Who was/is Hans Scheibner ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Hans Scheibner
"A little angel came to God the Lord and struggled for air with terror: / The earth, Lord, your beautiful star has just gone up in smoke / God smiled: "Oh, my little one: / It doesn't matter, nobody will notice!" (from: It doesn't matter, nobody notices that)
It was only at the age of 30 that Hans Scheibner appeared on the Hamburg cabaret scene, where the trained publishing merchant and editor first appeared on the cabaret stage 'Die Wendeltreppe' with his 'blasphemous' poems. The artist, born in Hamburg in 1936, belongs to the so-called "satirical prehistoric rock" ('FAZ') in the country. In contrast to fellow cabaret artists like Dieter Hildebrandt, but similar to Hanns Dieter Hüsch in his early phase, Hans Scheibner is also a songwriter and songwriter. In 1976 he wrote the text for Nico Haak's Top-10 hit Schmidtchen Schleicher. Two years earlier he had already landed his first successful title: For Meyers Dampfkapelle he wrote the text of Ich mag so gern am Vertahn. And he also sang the title on the group's record. After the success of this song Scheibner got his own record contract and produced a number of albums in quick succession. The title song of his third LP 'Was in Achterndiek in der Nacht geschieht' became the anthem of the antiquity movement in Brokdorf - and the first Scheibner work to be banned by the authorities. Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg had the song, which has meanwhile become a classic, placed on the radio index.
In the following years, the Hamburg native experienced censorship even more often. When in November 1985 he sang his ballad of Lysistrata live in an NDR talk show on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the German Armed Forces, it came to an uproar. In response to a corresponding question by Federal Defence Minister Manfred Wörner, Hans Scheibner described those responsible for the Cold War with weapons of mass destruction as murderers - freely after Tucholsky. At the instigation of the then NDR director Friedrich Wilhelm Räuker, this meant the end of his television show '... by the sloop of fortune'. And as a result, the 'Hamburger Abendblatt', which had called him in 1978 to write satirical columns, separated itself from its author: "Scheibner called our Bundeswehr soldiers murderers. He's no longer acceptable to this newspaper." This fate happened to him again only seven years later at the 'Hamburger Morgenpost'. Scheibner was fired after a satirical text about the strange blindness of some police officers or their superiors in the political right eye - while they would like to hit left-wing demonstrators brutally, they let neo-Nazis demonstrate unchallenged.
In spite of the scandals and protests that have repeatedly occurred about his texts, Hans Scheibner does not see himself primarily as a political satirist, but more as an author of "loving observations from absurd everyday life". However, this never prevented him from finding clear words for his topics. "He kicks lustfully into every fat cup where it gets in front of his feet," wrote director and producer Volker Kühn about Scheibner. "The Pope, the military, state omnipotence and spineless opportunism, left-wing careerists and right-wing comradeships - no one is safe from him." Not even Hannes Wader, one would like to add with regard to the song represented here, which Scheibner wrote for his 1977 LP 'Neue Lästerlieder' - "about a friend whom I still consider to be the best songwriter". This is the story of Hannes Wacker, the singer with the worker songs:
"We sat together in Uncle Pö and Hannes proudly told me, 'Well, I've joined the KPD now, I'm a Communist.'
My father was a worker and a Social Democrat, but that was enough for some heavy slaps in the face that he had to endure. My wife's uncle and his father were Communists. Uncle went to a concentration camp for it, you never heard from him again. I can only take my hat off to people who are dedicated to an absolute goal. Will you now make your fortune available to the Party?
'No', Hannes said, 'What makes you say that?'
I said: 'I think communism, Marxism is not some party program, but a mission, a question of existence. Marx and Lenin assume that the struggle of the working class will help later generations to victory - and until then everything must be sacrificed for the struggle. Even though there will be bloodshed, it is necessary for the great goal of mankind - the equality of all. One cannot lead another life with private property on the side - in this point communism is something like a religious doctrine: either one devotes oneself entirely to it or not at all. That's why I never got it over with - I'm too selfish for that.'
Hannes just looked at me and probably thought, 'He's crazy, the Scheibner.' But I am still of that opinion today. You can't become a communist like you become a member of the SPD or FDP. It's an existential choice.
The publication of the song had bad consequences for me at that time. I was attacked and cut by the intellectual scene and of course by the Hannes Wader fans. O-Ton Henning Venske: 'You have to watch Scheibner, he's dangerous.' This was the case in 1979/80, when even in the West it was essential, especially among intellectuals and songwriters, to hold Marxism to be the great salvation of mankind - Marcuse and Bloch ('The Principle of Hope') were his prophets. What Stalin, for example, had done was simply overlooked or trivialized. I reject Marxism - not because I think capitalistically (I have experienced enough hostilities from this side too and know that without Marxism we are probably heading back to an 'imperialist' situation) - but the counterforce can never be an 'unassailable doctrine' that can only lead to dictatorship again."
Die Lieder' is the title of an exhibition of works published in 2004 with 57 Scheibner titles on four CDs.
www.hansscheibner.de
Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.2, For whom we sing (3-CD)
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