Laka has a large collection of music (on vinyl, LPs & Singles and on CD or even VHS and Music Cassettes) supporting the anti-nuclear struggle. Most of these recordings are documenting a specific struggle in a specific era and location, and are living documents of that decennia long struggle. We’re focusing on officially released music, but if appropriate added some digital content too. Music is part of Laka's 'special collections' - the culture of the international anti-nuclear movement - which also includes a large collection of anti-nuclear songbooks, posters and graphic novels. If you have anything to add, want to make a contribution or an inquiry about a specific record, please do not hesitate to contact us.
This page is still under construction, more information about specific releases will be added soon
Various Artists
Die Wacht am Rhein
Single, 1974
In Marckolsheim, a small French village on the Rhine, on the border with Germany, an important chapter in (European) environmental history was written in the years 1974 -1975. On September 20, 1974, residents of the region (France, Germany and Switzerland) successfully occupied the site of a planned, highly polluting lead factory. Twenty two weeks later, on January 25, 1975, the French government prohibited the construction of the plant. Just on the other side of the Rhine, in Germany, the Whyl nuclear power plant was planned.
This single is most likely the first recorded music from the antinuclear movement in Germany (and Europe?) released by the Initiative Gruppe Freiburg KKW Nein. The titlesong was written in October 1974, during the occupation of the Marckolsheim site (thus well before the site at Wyhl was occupied), and sung by Walter Mossmann. Die Wacht am Rhein is a nationalistic German anthem from 1854 against the ‘arch enemy’ France. During the occupation a banner on the site said: “Deutsche und Fransozen: Die Wacht am Rhein”. In the months and years after, Mossmann sang Die Wacht am Rhein in countless versions and re-phrased verses. In Alsace and Baden / there was great need for a long time / we shot for our masters / shot in the war each other dead. Now we fight for ourselves / in Wyhl and Marckolsheim / we hold here together / another guard on the Rhine. Which side are you on? / Hey! Here we occupy a place / Here we protect ourselves from the dirt / not tomorrow, but NOW! More info on the inner sleeve [German].
This single is most likely the first recorded music from the antinuclear movement in Germany (and Europe?) released by the Initiative Gruppe Freiburg KKW Nein. The titlesong was written in October 1974, during the occupation of the Marckolsheim site (thus well before the site at Wyhl was occupied), and sung by Walter Mossmann. Die Wacht am Rhein is a nationalistic German anthem from 1854 against the ‘arch enemy’ France. During the occupation a banner on the site said: “Deutsche und Fransozen: Die Wacht am Rhein”. In the months and years after, Mossmann sang Die Wacht am Rhein in countless versions and re-phrased verses. In Alsace and Baden / there was great need for a long time / we shot for our masters / shot in the war each other dead. Now we fight for ourselves / in Wyhl and Marckolsheim / we hold here together / another guard on the Rhine. Which side are you on? / Hey! Here we occupy a place / Here we protect ourselves from the dirt / not tomorrow, but NOW! More info on the inner sleeve [German].
Various Artists
Marckolsheim/Wyhl. Lieder im 'Frendschaft's Huss' / Chanson dans la 'Maison de L'amitié'
LP, 1975
In 1973 the French government had given a permit for the construction of a German-owned lead plant in Marckolsheim. On September 20, 1974, a few weeks after an international demonstration on August 25, when 2000 people gathered at Wyhl against the proposed lead-factory and nuclear power plant, residents of the French, German and Swiss region successfully occupied the site of the planned, highly polluting lead factory.
On January 25, 1975, twenty two weeks after the start of the occupation, the French government prohibited the construction of the plant. To celebrate the success, but also to raise awareness about other destructive plans, two weeks later, on February 9, singers, poets and bands from the region Elsass played at the Frendschafts Huss at the Marckolsheim site. Many of them performing in Alemannic, the regional dialect. On that evening this album was born. Only a few days later, on February 18, the site for the proposed Wyhl nuclear power plant, was occupied.
Listen to the song Herr Minister, ich will a Ding, performed by Jean Dentinger.
On January 25, 1975, twenty two weeks after the start of the occupation, the French government prohibited the construction of the plant. To celebrate the success, but also to raise awareness about other destructive plans, two weeks later, on February 9, singers, poets and bands from the region Elsass played at the Frendschafts Huss at the Marckolsheim site. Many of them performing in Alemannic, the regional dialect. On that evening this album was born. Only a few days later, on February 18, the site for the proposed Wyhl nuclear power plant, was occupied.
Listen to the song Herr Minister, ich will a Ding, performed by Jean Dentinger.
Walter Mossmann
Flugblattlieder
LP, 1975
Walter Mossmann, born in Karlsruhe in 1941, was a songwriter, author and journalist. He had been active in the anti-nuclear movement since the early 1970s, was a founding member of the ’Badisch-Elsässische Bürgerinitiativen’ in Wyhl and an activist in Gorleben, Brokdorf and Malville, among other places. His thinking was internationalist, grassroots democratic and far from all ideologies. He lived in Freiburg and for a time in the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Lemberg). Mossmann died in Breisach am Rhein in May 2015. Graswurzelrevolution about Walter Mossmann [German].
“Flugblattlieder (Pamphletsongs), because almost all of them were first distributed on pamphlets. All of them have a cause: a demonstration against the dismissal of a workers’ council member, or a police raid in the West End. A rally in Wyhl or a theater play about Berufsverbote. The long hours of the night vigil in an occupied house and or an occupied site. Some of them can easily be sung together, others can be listened to, sung by oneself, changed when needed. Therefore, notes and simple chords are printed in the enclosed booklet. Many ideas in the songs come from banners, chants, leaflets, speeches, discussions. Most effective songs you only get to hear if you are involved in the struggles in which they arise and often disappear. Their usefulness cannot be measured by sales quotas, you have to try them out.” About this record - (from the booklet included in Neue Flugblattlieder): “(...) At the same time we are interested in what has been done with these songs, how they change in time and while being used. Especially from the Wyhl and Berufsverbot songs we have now heard many very different versions (extended, shortened, in any case re-sung), and it was very exciting to see how such a song can change between Vienna and Basel and Kiel.”
Listen to the song Der KKW-Nein Rag, performed by Walter Mossmann.
“Flugblattlieder (Pamphletsongs), because almost all of them were first distributed on pamphlets. All of them have a cause: a demonstration against the dismissal of a workers’ council member, or a police raid in the West End. A rally in Wyhl or a theater play about Berufsverbote. The long hours of the night vigil in an occupied house and or an occupied site. Some of them can easily be sung together, others can be listened to, sung by oneself, changed when needed. Therefore, notes and simple chords are printed in the enclosed booklet. Many ideas in the songs come from banners, chants, leaflets, speeches, discussions. Most effective songs you only get to hear if you are involved in the struggles in which they arise and often disappear. Their usefulness cannot be measured by sales quotas, you have to try them out.” About this record - (from the booklet included in Neue Flugblattlieder): “(...) At the same time we are interested in what has been done with these songs, how they change in time and while being used. Especially from the Wyhl and Berufsverbot songs we have now heard many very different versions (extended, shortened, in any case re-sung), and it was very exciting to see how such a song can change between Vienna and Basel and Kiel.”
Listen to the song Der KKW-Nein Rag, performed by Walter Mossmann.
Various Artists
Atomanlagen in Liedern und Gedichten ihrer norddeutschen Gegner
LP, 1976
Nuclear facilities in Songs and Poems their North-German Opponents. This is the first anti-nuclear recording not dealing with nuclear facilities in French-German-Swiss area and the first of an hausse on recordings about Brokdorf. But as the title says, its not only about Brokdorf and other North-German nuclear power reactors, like Esenshamm and Würgassen. The first half of side 1 is about the WAA (Wieder AufarbeitungsAnlage – reprocessing plant) together with geological waste storage proposed at the time in the Papenburg region close to the Dutch border. Only a year later Gorleben (and later Wackersdorf for the WAA) was chosen instead as location for the entsorgungszentrum. Most of the songs, poems and conversations are written en performed by locals in dialect and recorded at several meetings during the autumn of 1976.
