from the Berliners. When there’s political unrest, music has proven throughout history to be the healing and disruptive medium of change. When it comes to the present Sydney draconian lockout laws putting a dampener on nightlife and culture, do not despair. With division comes change and new potential opportunities. Just look at the Berliners.
Whether we like it or not, music has always and will continue to be intrinsically intertwined with culture and politics.