Udo Lindenberg

Udo Gerhard Lindenberg is a German rock musician, writer, and painter. After beginning his career as a drummer in the late 1960s with bands and musicians such as the City Preachers and Peter Herbolzheimer, he increasingly focused on singing and writing his own songs starting in the early 1970s. As one of the first rock musicians to present lyrics in German, he helped pave the way for the breakthrough of German-language rock music. Since then, Lindenberg has continuously evolved into a leading and defining figure in the German music scene, and his recordings have frequently achieved gold status. With his 34th studio album, *Stark wie Zwei* (Strong as Two), he topped the German charts for the first time in his career in 2008, at the age of 62. In the 1980s, alongside his musical endeavors, Lindenberg increasingly dedicated himself to the subject of inner-German relations. Despite his considerable efforts, however, he was denied the opportunity to perform in the GDR with his band, the Panikorchester—with the exception of a heavily monitored performance held in 1983 before a hand-picked FDJ audience at the Palace of the Republic in East Berlin. A tour that had already been scheduled for 1984 was subsequently cancelled by the GDR leadership. Later, a high-profile exchange of gifts took place: in 1987, Lindenberg presented Erich Honecker with a leather jacket, received a *Schalmei* (shawm) in return, and finally gifted Honecker an electric guitar on the occasion of the latter's first visit to the Federal Republic of Germany.