Various Artists
neue Lieder und Gedichte aus Dreyeckland
LP, 1977
On the independent Trikont-label, four recordings were released specifically about the fight against the planned nuclear power plant at Wyhl: two singles, Die Wacht am Rhein (1974) and Wyhl 75 (1975), and two LPs: Marckolsheim/Wyhl. Lieder im 'Frendschaft's Huss' / Chanson dans la 'Maison de L'amitié' (1975) and this one: neue Lieder und Gedichte aus Dreyeckland (1977). While the earlier records came from the circle of urban, left-wing nuclear opponents, this double album is intended to show what is happening musically in the Kaiserstuhl-region itself in the anti-nuclear movement. It contains mainly songs, as they are sung by Kaiserstühlers. It also reflects the cooperation that had begun among the people of the Alemannic-speaking "triangle country" of Baden, Elzass and northern Switzerland in the struggles at Marckolsheim, Fessenheim, Wyhl and Kaiseraugst. These struggles became a common denominator for the just burgeoning environmental movement in this three-country region called Kaiserstuhl (or sometimes just "Dreyeckland") and greatly increased the awareness that this Upper Rhine region, despite three different countries, have a common (cultural) history and language.
Re-issued with free download from Trikont.
Re-issued with free download from Trikont.
Peter, Paul & Barmbeck
Bullenballade (dieses AKW wird nicht gebaut)
Vinyl Single 7”, 1977
Peter, Paul & barmbek was a German polit folk group from Hamburg in 1970s and ‘Verlag Pläne’ a German independent music label, founded 1961 in Dortmund. It closed down in 2011. This record (‘Ballad of the Pigs – This nuclear power station will not be built’) was written and released in 1977, and describes the political and societal confrontations about the nuclear power plant near Brokdorf, of which the construction was started the year before with fencing off the construction site. The B-side ‘Mensch, Reiß Die Augen Auf!’ the topic of nuclear power comes up sideways. The struggle against Brokdorf was really the main focus of the German anti-nuclear movement and subject of many records (also in this collection) in the late seventies.
Various Artists
Lieder gegen Atomkraftwerke
LP vinyl, 1977
Twelve new songs about the anti-nuclear struggle from de Likedelers, VSK Musikgruppe, Arno Fries, Dirk & Michael and C.P. Lieckfeld released on this album by Neue Welt (politically active independent label from Cologne). For this Neue Welt initiative, more than 20 songwriters and musicians got involved. In the summer of 1977 the best songs were selected and recorded. The songs were mainly based on actions and struggles of the anti-nuclear movement in Northern Germany, in which most of the people involved were active themselves. In order to counter the attacks on the opponents of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant (charges of damage to property, trespassing, even attempted manslaughter, etc.), it was decided to support the Ermittlunsgausschuss (investigation committee) of the Bürgerinitiative (BUU) Hamburg with this record to help raising the high legal costs of criminalized nuclear-opponents. “Every attack on one anti-nuclear activist is an attack on the whole movement!” More information [German].
Listen to the song Ballade vom Strahlenden Oskar, performed by VSK Musikgruppe.
Listen to the song Ballade vom Strahlenden Oskar, performed by VSK Musikgruppe.
Jutta Heinrich
Brokdorf - Eine Vision
LP, 1977
Single side LP (Diese LP ist einseitig und kostet darum nur die Hälfte). Jutta Heinrich was a feminist author, born in Berlin in 1941, raised in Bavaria and studied Social pedagogy and from 1975 on Literature and German Studies at the University of Hamburg. Brokdorf A vision is a collection of essays about the Elbe-region, how the proposed Brokdorf nuclear power plant changed it and the consequences of a severe accident. After the nuclear accident in Harrisburg in 1979 she published: "Mit meinem Mörder Zeit bin ich allein"; a collection of letters, novel fragments, dream protocols, diary entries and poems with which she wrote against the surpression of the nuclear threat. "These texts are an expression of my physical and emotional reactions to a life under the mushroom cloud; it is the rebellious, wandering search for a home for my life, for all of our lives, in a time that is becoming ever more timeless, in a future that is exploding". Jutta Heinrich died in July 2021. More info on this album [in German].
Walter Mossmann
Neue Flugblatt-Lieder
LP, 1977
Mossmann’s successor of Flugblattlieder (1975): Songs about Seveso, international solidarity, unemployment, politicians and the antinuclear-struggle. Excerpt from the accompanying booklet: “I find it very encouraging how in the last years hundreds of useful political songs have been spread: on simple slips of paper, small booklets, pamphlets, on non-commercial records. For example, the fact that citizens' initiatives against nuclear power plants are working all over Germany has led to the exchange of songs in the fastest possible way, without the need for the media apparatus and commercial promotion. Certainly, it is not bad when songs that have something to do with our interests come out of the radio and television. But we don't need to be ingratiated and to sneak in there. If we depend on the success of one of these markets, then this has repercussions for the people and the work. The market forces competition on us and destroys solidarity. The market produces idols and detached individuals and destroys the relationships between us. The market makes us addicted to illusions, including political ones, and devalues our everyday experiences. We, in the political left, know this very well”. Sleeve notes [German]. Graswurzelrevolution about Walter Mossmann [German].
Various Artists
Wehrt euch!
LP, 1977
The Initiative fortschrittlicher Kulturschaffender (‘Initiative of progressive cultural workers’) was formed in the autumn of 1976 by members of the groups Oktober and Austrian band Schmetterlinge. In the Initiative musicians, lyricists, theater people, graphic artists and filmmakers joined forces and one of the aims was to support the anti-nuclear power movement. Because the initiative originated in the Hamburg region, a solidarity with the struggle against the nuclear center in Brokdorf was a logical step. Due to a legal procedure after the demonstration of 30,000 people at the end of November 1976, which was smashed by the police, a temporary construction stop had been declared. But the general impression was that a moratorium certainly did not mean a reprieve. This album was recorded in January 1977 to support the struggle to stop the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf – and elsewhere. Participating groups from the Hamburg Region are Roter Kaktus, Hamburger Straßentheater, Michael Iven and Druckknöpfe.
Various Artists
keiner oder alle
LP, vinyl, 1978
The second release of the Initiative fortschrittlicher Kulturschaffender (‘Initiative of progressive cultural workers’), a year after Wehrt Euch; numbered ifk 002. There is no ifk 001, most likely because Wehrt Euch – supposedly ifk001 – was released by Verlag Arbeiterkampf in stead of IfK for unknown reasons.
This album has also a strong emphasis on supporting the anti-nuclear power movement. Almost all songs (….) cover a part of the anti-nuclear struggle and the state-repression it faces. Just as Kalte Zeit from the same year (and many others), this record - with mainly bands from Hamburg - covers concrete songs about experiences, difficulties, hopes and dreams, but also resignation, anger and indignation in the face of these “Deutsche Zustände”.
This album has also a strong emphasis on supporting the anti-nuclear power movement. Almost all songs (….) cover a part of the anti-nuclear struggle and the state-repression it faces. Just as Kalte Zeit from the same year (and many others), this record - with mainly bands from Hamburg - covers concrete songs about experiences, difficulties, hopes and dreams, but also resignation, anger and indignation in the face of these “Deutsche Zustände”.
Various Artists
Bauer Maas. Lieder gegen Atomenergie
LP, 1978
In the beginning the construction of the German/Belgian/Dutch fastbreeder reactor at Kalkar was mainly an issue in the Netherlands. At the first large demonstration in sept 1974, a small minority of the 10,000 people were Germans. That changed after Wyhl and Brokdorf and the next demonstration in September 1977 was a main focuspoint of the German movement. Despite the repression by enormous police and military presence some 50,000 people demonstrated peacefully at the heavily guarded construction site.
Bauer Maas is an important symbol for the opposition against Kalkar, he is the closest neighbor of the reactorsite. And he is the plaintiff of the most important juridicial procedure against the reactor. The proceeds from this album are to support this lawsuit and to cover the financial risk that Maas faces.
This album should be an expression of resistance to the risks of this project through which technocrats and ruthless profiteers create a symbol of irresponsibility. We feel politically and morally obliged to take a stand against it. The songs on this album are either specially written for this purpose or are published here for the first time. On the LP only one contribution from the Netherlands (apart from the closing choruses): the Almelo Lied by the Nijmegen group Kladderadatsch. This is therefore the only released recording from their most political era (1974-1984) of this group that was so important in many social struggles.
Listen to the song Almelo Lied, performed by the Dutch group Kladderadatsch.
Bauer Maas is an important symbol for the opposition against Kalkar, he is the closest neighbor of the reactorsite. And he is the plaintiff of the most important juridicial procedure against the reactor. The proceeds from this album are to support this lawsuit and to cover the financial risk that Maas faces.
This album should be an expression of resistance to the risks of this project through which technocrats and ruthless profiteers create a symbol of irresponsibility. We feel politically and morally obliged to take a stand against it. The songs on this album are either specially written for this purpose or are published here for the first time. On the LP only one contribution from the Netherlands (apart from the closing choruses): the Almelo Lied by the Nijmegen group Kladderadatsch. This is therefore the only released recording from their most political era (1974-1984) of this group that was so important in many social struggles.
