Who was/is Die 3 Tornados ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Die 3 Tornados
"Laughter can a) free, it can b) but it can also brighten, it can give strength and it can be a valve. You have to use laughter in its diversity." (Günter Thews)
The Tornados was founded in 1977 by the students Arnulf Rating and Günter Thews as a fun guerilla theatre in Berlin. Their resolution: to make a theater from which "the people above come out with expanded consciousness and below with wet pants." They had their first appearances - first with Hans-Jochen Krank and later with Holger Klotzbach as the third tornado - during strike actions at the Free University against bans on employment and during anti-nuclear demonstrations in Brokdorf. Over the years they have been seen on streets and squares as well as in theatres and youth centres. They played in the Russell Tribunal on the situation of political prisoners as well as at the TUNIX Congress in Berlin in 1978, from which the initiative 'Die Tageszeitung' emerged.
The song for 2 June 1967 appeared in 1977 on the LP 'Flipperschau'. To the melody of the hit "Rote Lippen soll man küssen" the tornadoes remind of the murder of Benno Ohnesorg during a demonstration against the visit of the Shah of Persia in Berlin. Despite all their criticism of nuclear power, retrofitting and growth fetishism, the 3 Tornados did not leave their own house and hearth out in the cold. In plays like Der Frauenfreund or in the song vom guten Kommunisten, they also clearly read the riot police of the left-wing scene.
Today's comedy world could learn a lot from the sense of nonsense that Die 3 Tornados showed. Just as the tornadoes had looked around for their programmes in the world and in the history of political theatre: "We have seen that people abroad deal with politics and humour in a completely different way, to call it Dario Fo. Such examples show that it is possible to combine politics with humour, which has always been a heavy tradition in Germany" (Günter Thews in 'Folk-Magazin', 3/1981).
When Günter Thews - 'Tornado Günter' - died in 1993 from the consequences of his AIDS disease, the tornadoes could no longer exist. Kuno Kruse praised the trio after Thews' death in 'Die Zeit' as follows: "For television they were nothing. Once at the radio show, and never again. So the director of the SFB decided. Once on WDR and then in court for a Maria sketch. Once a big departure at Radio Bremen, and the show received the Grimme Prize. But nevertheless, almost a million spectators have experienced the tornadoes. 120 performances a year, thirteen years long, with bulky trunks in a red combination on tour. The halls remained full, but the soul was diluted. The themes remained the same, but the zeitgeist was new. The Monopoly people marched. And the disease ate Günter Thews."
Trikont has released a four CD exhibition entitled 'Die 3 Tornados - 1977-1988'.
Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.2, For whom we sing (3-CD)
/various-songwriter-in-Germany-vol.2-for-who-who-we-sing-3-cd.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records®. Copying, also of extracts, or any other form of reproduction, including the adaptation into electronic data bases and copying onto any data mediums, in English or in any other language is permissible only and exclusively with the written consent of Bear Family Records® GmbH.