On Sunday March 17th David Hasselhoff came to Berlin and joined an estimated 7000 people to protest the East Side Gallery being chopped up to make way for luxury condos and a bridge. The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin wall featuring 103 pieces of art by East and West German artist who came together shortly after the opening of the German-German boarder to create this symbol of freedom of expression and the new unity of two cultures who had the same roots but had been kept apart for several decades.
I went to the protest because I wanted to be counted as a supporter of the East Side Gallery but also to film this video for you. On Sunday I already released a video that features The Hoff singing the entire song “Looking For Freedom”. This is the 1-minute version.
You can watch the full version here: https://movingpostcard.com/david-hasselhoff-east-side-gallery
To save you and me time, here is the text that I wrote with the longer video:
Recently the city together with developers have begun making more holes into the wall to make way for luxury condos and a bridge across the Spree River.
David Hasselhoff has had a special connection to the Berlin Wall ever since his song “Looking For Freedom” became an anthem in Germany during the time the wall came down in 1989.
So today I went to the East Side Gallery and made a short video featuring David Hasselhoff signing “Looking For Freedom”, some shots of the crowd and a few images I took of the East Side Gallery last year when it had been freshly restored.
If you’d like to know more:
Watch the 1-minute video I made about the East Side Gallery (and read more about it): East Side Gallery (The Wall Art) – In A Berlin Minute (Week 95)
Listen to a Mädels with a Microphone podcast about the recent controversy and protests surrounding the East Side Gallery: The East Side Gallery Protest
Sign the petition to save the East Side Gallery: change.org/eastsidegallery
On a personal note: While I’m in the US I get asked so often about Germans’ obsession with David Hasselhoff, who in the United States is only known for being an actor, while in German-language Europe he is also known as a singer. My response is always: I actually don’t know German people who are buying his records or who talk about him – while I’m always fascinated by how many Americans are obsessed with Germans supposedly liking David Hasselhoff. Maybe they’re just jealous of the attention he gives to Germans? 😉
In any case: I think it’s awesome that he traveled to Berlin to support the cause of the East Side Gallery, which is too important historically and culturally to continuously be chopped up and moved around. And if this gives him some more publicity, so be it. It gives the East Side Gallery the publicity and international attention it deserves.
You can look at more photos from this video shoot on my personal blog: Photos from David Hasselhoff’s visit to the East Side Gallery
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If you want to read another account of the actual event, check out this poignant and humorous account by the Irish Berliner: Hofftastic Sankt Pádraigstag. And I’m not just posting this because he embedded my video… I really appreciated his inside info as a jolly Irish journalist.