Listen to the song Almelo Lied, performed by the Dutch group Kladderadatsch.
Gerd Schinkel
Kein Grund zur Aufregung
LP, 1978
First album of singer-songwriter Gerd Schinkel, who (with Walter Mossmann) would become one of the important performers in the antinuclear movement.
One of the songs on the album is Rungholt. In the great Marcellus tide in the night of 16 January 1362, a large part of North Frisia, including the town of Rungholt, sank into the North Sea. The then unavoidable natural disaster claimed thousands of lives. The effects of an unavoidable catastrophe during the operation of a nuclear power plant are to be contained by the disaster response plan. The lyrics of the song Katastropheneinsatzplan are based on a confidential operational plan in the event of a nuclear disaster, written by the nuclear research center Karlsruhe, which became public in 1972. The first line of the chorus "Es besteht kein Grund zur Aufregung" ("There is no need to get upset") became the title of the album. The song became very populair and has many different versions, Schinkel wrote it in 1976 and this version, recorded in 1977, is the first recorded version. The song was also released (then called Der Besondere Katastropheneinsatzplan) on the Bauer Maas, Lieder gegen Atomenergie album, played by Saitenwind. Saitenwind was formed in 1975 by Schinkel.
The song became also populair in neighboring The Netherlands: at least four Dutch versions are known and it was released as Rampenplan by Palace Flophouse in 1983. Schinkel wrote also Big Brother, released on Kalte Zeit.
One of the songs on the album is Rungholt. In the great Marcellus tide in the night of 16 January 1362, a large part of North Frisia, including the town of Rungholt, sank into the North Sea. The then unavoidable natural disaster claimed thousands of lives. The effects of an unavoidable catastrophe during the operation of a nuclear power plant are to be contained by the disaster response plan. The lyrics of the song Katastropheneinsatzplan are based on a confidential operational plan in the event of a nuclear disaster, written by the nuclear research center Karlsruhe, which became public in 1972. The first line of the chorus "Es besteht kein Grund zur Aufregung" ("There is no need to get upset") became the title of the album. The song became very populair and has many different versions, Schinkel wrote it in 1976 and this version, recorded in 1977, is the first recorded version. The song was also released (then called Der Besondere Katastropheneinsatzplan) on the Bauer Maas, Lieder gegen Atomenergie album, played by Saitenwind. Saitenwind was formed in 1975 by Schinkel.
The song became also populair in neighboring The Netherlands: at least four Dutch versions are known and it was released as Rampenplan by Palace Flophouse in 1983. Schinkel wrote also Big Brother, released on Kalte Zeit.
Drum Links
Mannheim
LP, vinyl, No date (appr. 1977-1978)
Including the song: Kein Kernkraftwerk In Kirschgartshausen! about the resistance against the proposed nuclear power plant near Mannheim, cancelled in the late 1970s.
Various Artists
Kalte Zeit – Lieder gegen deutsche Zustände
LP, 1978
Kalte Zeit – Lieder gegen deutsche Zustände (Chilly Times – Songs against German conditions) is a compilations released in the midst of the Deutsche Herbst, with, for the first time, songs from Michael Sallmann, who was jailed in East-Germany for composing anti-state songs and poems and then extradited to the West, as Wolf Biermann earlier. Songs against nuclear power from Saitenwind und Mossmann.
Chilly times, (Kalte Zeit), German fall (Deutsche Herbst), political winter. . . Metaphors for German conditions in the late 1970s. How much time do we have until 1984? Orwell's gruesome vision - utopia or already reality? A reality that is only inadequately described by keywords such as Berufsverbote (occupational bans), trade union exclusions, telephone surveillance, gag laws and environmental destruction. Is Wolf Biermann right when he writes after two years of "exile" in this country: “West Germany marches with brisk steps into the modern police state”?
The songwriters on this record certainly have different views on some political issues, but they are 'united' on one point: "The oppression of the East must no longer serve as an alibi for the warmongers of the West - and vice versa". There are concrete songs on this record about experiences, difficulties, hopes and dreams, but also resignation, anger and indignation in the face of these “Deutsche Zustände” - West and East.
Chilly times, (Kalte Zeit), German fall (Deutsche Herbst), political winter. . . Metaphors for German conditions in the late 1970s. How much time do we have until 1984? Orwell's gruesome vision - utopia or already reality? A reality that is only inadequately described by keywords such as Berufsverbote (occupational bans), trade union exclusions, telephone surveillance, gag laws and environmental destruction. Is Wolf Biermann right when he writes after two years of "exile" in this country: “West Germany marches with brisk steps into the modern police state”?
The songwriters on this record certainly have different views on some political issues, but they are 'united' on one point: "The oppression of the East must no longer serve as an alibi for the warmongers of the West - and vice versa". There are concrete songs on this record about experiences, difficulties, hopes and dreams, but also resignation, anger and indignation in the face of these “Deutsche Zustände” - West and East.
Bunte Liste/Wehrt Euch -Initiativen für Demokratie und Umweltschutz
Wehrt Euch-Lied
Single, 45 rpm, 1978
Wehrt Euch is certainly one of the most sung songs on demonstrations and political meetings from the late seventies till present. Part of the lyrics are adapted to the issue of the demonstration, but these lines – and the message – always remains the same: Schließt Euch fest zusammen (2x), Wehrt Euch, leistet Widerstand (Close ranks, fight back, resist)
The Bunte Liste/Wehrt euch: Initiative for Democracy and Environmental Protection (BuLi) was a political party founded in Hamburg in 1978. The list ran only once in the Hamburg state and district elections in June 1978, achieving 3.5% at the state level and two mandates at the district level. In November 1981, the "Alternative List Hamburg" was founded. Shortly thereafter, the BuLi dissolved in favor of the Alternative List. In March 1982, after long negotiations, the Alternative List and the Greens' state association merged to form the "Grün-Alternativen Liste" (GAL).
The Bunte Liste/Wehrt euch: Initiative for Democracy and Environmental Protection (BuLi) was a political party founded in Hamburg in 1978. The list ran only once in the Hamburg state and district elections in June 1978, achieving 3.5% at the state level and two mandates at the district level. In November 1981, the "Alternative List Hamburg" was founded. Shortly thereafter, the BuLi dissolved in favor of the Alternative List. In March 1982, after long negotiations, the Alternative List and the Greens' state association merged to form the "Grün-Alternativen Liste" (GAL).
Alcatraz
Energie Programm in Rock
LP, 1978
Recorded in March 1978, Energie Programm in Rock is the second album of Alcatraz, a German rock band from Hamburg, formed in 1970. Alcatraz went through many genres (moving into polit-rock then into jazz-fusion), albums were sporadic, and line-up changes frequent.
During the gigs in 76/77, the band had already began performing songs in German and with a clear political character (as can be heard on the live CD Made in Germania 1976, released only in 2013), “especially directed against the right-wing filth in Germany and the cultureless philistinism we met with Alcatraz over and over.”
In the second half of the 1970’s living in Hamburg it was almost impossible not to become involved in the struggle against Brokdorf. The band wrote Energie Programm because they wanted to become more involved in the antinuclear struggle. With this antinuclear program Alcatraz toured about a yearlong trough Germany often playing on demonstrations and political gatherings. They always played the whole album in the sequence of the record: it had a logical order that unmasked the mendacity of German nuclear operators and their bought politicians. Alcatraz played it several times in cooperation ther with the Hamburger street theatergroup ‘Hamburger Eingreif-Theater’, but that did not work out as imagined.
During the gigs in 76/77, the band had already began performing songs in German and with a clear political character (as can be heard on the live CD Made in Germania 1976, released only in 2013), “especially directed against the right-wing filth in Germany and the cultureless philistinism we met with Alcatraz over and over.”
In the second half of the 1970’s living in Hamburg it was almost impossible not to become involved in the struggle against Brokdorf. The band wrote Energie Programm because they wanted to become more involved in the antinuclear struggle. With this antinuclear program Alcatraz toured about a yearlong trough Germany often playing on demonstrations and political gatherings. They always played the whole album in the sequence of the record: it had a logical order that unmasked the mendacity of German nuclear operators and their bought politicians. Alcatraz played it several times in cooperation ther with the Hamburger street theatergroup ‘Hamburger Eingreif-Theater’, but that did not work out as imagined.
