Manfred Krug in the late 1970s
Photo: Getty Images. All rights reserved.
<!–
–>
<!–
–>
Of course, it’s a bit unfair to choose this one song as a representative of singer Manfred Krug’s career, since he made his best albums behind the Iron Curtain.
“That was just a moment”, “A breath of spring” and “You are like new today” were small masterpieces, for which Manfred Krug was provided with a small army of top-class GDR musicians, usually the Günther-Fischer -Quintet or the Klaus Lenz Sextet.
Lyrically, it all remained rather system-compliant (at least at first glance). But as far as the musical quotes were concerned, Krug and his fellow campaigners had already broken through quite a few walls – pardon me: barriers. From Adriano Celentano to Curtis Mayfield to Van Morrison, little was left unturned to pay homage to the competition in imperialist countries. The famous protest against Wolf Biermann’s expatriation followed in 1976. Krug signed, was banned from working for months and finally applied to emigrate to West Germany.
From today’s perspective, it is all the more interesting that Krug recorded his most classic record, “Da bist du ja”, after he had “made it over”. “To see the wide world” was his final liberation, less justification for turning his back on his old comrades.
Read more: The best German songs of all time
But the really painful farewell resonates in this long “Ade”. The melody of the incredibly melancholic chanson, which drives through ever darker emotional worlds, comes from the Brazilian Edu Lobo, the German text was written by Krug himself , whose place is taken by Caterina Valente as devotedly as she is tearfully. Later Krug sang the song with Ost duet partner Uschi Brüning. A musical reconciliation that embalms the scars of the past with nostalgia.
<!–
–>
<!–
–>