Who was/is Gerulf Pannach ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Gerulf Pannach
The poet Gisela Steineckert described Gerulf Pannach in 1974 as "young, bearded, angry and gifted". According to Salli Sallmann, he was "the Saxon-Plebeian counterpart to Wolf Biermann". In an obituary in 1999, Pannach's long-time comrade-in-arms Christian 'Kuno' Kunert added a further aspect: "It was a matter of spat, foul play, laugh, lying under the table - that was life! Snow shovelling at the city cleaning was one of them, and afterwards the cold seventy eggs were turned into Fernets, which made you hot! Full risk in the quarrel with stupid record producers, no different than before with crazy cultural functionaries."
Gerulf Pannach, born 1948 in Arnsdorf near Dresden, presented his first songs at the Chansonklub Pankow and was a member of the Central Singing Club Leipzig from 1969 to 1971 (among others Song vom Kapital). In 1971 he founded the Chansonklub Leipzig and wrote his first texts for the Klaus Renft Combo, including the title Zwischen Liebe und Zorn. In 1972 Pannach met Wolf Biermann for the first time. He later said about this: "This became a turning point for me and Renft, because from now on my lyrics became clearer and sharper." Biermann became Pannanch's role model and advisor, coordinating political actions with him and facilitating contacts with the West. Pannach became freelance, did his own concerts and went on tour with Renft, Lift and other bands. In February 1974, the State Security opened the Operational Procedure 'Chanson' against Pannach. In March he was 'absolutely banned from playing', but nevertheless appeared as a break filler in Renft concerts, most recently on 4 March 1975 at the Berlin Metropol-Theater. In September, the Klaus Renft Combo was banned. Pannach now worked together with the ex-Renft musician Christian 'Kuno' Kunert. They even received a grant contract in 1976, but their programme was banned in October. On 17.10.1976 they recorded an unofficial concert in Leipzig. It appeared in 1977 in the West on record and contained among other things the title Overtaking without catching up. After they had signed the protest declaration against the expatriation of Wolf Biermann and 'fled' to Robert Havemann's property in Grünheide, Pannach and Kunert were arrested in November 1976 with the writer Jürgen Fuchs and deported to the West in August 1977.
On 31.10.1977 Pannach and Kunert gave their first public concert in the West in the West Berlin Academy of the Arts, on 4 November they performed with Wolf Biermann in the sold-out ice rink. They didn't understand themselves as dissidents, but wanted to "write horny songs, sing horny" (Kunert). Their preferred venue was the West Berlin seam, they went on tour, experienced a change of high flights and dry spells and separated "at regular intervals ... forever". In 1981 they produced the album 'Fluche Seele curche' with modest means. In 1986 Pannach became the leading actor in the film 'Fatherland' by Ken Loach. "In between, we used to snow in West Berlin because we didn't have any coal." (Pannach).
On 2.12.1989 Pannach appeared with other expatriated singer-songwriters for the first time again in the GDR (Haus der jungen Talente, Berlin), 1990 also at the last festival of political song.
In 1991 he wrote songs for the play 'Moll Flanders' at the Freie Volksbühne. In 1993 he performed for the last time with Christian Kunert, then played with Peter Gläser, Manfred Maurenbrecher and various rock groups. He wrote texts for Peter Gläser, the Puhdys and Veronika Fischer. In 1996 he fell ill with cancer. In 1997 he went on tour again with the Klaus Renft Combo. Gerulf Pannach died in 1998.
Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.3, For whom we sing (3-CD)
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