Kernbeisser
Brokdorfer Kantate Peter-Paul Zahl
LP album, 1979
Musical interpretation of the poem Brokdorfer Kantate from Peter-Paul Zahl by Kernbeisser. Brokdorfer Kantate was written in response to the first “bürgerkriegsähnlichen auseinandersetzungen” (civil war-like confrontations) around the construction of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant. It was published in 1977 in the volume "Alle Türen offen" and also distributed as a poster. Peter-Paul Zahl (1944-2011) was a libertarian writer. His work, which includes poetry, prose, and stage plays, is marked by the politicization of literature in West German society as a result of the 1968 movement. He became known in West Berlin from the late 1960s as the printer of the underground magazine Agit 883 and as the publisher and author of subcultural writings from the milieu of the radical left, which brought him into the focus of law enforcement authorities. After fatally wounding an officer in an exchange of gunfire while fleeing from the police, he was imprisoned from 1972 to 1982. From 1985 he lived mainly in Jamaica. (more on Wikipedia [German]).
Kernbeisser was formed specifically to play (and record) this piece. It is their only release. Sleeve notes [German].
Kernbeisser was formed specifically to play (and record) this piece. It is their only release. Sleeve notes [German].
Walter Mossmann
Frühlingsanfang
LP double album, 1979
Many antinuclear songs on this album, like Radio Grün (the radiostation, started in 1977, of the alternative scene in Germany is Radio Verte Fessenheim - or "Radio Grün" (Radio Verte), as the station based in Freiburg initially called itself); Ballade von Heiteren (about the month-long occupation of a high-tension wire pylon from Fessenheim to Paris during the summer of 1977) Lied für meine Radikale Freunde (singing about people he met during demonstrations) and of course Lied vom Lebensvogel (better known as Das Gorlebenlied). In the mid- and late seventies, Mossmann traveled restlessly throughout the republic, visiting Gorleben for the first time in 1978 to protest with the Wendlanders against the planned nuclear repository for radioactive waste. For them he sang his sing about Gorleben, on a melodie written by Phil Ochs. Walter Mossmann also projected the idea of the Dreyeckland ("it has no borders but flowing transitions") onto the then real and most closely guarded border in Europe, the Iron Curtain, which separated the FRG from the GDR at the Elbe. "There, where the Elbe comes out of the Fence, electrified and firing / there, where the Elbe a Fence long flows through the green stillness / stands thirty-three years, far too long already / a broken bridge as a symbol of the region / where, to the right and left of the water, kindred people dwell / for whom the river is as wide as an ocean.”
Die Grünen
Das Lied der Grünen / ... und der Mensch?
Single, 45 rpm, 1979
The party Die Grünen was founded in Karlsruhe on January 12-13, 1980. The Greens emerged as an amalgamation of a broad spectrum of political and social movements of the 1970s. The founding of the party was essentially supported by the ecology, anti-nuclear, peace and women's movements. The political spectrum ranged from the K groups in the wake of the student movement of the 1960s to conservative environmentalists. Since 1976, various parties and electoral alliances from the ecology and anti-nuclear movements, as well as left-wing alternative and colorful lists, especially in the large cities, have run in state and local elections. In the June 1979 European elections, the association Die Grünen (The Greens) ran with Petra Kelly as its top candidate and received 3.2% of the vote.
Both a- and b-side of this 7' vinyl, with Atomstaat Europa Nein Danke printed on the labels, is a popularized party vision put on music: Doch wir fragen: wo ist der Sinn / dieses Fortschritt: Wo führt er hin? (Yet we are asking: what is the purpose / of this progress: where is it heading?)
Both a- and b-side of this 7' vinyl, with Atomstaat Europa Nein Danke printed on the labels, is a popularized party vision put on music: Doch wir fragen: wo ist der Sinn / dieses Fortschritt: Wo führt er hin? (Yet we are asking: what is the purpose / of this progress: where is it heading?)
Bobo Prolet-Rock (Bohrmaschine Borhnheim)
Es ist nicht mehr fern Unser Land
LP vinyl, 1979
Bohrmaschine Bornheim, short BoBo or Bo Bo, was a political rock band from Frankfurt-Bornheim. It existed in the late 1970s and produced a record titled bobo - Es ist nicht mehr fern, unser Land. The cover of the self-released only album shows images of Antifa street battles and anti-nuclear demonstrations. They were mostly members of the Sozialistischen Arbeitergruppe (German section of the International Socialist Tendency back then) and Frankfurt squatters. The band was especially active during the first "Rock-gegen-Rechts" festival in June 1979, (from: ‘Nazi-Mörder’: They are clubbing the foreigners / And the mob is already raging / Against the unions / Anti-nuclear activists and Jews, and: Beat the Nazis now!.
The lead singer was Norbert Nelte, alias Flipper. In the 1970s, Nelke was, among other things, spokesperson for the anti-nuclear movement in Hesse and for anti-nuclear activists in the unions in Hesse-Nassau. In the 1980s he was founder and spokesperson for the unemployment groups in Hanover. In the early 1980s, Bohrmaschine Borheim disbanded again. Strahlende Zukunft is the only antinuclear song on this album.
The lead singer was Norbert Nelte, alias Flipper. In the 1970s, Nelke was, among other things, spokesperson for the anti-nuclear movement in Hesse and for anti-nuclear activists in the unions in Hesse-Nassau. In the 1980s he was founder and spokesperson for the unemployment groups in Hanover. In the early 1980s, Bohrmaschine Borheim disbanded again. Strahlende Zukunft is the only antinuclear song on this album.
MEK Bochum
Trödel Jödel
LP vinyl, 1979
Mobile Einsatz Kapelle (Mobile Deployment Band) or MEK, from Bochum in the Ruhr area was one of many bands in Germany from the radical-left political spectrum at the end of the seventies and early eighties. And like many other bands, MEK was involved in the antinuclear struggle and played music against nuclear power, which by that time, was the most heated debate in German society. It was one of the few that released it’s music, MEK was signed by the Trikont label and released their first album Trödel Jödel in 1979. Three antinuclear songs on this album: Nacht über Deutschland (Night over Germany), Atomgarten (nuclear garden) and Bezahlt wird nicht (we will not pay), a song about the demands for huge payments to a number of activists – amongst them one of the people affiliated with MEK Bochum - after the Grohnde demonstrations.
This album was followed in 1981 by the band’s final album Eine kleine Militanzmusik, musically more adventures, really not (any longer) an average street-marching band.
This album was followed in 1981 by the band’s final album Eine kleine Militanzmusik, musically more adventures, really not (any longer) an average street-marching band.
Niss Puk Band
No More Nukes
LP vinyl, 1979
This band with an unlikely name was formed by singer-songwriter Roger Matura, who tried to start a carreer als a folk singer in Greenwich Village N.Y.C. after his study in Essen Germany, in 1978. Almost all members of the Niss Puk Band were born in Essen and the city's surroundings. Grown up in a world of winding towers, coal heaps and concrete, the Niss Puk members lived the typical life of coalworker's children. Because of the deficiency of green plots and playgrounds the juveniles became more and more aggressive and built gangs to fight against everything and naturally most times against themselves. This way of life was nearly the only possibility to reduce agressions and showed cruelty and brutality. But it also showed the normal reaction against a misanthropic environment. Unemployment, juvenile delinquency and a boring surrounding formed the Niss Puk members. especially Roger Matura, into opponents of this sort of environment. On the enclosed lyrics sheet, the title song of the album No More Nukes is entitled No More Three Mile Island referring to the accident earlier that year at Harrisburg.
The Niß Puk is a legendary creature from Low German-speaking and Frisian-speaking areas of Northern Germany and Southern Denmark, a kind of Kobold.
The Niß Puk is a legendary creature from Low German-speaking and Frisian-speaking areas of Northern Germany and Southern Denmark, a kind of Kobold.
Swinging Mescalero
Noch lange nicht kaputt
LP vinyl, 1980
Swinging Mescaleros was considered to be the voice of the squatters- and the anti-nuclear movement. The band was founded in Göttingen in 1978 when some people who had been making songs in German for a long time about concrete things (student-strikes, squatting, nuclear power plants) met. The band didn't have expensive equipment: they played on request in freshly occupied houses in northern Germany, sometimes in the Free Republic of Wendland or at a solidarity concert for opponents of nuclear power - it was important to be able to tuck everything under the arm and run away if necessary. The band split up in 1983.
On this album Noch lange nicht kaputt (Far from broken), the bands only one, two songs about the antinuclear struggle: Feindesland (about the struggles at Wyhl, Brokdorf, Kalkar and Gorleben) and Albrechtlied about Gorleben.
