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GDR music charts – The Top 20 hits at our listening station

A highlight in our WBS 70 prefabricated apartment is the living room listening station with hits by Karat and Silly. Curious? Discover our list of the top 20 chart songs. Read more

Popular Music in the GDR - Between Repression and Liberalisation

Although the SED repeatedly tried to prevent the influence of Western music culture in the GDR, there were hardly any limits to the creativity of young people. In this blog post, we delve into the tense relationship between the state and youth. Read more

10 popular records for a Christmas in the GDR

As soon as winter arrives, the Christmas season is never too far away. To get you in the Christmas spirit, we've picked out 10 Christmas records from our collection that were popular to listen to in the GDR. Read more

Wittstock instead of Woodstock - Blues in the DDR

They call themselves Kunden (“customers”), Trampers (“hitchhikers”), or Bluesers (“bluesmen”), wear long hair and beards, Jesus sandals, jeans and parkas. On the weekends they are always on the move, celebrating their dropping out of society in remote village halls, occupy the carnival festivities in Thuringia’s Wasungen, and pass along bottles of red wine during Eastberlin’s blues fairs. Read more

The asylum of Tamara in paradise – the rock group Silly

Ok, Silly had ever since the middle of the 1980ies arrived in the upper league of the GDR rock music with the Amiga album “Bataillon d’Amour” (1986), but there they weren’t the only ones. Unique though was their sound, which differentiated for the first time from the mainstream in the GDR. The drawers were too small for them. At least since Werner Karma assumed the overall control, the writing, it was clear, that here wouldn’t sung about dying swans, but rather the trouble’s brewing of dying cities, how he framed it. Read more