Klaus Hoffmann – “In my neighborhood”

Klaus Hoffmann comes from the old west of Berlin; no one has dedicated as many songs to his homeland as he has. The beloved father was weak and ill and died early, on photos you can see the son in his face; the mother worked bravely, then lived with another man, and Klaus, who started an apprenticeship, despaired in the small apartment.

He discovered the guitar, learned a few chords, was fascinated by Dylan and imagined the first lyrics and melodies. Hoffmann went through the Berlin clubs, found patrons and played for little money. He was non-political, didn’t want to fight, lived on Sylt like a hippie, liked women, enjoyed love, undertook the obligatory adventure trip to the Orient and came back emaciated and penniless.

tremors of the soul

His first album appeared in 1975 with the picture of the dazzlingly beautiful youth on it. In the beginning, Hoffmann invested in German folklore; soon the songs became more chanson-like and told – “Westend”, “Changes”, “Morjen Berlin” – about life in Germany and the tremors of the soul.

Jacques Brel’s songs were part of Hoffmann’s repertoire early on, but it was only in 1997 that he dared to write an album with German interpretations, even a musical: “The Last Show”. He passed.

Deep down in his heart, the brooding melancholic Klaus Hoffmann is the romantic singer of memories and longing that never fades: “In my neighborhood there was a dealer on the corner/ There you could see our fathers standing there in the evening/ It smelled like cigarettes, like Maggi and meatballs/ And they drowned the past standing up.”

Read more: The best German songs of all time

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