Listen to the song Feindesland, performed by Swinging Mescalero.
On this album Noch lange nicht kaputt (Far from broken), the bands only one, two songs about the antinuclear struggle: Feindesland (about the struggles at Wyhl, Brokdorf, Kalkar and Gorleben) and Albrechtlied about Gorleben.
Listen to the song Feindesland, performed by Swinging Mescalero.
Kling-Klang-Company
Drei kleine Schnelle Brüter
LP vinyl, 1980
Kling-Klang-Company is a group of musicians, authors and cabaret artists from the Bremen area around writer and director Uwe Nielsen. This cabaretesque program was recorded in March 1980. Kling-Klang-Company emerged from the "Group 77" formed in Bremen in 1977 and which immediately launched the program "Begrabt uns in Brokdorf" ("Bury Us in Brokdorf") that year. They made two more programs on other topics. Nielsen also created the theater piece "Komm mit uns nach Tschernobyl" in 1987. Unfortunately nothing has survived of all these programs. Schnelle Brüter is a reference to the fastbreeder reactor in Kalkar, other songs are about Wyhl and of course Brokdorf.
Ape, Beck & Brinkmann
Im laufe der Woche
LP vinyl, 1980
‘Political songs for a politicized society’, that is how Fred Ape decribes the music of Ape, Beck & Brinkmann, a folkgroup he formed in 1979, together with Klaus Beck and Peter Brinkmann. It soon became one of the best-known and most successful German-language folk-rock groups - a "Greenpeace showcase band", they were often called. Ape wrote the lyrics of Festung von Gorleben already in 1976/1977 to the music of the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles. He wanted to apply the "mystique" of the song, the symbol of the shimmering lights of the hotel that first seemed like a welcome rest but then became a nightmare, to the fear of the nuclear industry. "And how right we were!" The song became an anti-nuclear anthem and was played by Ape annually in Gorleben untill at least 2015. Besides Festung von Gorleben also the songs Streik und was weiter and tagebuch are touching upon the issue of nuclear power.
Republik Freies Wendland
Radio Freies Wendland. 101 UKW – Ein life Dokument auf Toncassette
2 audio cassettes a 90 minutes and 64 p. Textbook, 1980
Radio Freies Wendland started its operation on May 18, 1980, illegally as a pirate station with a transmitter borrowed from Radio Verte Fessenheim in Freiburg. The broadcasting site and studio was a ‘hüttendorf’ anti-nuclear-protesters had erected on May 3, 1980, on an occupied site at Gorleben and where they had proclaimed the Republic of Free Wendland. The radiostation was active until the site was cleared by police as well as the Federal Border Guard on June 4, 1980, and reported live from a tower untill the end. Before leaving the tower, the "radio pirates" destroyed the transmitter. Even after the eviction, news from the anti-nuclear movement was broadcasted weekly. Although the police discovered in a forest a transmitter buried in the ground, illegal broadcasting on 101 megahertz (101 VHF) continued unabated.
These two audio sound cassettes are a living document of the final 4 hours at the occupied site, when all activists were removed and most of the village destroyed. With contributions in the accompanying book by Walter Mossmann, Heinz Brand, Wolfgang Hippe, songs with notes that were sung on the square. Edition: Network Medien-Cooperative, Frankfurt/M.
Listen to a 5 minute report about police provocateurs followed by the song Leute, kommt jetzt alle hier!, broadcasted at approximately 6:30 a.m. on June 4.
These two audio sound cassettes are a living document of the final 4 hours at the occupied site, when all activists were removed and most of the village destroyed. With contributions in the accompanying book by Walter Mossmann, Heinz Brand, Wolfgang Hippe, songs with notes that were sung on the square. Edition: Network Medien-Cooperative, Frankfurt/M.
Listen to a 5 minute report about police provocateurs followed by the song Leute, kommt jetzt alle hier!, broadcasted at approximately 6:30 a.m. on June 4.
Wolfgang Biermann
Eins in die Fresse, mein Herzblatt
Double live album, 1980
Wolf Biermann, born in 1936 in Hamburg, is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. His mother was a Communist Party activist, his father a Jewish member of the German Resistance; sentenced to six years in prison for sabotaging Nazi ships and later murdered in Auschwitz. Upon finishing school at the age of 17, Wolf Biermann emigrated from West to East Germany where he believed he could live out his Communist ideals. Although a committed communist, Biermann's nonconformist views soon alarmed the East German establishment. In 1963, he was refused membership in the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). In December 1965, the Central Committee of the SED denounced him as a "class traitor" and placed him onto the performance and publication blacklist. In 1976, while Biermann was on an officially sanctioned tour of West Germany, the GDR government stripped him of his citizenship. As a left-wing activist, living in Hamburg during that period it was impossible not to become involved in the antinuclear struggle. Biermann visited Gorleben several times. The song Gorleben Lied was released on his 1978 album Trotz Alledem under the title Gorleben soll Leben. On this live-album, recorded at the Freie Universität in Berlin on May 25, 1980, the song is preceded by the announcement of the imminent eviction of the antinuclear Republik Freies Wendland in Gorleben, and the call to go there. The eviction took place only a few days later, on June 4.
Listen to the urgent call to come to Gorleben, before Biermann's Gorleben song
Listen to the urgent call to come to Gorleben, before Biermann's Gorleben song
Hammerfest
An einem schönen Tag im Mai.
Single 7”, 1980
Hammerfest is one of the best known underground bands in Germany formed in 1975. The band became known in the 70s through numerous performances at 'Umsonst & Draußen' festivals (Free&open air) - which they co-founded – throughout Germany. Harder and typical leftwing Krautrock. Anti nuclear power, anti Nazi and of course against the ‘fat cats’. To combine rock with German lyrics was unusual at that time (Grönemeyer, Westernhagen - Neue deutsche Welle came up with this idea much later - in the early 80's). On this first single, recorded live at the Odeon-Theater in Isselhorst, the funny antinuclear An 1 schönen tag am Mai (brach das 1. kkw entzwei) (on one beautifull day in May // the first npp broke in two) was released. More information.
Earthstar
Atomkraft? Nein Danke!
LP, vinyl, 1981
Earthstar is an electronic music group from Utica, New York. Founded in 1977, Earthstar relocated to Germany in 1979, encouraged by electronic music artist, founding member of Tangerine Dream, composer, and producer Klaus Schulze. There they signed with Sky Records. Schulze inspired and produced their second album, French Skyline. This third album, Atomkraft? Nein Danke! recorded in 1980, was produced by keyboardist Graig Wuest. Despite the fact that there are no lyrics – it is all instrumental music at times reminiscent of Kitaro and occasional touches of Tangerine Dream –, the titel of the album is a strong statement: Nuclear Power? No thanks! From the backcover: "To fulfill the endless need for energy, mankind, in some cases, has forgotten his natural origins - the sun, wind, water and earth."
liedermeier
Vermächtnis eines Unbekannten
LP vinyl, 1981
When he wrote the song Kalkar – released at his first album – Liedermeier (a.k.a. Helmut Meier) was involved in the anti-nuclear movement in a local citizens' initiative, not far from Kalkar. Meier wrote songs about environmental destruction since the end of the 70s. One of his environmental songs ("Eisenbahnsiedlung") was re-phrased by local groups around the Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant - the region to which he had now moved - and sung on several protest meetings. Following Fukushima Meier played several times at the weekly demonstration of the local BI, to shut down all nuclear plants. In 2012 he wrote Das schönste Atomkraftwerk der Welt (The most beautiful nuclear power plant in the world) about the fastbreeder reactor in Kalkar, which never went into operation and became an amusement park. The song (currently only digital available) will, most likely, be included on his forthcoming CD (summer 2023) under the title: Von hier aus (From here).
Various Artists
Wo Unrecht zu Recht wird. Solidaritätsschallplatte für die Brokdorf Angeklagten
LP, 1981
This record was produced by the local antinuclear group at Münster, to ask for solidarity and raise funds for people who were arrested at the demonstration on February 28, 1981 at Brokdorf. On that day, 120,000 people went an their way to Brokdorf, many did not make it (for instance all buses with protesters from the Netherlands were denied access to Germany), but some 100,000 people braved the icy cold, the strong winds, but especially the police brutality and walked many miles to the nuclear power plant. During the night before the demonstration was verboten (banned), and many people were arrested simply for participating in an illegal demonstration, for spreading leaflets or for signing a call to join. During the violent clashes more people were arrested and detained for months. In the period that followed, all kinds of forms of solidarity with the accused were developed and money was raised to finance the legal costs. One of the ways to raise money (and awareness!) was the release of this album at the end of the year 1981. More info on this album [German] and the reason for this record
Mehlprimel
Atom-Song II
from the Album Mehlprimel's Zweite, 1982
The Mehlprimeln ("forest and meadow flowers, which under certain circumstances (...) can cause a skin rash.") have been on stage since 1972. The critical songs can cause allergic reactions in one or the other politician, one or the other ruler. From the beginning they denounced with their songs grievances and undesirable developments in our society. They called environmental mismanagement, money democracy and the resulting consequences and side effects by name - in amiable, quietly poetic packaging. Mehlprimel played several times at anti-WAA Wackersdorf and also were part of the line-up of the Anti-Wackersdorf Folkfestival, May 1986, and at the large anti-Wackersdorf events at Salzburg (Austria) in November 1986 and 1988.
The song Atom -Song II on this album however is not about the reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf (in 1982, Gorleben is still the preferred location) but about plans to built nuclear reactors in Bavaria (“Franz Josef setzt auf Kernenergie”): Es geht nicht um Geld und Profit / Es geht um unser schöner Donau Ried (It's not about money and profit / It's about our beautiful Donau Ried). A number of anti-WAA songs were performed (but never released) by Mehlprimel and are listed at the excellent Culture against the WAA website.
The song Atom -Song II on this album however is not about the reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf (in 1982, Gorleben is still the preferred location) but about plans to built nuclear reactors in Bavaria (“Franz Josef setzt auf Kernenergie”): Es geht nicht um Geld und Profit / Es geht um unser schöner Donau Ried (It's not about money and profit / It's about our beautiful Donau Ried). A number of anti-WAA songs were performed (but never released) by Mehlprimel and are listed at the excellent Culture against the WAA website.
Singendes Wendland
Lieder wider den WAAnsinn
Music Cassette, 1983
Initially, in 1977, a WiederAufarbeitungs Anlage (WAA- reprocessing plant) was one of the facilities planned at the Entsorgungszentrum at the Gorleben region in Wendland. It seemed cancelled but in 1983 the plan re-surfaced. Only when Wackersdorf in Bavaria was officially announced as the location early 1985, the threat of a reprocessing plant for Wendland was off the table.
"Singendes Wendland" was the name of the first German songlyrics periodical, the first issue appeared in January, 1983, published by the Summa Summarum. 'Lied' as it was called was to appear every month and owed its creation to the protest choir Singendes Wendland. Lied 2 appeared one month later. Unfortunately, Lied stopped soon after that. This Lieder wider den WAAnsinn 2x 24 minutes music cassette, with 17 songs published in Lied 1 & 2, from the Protest Choir, recorded in March 1983, was released as a supplement.
Listen to the song Es ist die Höchste Zeit, sung by Protestchor Singendes Wendland
"Singendes Wendland" was the name of the first German songlyrics periodical, the first issue appeared in January, 1983, published by the Summa Summarum. 'Lied' as it was called was to appear every month and owed its creation to the protest choir Singendes Wendland. Lied 2 appeared one month later. Unfortunately, Lied stopped soon after that. This Lieder wider den WAAnsinn 2x 24 minutes music cassette, with 17 songs published in Lied 1 & 2, from the Protest Choir, recorded in March 1983, was released as a supplement.
Listen to the song Es ist die Höchste Zeit, sung by Protestchor Singendes Wendland
Anonym
Ade du schöne Zeit
LP vinyl, 1986
Compared to Brokdorf, Gorleben or Wyhl, there is very little music released about the struggle against the reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf in Bavaria (1983-1989). The highly recommended website Kultur gegen die WAA has all recorded (but not released) music listed. One of the exceptions (apart from of course the live double album WAAhnsinn) is the song Die Braven Bayern (the good Bavarians), written in 1984, by the folkgroup Anonym from Regensburg (1981-1987). The fight against the WAA but also the nuclear rearmament were constant topics in almost all performances of Anonym. This song from their only album Ade du schöne Zeit (Goodbye beautiful time), deals with the character of the Bavarians: “Mir san die braven Bayern // und uns ist alles Recht. // Baun’s uns a WAA her // dann find‘ ma des net schlecht!” (“We are the good Bavarians // and we agree with everything // Build us a WAA here // and we won't find it bad!”).
Listen to the song Die Braven Bayern, written and performed by Anonym
Listen to the song Die Braven Bayern, written and performed by Anonym
Various Artists
WAAhnsinn!
LP Double, 1986
Even before plans to build a reprocessing plant (WAA) at Dragahn near Gorleben in Wendland had failed definitely, Bavaria's Minister President Franz Josef Strauß declared on December 3, 1980, that he was prepared to look for a suitable site. Strauß promised the plant operators stable political conditions and acceptance for the project on the part of a "population accustomed to industry". After the final decision in favor of Wackersdorf as a site was made on February 4, 1985, around 35,000 people demonstrated peacefully against the WAA on February 16, 1985, in freezing temperatures on Schwandorf's market square. It was the start of years of fierce protests. Construction started but the project was canceled in 1989.
The Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festivals were seven politically motivated rock concerts (the first in 1982) held in Burglengenfeld in support of the protests against the planned WAA in the 1980s. In 1986, the fifth of these festivals (also called the "German Woodstock") marked the climax of the citizens' protests against the WAA: With over 100,000 visitors on July 26 and 27, 1986, Burglengenfeld experienced the largest rock concert in German history up to that time, featuring predominantly the best-known performers of the German-language rock music scene - from BAP, Die Toten Hosen, Udo Lindenberg, Rio Reiser to Herbert Grönemeyer. This gave the anti-nuclear movement unprecedented media coverage. Around 6,000 police officers were on duty around Burglengenfeld; but contrary to many fears, the event proceeded absolutely peacefully.
This live album [more in German] was re-released on CD in 2007.
The Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festivals were seven politically motivated rock concerts (the first in 1982) held in Burglengenfeld in support of the protests against the planned WAA in the 1980s. In 1986, the fifth of these festivals (also called the "German Woodstock") marked the climax of the citizens' protests against the WAA: With over 100,000 visitors on July 26 and 27, 1986, Burglengenfeld experienced the largest rock concert in German history up to that time, featuring predominantly the best-known performers of the German-language rock music scene - from BAP, Die Toten Hosen, Udo Lindenberg, Rio Reiser to Herbert Grönemeyer. This gave the anti-nuclear movement unprecedented media coverage. Around 6,000 police officers were on duty around Burglengenfeld; but contrary to many fears, the event proceeded absolutely peacefully.
This live album [more in German] was re-released on CD in 2007.
Wolf Maahn & Unterstützung
Tschernobyl (Das Letzte Signal)
EP 12”, 1986
Wolf Maahn, born in 1955 in Berlin, is a German singer and songwriter, as well as a music producer, film composer and actor. His lyrics usually deal with everyday German reality. He wrote the song Chernobyl, The last warning in 1986 in response to the Chernobyl disaster and tells of the measures and fears in Germany. Strahlenmesstrupps ziehen durch Straßen und durch Parks / Halten Geigerzähler über Milch und Kopfsalat. [Radiation monitoring teams roam streets and parks / Hold Geiger counters over milk and lettuce]. The song on this 12" consists of two parts and lasts almost 15 minutes in total. The much shorter 7” single spent ten weeks in the German charts from September 1, 1986. It is probably one of the best known German songs against nuclear power. The song had its premiere on July 26 at the WAAhnsinn festival in Burglengenfeld near Wackersdorf. All proceeds from the song were earmarked for "Aktiv gegen Strahlung," which placed independent radiation monitoring stations in West Germany and Berlin.
Various Artists
Rock gegen Atom, Open Air
LP, 1986
Two and a half months after Chernobyl, on August 16, a benefit festival took place in Loreley open air theater, for financial aid to the victims of the nuclear disaster and for a German Ausstieg from nuclear power. After Chernobyl, resistance to the nuclear power program intensified with large demonstrations in Wackersdorf and Brokdorf, among others, which were met with very violent responses by the militarized German police. A number of well-known German artists participated in this Atom kennt keine grenzen festival, including Inga Rumpf, Klaus Lage, Peter Maffay and Udo Lindenberg. From the sleeve notes: “On 16.8. the Loreley was also about democracy, about the access of a free citizen to the exercise of his rights. The citizen has not only the right but also the duty to set limitations to the government. Not only the right, but also the duty to speak out. Exit from nuclear power. No exit from democracy. Let us hope that we will not need one day the help that we can give now in Chernobyl. The problems of a country do not stop at national borders and affect us all. Isolation creates no solutions, but constructive thinking and acting together, also beyond ideological ideas.”
Hans Söllner
Hey Staat
Album on vinyl and CD, 1989
Hans Söllner (1955) is a German singer-songwriter who sings in Bavarian-German. Throughout German-speaking countries, especially in Bavaria and Austria, he is famous for publicly criticizing the German government and political systems in general to a vast extent. His lyrics are like stories, as they mainly deal with being in conflict with the law and everyday life problems. He was one of the artists who played several times at events against the planned reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf. He touched that subject in several of his songs, like Hey Staat from his 1989 album with the same title, in which he also criticised the media: “Du zoagst die Wackersdorf-Chaoten, du zoagst wia Pflasterstoana fliang. Du zoagst net die typn, die zum Schutz vor deine Polizisten stehn's und rearn.” (You show the Wackersdorf Chaoten and stones flying through the air. And not the guys who are standing up in front of your police to protect them and are crying.) (More about the song).
After Wackersdorf was cancelled in 1989 Söllner continued his alliance with the anti-nuclear movement. In March 2011 he performed at an large anti-nuclear demonstration in Stuttgart: his very well received performance and encores are available online.
After Wackersdorf was cancelled in 1989 Söllner continued his alliance with the anti-nuclear movement. In March 2011 he performed at an large anti-nuclear demonstration in Stuttgart: his very well received performance and encores are available online.
Maria Görges & Reinhard Horn
Die Kinder von Tschernobyl - Ein Rock Requiem
CD, 1991
A rock-requiem written by Maria Görges (text) and Reinhard Horn (music) five years after the catastrophe at Chernobyl. Many relief activities around the globe were organized to ease the difficult situation of (especially children) in Ukraine and Belorussia. Many of those relief efforts came from organizations with a religious background. In the 1980s, Horn - primarily a writer of children's songs - wrote a series of religious musicals. Maria Gorges wrote mostly Christian songs, sometimes together with Horn. The Gregorian chants in the musical were sung by pupils of the Benedikter Gymnasium in Meschede. In 1991 the premiere of the rock requiem "The Children of Chernobyl" took place, which was performed 200 times. Reinhard Horn and his group performed the rock-musical also in Minsk, the capital of Belorussia. More info on this album [German].
Kraftwerk
Radioactivity
Single 7", anti-nuclear remix 1991
The original 1975 track from the ‘Radioactivity’-album, cannot be considered as a anti-nuclear song; the whole album approached the subject of radiation and radiowaves with childlike wonder – although the original lyrics are unintentionally sinister: radioactivity is “in the air for you and me.” However, the meaning of the song and the position of Kraftwerk changed over time.
The 1991 version (remix by William Orbit and François Kevorkian) drops all references to radio and incorporates additional lyrics with a pointed anti-nuclear theme. The disasters at “Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima” are mentioned by name. Further, the song’s chorus clearly stated, “Stop radioactivity” as “chain reaction and mutation” led to a “contaminated population.” It was, after all, still “in the air for you and me.” This version debuted at the 1992 Stop Sellafield-2 event, a concert for Greenpeace to protest the nuclear THORP reprocessing plant in Sellafield, England. On some occasions Kraftwerk preface a live performance of Radioactivity with a vocoder voice announcing: "Sellafield 2 will produce 7.5 tons of plutonium every year. 1.5 kilogram of plutonium make a nuclear bomb. Sellafield 2 will release the same amount of radioactivity into the environment as Chernobyl every 4.5 years. One of these radioactive substances, Krypton 85, will cause death and skin cancer." This announcement is sometimes referred to under the title Sellafield 2 for instance on the 1999 Neue Symphonien Teil 2 7" release.
Twenty years later, playing at the No Nukes 2012 event in Japan a year after the Fukushima disaster, Kraftwerk introduced another major overhaul of the song’s lyrics. Fukushima was introduced into the repeating chant introduced in the 1991 version (switching with Hiroshima). Further, the song had an entire section sung in Japanese. Growing even more direct, the song declared “Radioactivity is in Japan today and forever,” that it is in “the air and water,” and that it needed to “stop now.” This version was officially released in 2017. Thirtyfive years after its release the songs has become an anti-nuclear anthem.
The 1991 version (remix by William Orbit and François Kevorkian) drops all references to radio and incorporates additional lyrics with a pointed anti-nuclear theme. The disasters at “Tschernobyl, Harrisburg, Sellafield, Hiroshima” are mentioned by name. Further, the song’s chorus clearly stated, “Stop radioactivity” as “chain reaction and mutation” led to a “contaminated population.” It was, after all, still “in the air for you and me.” This version debuted at the 1992 Stop Sellafield-2 event, a concert for Greenpeace to protest the nuclear THORP reprocessing plant in Sellafield, England. On some occasions Kraftwerk preface a live performance of Radioactivity with a vocoder voice announcing: "Sellafield 2 will produce 7.5 tons of plutonium every year. 1.5 kilogram of plutonium make a nuclear bomb. Sellafield 2 will release the same amount of radioactivity into the environment as Chernobyl every 4.5 years. One of these radioactive substances, Krypton 85, will cause death and skin cancer." This announcement is sometimes referred to under the title Sellafield 2 for instance on the 1999 Neue Symphonien Teil 2 7" release.
Twenty years later, playing at the No Nukes 2012 event in Japan a year after the Fukushima disaster, Kraftwerk introduced another major overhaul of the song’s lyrics. Fukushima was introduced into the repeating chant introduced in the 1991 version (switching with Hiroshima). Further, the song had an entire section sung in Japanese. Growing even more direct, the song declared “Radioactivity is in Japan today and forever,” that it is in “the air and water,” and that it needed to “stop now.” This version was officially released in 2017. Thirtyfive years after its release the songs has become an anti-nuclear anthem.
Saugedesta
Castor Stop
7” EP, 1995
On April 25, 1995, after 13 years of successful prevention, the first Castor-transport rolled through the front gate of the interim storage hall in Gorleben. The police and paramilitary border guards used water cannons, helicopters and dog squads to move thousands of people out of the way. From that day on, an (almost always) annual confrontation took place in November between activists and an immense police-forse on Tag X; the day the Castor containers arrive by train from the reprocessing plant at La Hague, France, and have to be transported by road to the interim storage facility.
Saugedesta was a political punk band out of Schleswig Holstein (northern germany) that existed in the mid 90ies. "Saugedesta" was an abbrevation for "Saufen gegen den Staat" ("swig against the state"). This is their only EP and shows their involvement with the anti-nuclear struggle: “Der Tag X kommt immer näher / wir sind bereit und stellen uns quer” (Day X is getting closer and closer / we are ready and we stand up to it). On the unfoldable sleeve a personal message from Saugedesta in German.
Saugedesta was a political punk band out of Schleswig Holstein (northern germany) that existed in the mid 90ies. "Saugedesta" was an abbrevation for "Saufen gegen den Staat" ("swig against the state"). This is their only EP and shows their involvement with the anti-nuclear struggle: “Der Tag X kommt immer näher / wir sind bereit und stellen uns quer” (Day X is getting closer and closer / we are ready and we stand up to it). On the unfoldable sleeve a personal message from Saugedesta in German.
BröckelN
Castor
7” EP, 1996
Bröckeln was an older band of the Tischlerei Lischitzki singer Ralf from Lüneburg region, close to the Wendland. This is an EP with three tracks from 1996 and is a benefit single for the anti-nuclear resistance in Wendland. The backside of the sleeve folds out as a poster.
bröckelN (crumble) created this 7" single to draw attention to the problems in our neighboring country, the Republic of Free Wendland, and to raise as much money as possible for the fight of the Wendlanders against the nuclear state FRG. In addition, this modest work should be a request from the band to those responsible to get out of nuclear energy. “We hope for obedience, but unfortunately bröckelN has little influence at the moment, at least our influence is less relevant than the slime trail of the nuclear lobby.” More info on this anti-Castor single [in German].
bröckelN (crumble) created this 7" single to draw attention to the problems in our neighboring country, the Republic of Free Wendland, and to raise as much money as possible for the fight of the Wendlanders against the nuclear state FRG. In addition, this modest work should be a request from the band to those responsible to get out of nuclear energy. “We hope for obedience, but unfortunately bröckelN has little influence at the moment, at least our influence is less relevant than the slime trail of the nuclear lobby.” More info on this anti-Castor single [in German].
Various Artists
Kein Castor
CD, 1996
Showing the mass resistance against the Castor-transport at the time, the third anti-Castor benefit release in less than a year. Three songs from different bands (Aufbruch, Bums and Kapitulation B.o.N.n.) about Chernobyl, nuclear power, Castor-transports and state repression. The CD is dedicated to the people who fight (large and small battles) every day against the nuclear madness. In the eighties at the Startbahn West (Frankfurt) and at the Easter marches, one often heard the music of Cochise, Bots, Schmetterlinge and how they were all called. Often as a pastime, often as moral support. We would be happy if the music on this CD also makes some people start thinking…
Wilfried Staake
Leukämie in de Elvmarsch
from the CD Elvmusik, 2000
The CD Elvmusik released in September 2000, is a colorful mixture of Staake’s songs in Plattdeutsch dialect. About the song Leukamia in the Elbmarsh: “I was very moved by the protests against the first Castor transports to Gorleben in the 1990s. I live about 100 kilometers away. Here with us in the Winsener Elbmarsch, 30 kilometers south of Hamburg, 21 children fell ill with leukemia in the 1980/1990s, 3 died. This is the highest concentration of childhood leukemia in the world. The adults who have contracted leukemia have not been recorded at all!” The Krümmel nuclear power plant is located on the other side of the Elbe, as is the GKSS nuclear research center. There was apparently a serious accident there in the late 1980s …. “In April 2009 I performed live at the Krümmel protest action with the leukemia song and also with “Was für ein Fall, (Vattenfall…) was für ein Fall, was für ein Fall für den Staatsanwalt …“ ("What a case, (Vattenfall...) what a case, what a case for the prosecutor...". (not recorded).
Walter Mossmann & Cornelius Schwehr
Die Storung - Tonstück und Texte zur Anti-AKW-Bewegung
CD and book, 2000
In the mid-80's, Walter Mossmann lost his powerful baritone due to throat cancer. But this did not mean that he stopped his artistic and political activities. In the following decades, he wrote plays, books, articles, worked on film projects and once had a small guest appearance in the long running German-tv-series "Tatort". He also continued his interest in music and the musical avant-garde. In 1999, for example, he realized the opera "Heimat" (in memory of the Baden Revolution of 1848/49), which premiered in Freiburg. Mossmann wrote the libretto and composer Cornelius Schwer the music.
At the end of 1990 Mossmann received a music prize from the city of Freiburg, "presumably for my heroic deeds at Wyhl 15 years earlier". He was proud of this, but at the same time it surprised him and caused him a certain uneasiness: "The formerly contentious had become the politically correct, the objectionable the consensual, and there was every threat of coziness and misunderstanding." So at the award ceremony he decided not to do what was expected of him: a 15-year-old song accompanied by acoustic guitar. Together with Cornelius Schwehr, he recorded a ‘Tonstück’ (audio play) in advance, played it on a ghetto blaster and occasionally spoke a short accompanying text. The audience was left in confusion. The piece was then performed from time to time, and a recording of it, along with four previously published articles by Mossmann, appeared as a CD and book in 2000. Walter Mossmann died on May 29, 2015 in Breisach.
At the end of 1990 Mossmann received a music prize from the city of Freiburg, "presumably for my heroic deeds at Wyhl 15 years earlier". He was proud of this, but at the same time it surprised him and caused him a certain uneasiness: "The formerly contentious had become the politically correct, the objectionable the consensual, and there was every threat of coziness and misunderstanding." So at the award ceremony he decided not to do what was expected of him: a 15-year-old song accompanied by acoustic guitar. Together with Cornelius Schwehr, he recorded a ‘Tonstück’ (audio play) in advance, played it on a ghetto blaster and occasionally spoke a short accompanying text. The audience was left in confusion. The piece was then performed from time to time, and a recording of it, along with four previously published articles by Mossmann, appeared as a CD and book in 2000. Walter Mossmann died on May 29, 2015 in Breisach.
Various Artists
ein Castor buntes
CD, 2002
Compilation of songs (some of them not officially released) against the Castor-transports, Chernobyl and nuclear power in general. This CD was released by the regional free radiostation Kaktusfunk from Ludwigsburg. Kaktusfunk – "Your sounding banner from Ludwigsburg" - was part of Freien Radio for Stuttgart. It broadcasted two times two hours a week, with every second and fourth Sunday two hours dedicated to antinuclear information and music. Broadcasts were prolonged when events called for it; for instance during Castor-transports. The Castor-transports from French reprocessing plant La Hague to Gorleben entered Germany not far from Ludwigsburg. Less than 20 km north of Ludwigsburg the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant is situated.
Kaktusfunk does not longer exist.
Listen to the song KKW Song, by Annie und Jockel Beckel mit Kinderchor
Kaktusfunk does not longer exist.
Listen to the song KKW Song, by Annie und Jockel Beckel mit Kinderchor
Various Artists
Singendes Wendland - Lieder für eine Zukunft ohne Atommüll
CD, 2004
More than 20 years after the release of Lieder Wider der WAAnsinn another release called Singendes Wendland. The 20 songs on this CD (called Songs for a future without nuclear waste) are not song by just one choir but a compilation of songs sung by people involved in regional antinuclear struggle. The songs “come from speechlessness, from the horror about the threat to democracy and life. They are not art products, but answers to violence that is done to our world. The songs on this CD were born between batons. On the street. On the Castor track.” The musicians know each other not from the recording studio, but from the street. They are all driven by the fervent desire to do something about the madness called Castor. They are as different as their songs. The youngest are still in kindergarten. The oldest have white beards. Even the youngest have something to say about Castor. After all, it is their future that is at stake. And at Castor time, it is the youngest ones who feel how fragile our world can be… More info on this album in German.
Listen to the song Die Nacht ist Kalt im Wendenland, from the album Singendes Wendland
Listen to the song Die Nacht ist Kalt im Wendenland, from the album Singendes Wendland
S.K.E.T.
Depleted Uranium Weapons
CD, 2009
Long one of the more interesting “noise” acts in Germany, S.K.E.T. have a strongly thematic approach to their music, and also a propsenity to lean toward Socialist Realism in their work. This album Depleted Uranium Weapons is dedicated to the victims of radiation due to the use of this waste-product of uranium enrichment in weapon systems. In the accompaning booklet twelve pages about depleted uranium weapons and the problems after the use of such weapons by the U.S. Army in Iraq.
After a hiatus of eight years, S.K.E.T. released it's next, highly political album “Capitalism - Continuing Crisis", with the song Generalstreik. In september 2019, the band used this song to call to join the Fridays for Future global climate strike.
After a hiatus of eight years, S.K.E.T. released it's next, highly political album “Capitalism - Continuing Crisis", with the song Generalstreik. In september 2019, the band used this song to call to join the Fridays for Future global climate strike.
Gerd Schinkel
Kohle & Klima
CD, 2018
Writing and performing antinuclear songs since the second half of the 1970’s, Gerd Schinkel has been the main chronicler of resistance to environmental destruction in Germany in recent decades. He describes in dozens of songs the actions against coal mining (Lützi bleibt!), the Castor nuclear waste transports, the fight against freeways, and about the necessity of the Energiewende. Besides being a perfomer, Schinkel is also an activist and part of those movements. Kohle & Klima is a collection perseverance strengthening resistance songs. Since 2017 he has been working on a song chronicle of the resistance in the rhineland lignite mining area (with occasional glances over the fence), which has now grown to 24 cds (around 400 songs). The collection "kohle und klima" was an early excerpt from the first cds.…
Gerd Schinkel
Atom & Strom
Triple CD, 2019
Gerd Schinkel is not only writing and performing songs about the Energiewende and against nuclear power since the second half of the 1970’s, Schinkel is also an activist and part of those movements. Atom & Strom (Nuclear & Electricity) is a 3-cd collection (51 songs) of Schinkels songs against nuclear power, he wrote over the last few decades, apart from two of his classics from the 1970s: Katastropheneinstazplan and Harrisburg-Syndrom. This collection of his songs are an illustration of the themes the anti-nuclear movement worked on through those years: the nuclear facilities at Lingen and Gronau, reactors at Tihange (B), Fessenheim (Fr), phase-out scenario’s, life-time extension of existing reactors, and of course the Energiewende.
Listen to the song Demonstrationsrecht in Gronau, written and performed by Gerd Schinkel
Listen to the song Demonstrationsrecht in Gronau, written and performed by Gerd Schinkel
Other important releases from the anti-nuclear movement (not -yet- part of Laka’s collection -can you help?):
Various Artists
Wyhl
Single, 1975