The Foreign Correspondent - Stories About German Rock Music # 14

During the last weeks I have presented bands which are forgotten or and obscure or which never succeeded the way they should have earned. Today I will introduce maybe the most popular German punk band today - Die Toten Hosen (or The  Dead Pants/DTH). Most of the members hung around with the punk scene at the famous Ratinger Hof in Dusseldorf - a well known place for punks in the late 1970s. They founded the band in 1982 as succession group of a local band called ZK what means nothing less than sickening. These young kids who just could serve their instruments played a weired mixture of punk, rockabilly and German schlager. I remember one of their concerts in the late 1970s in Stuttgart when they played in  a little club called mousetrap. It was in the first floor on the left side. We stood in a row to get into the club and a lot of men have passed embarrassed us, because on the right side was a brothel. The concert was so amazing although there were just 100 visitors there. But this kids did a very good job. At this time it was possible to have a drink with the band and talking about music, football and everything else. ZK released only one regular record and vanished after a live recording.

ZK - Conrad
ZK - Immer wieder besetzt & Fussball und Alk

Campino, von Holst and A. Meurer founded later DTH. They released several singles on various labels and I got me the single Bommerlunder (ice-coled Bommerlunder - a German schnapps). It was delivered with a small bottle of real Bommerlunder and for that I signed the first and last time ever in a fan club. Still got the member number DTH0074. They released their first full record called Opelgang in 1983 which was much based on the punk background. All the members of the band are self-thought musicians and for that they developed her own unmistakeable sound over the last 30 years. What was also important for me that the band, especially Campino, had a political activities. They support different social and political organizations without being a member of any political party. I remember very well when they played in Frankfurt on a benefit concert against ultra right wing racism when they played their song Sascha about a stupid nazi who doesn't realize that foreigners are still a part of our life. What also impressed me much that they were so close to their hometown Dusseldorf and their local football team. They donated about 100.000 Euro to sign a striker and they sponsored Fortuna Düsseldorf over several years when they had financial difficulties.

After all - it is a band I grew up for long long years, have seen them more than ten times over all the years and I will miss when they will be gone one day.

Sascha - An upright German

Sasha him is jobless

what he makes without work bare

he cuts off to himself the hair

and pees on a Jew's grave

Zigenuerschnitzel this well tastes

on Sintis he has a fury

he eats so with pleasure Cevapcici

He never liked Croatians

Sasha him is a German

and be German this is difficult

and as in German as Sasha

if Abdul becomes never more

He knows even the alphabet

knows where the leader's bunker stands

No this man this is no idiot

Sasha is a German Rep

He is politically informed

and if every stranger knows this interferes

and his loyal sheepdog

now does not bark without reason

Since Sasha him is a German

and be German this is difficult

and as in German as Sasha

if one is not alongside

Now he leaves the sow only out

and goes to the asylum-seeker's house

there he smashes a disc

since every black is a pig

then he lights the booth

every acts just what he is able to do

with the subject "German thoroughness"

there he completely knows

Yes Sasha him is a German

and be German this is difficult

who is as in German as Sasha

otherwise, he is nothing more

A good 50 years ago

if it has already tried one

the thing missed

Sasha has not got it...

Ten Little Jägermeister: A counting out rhyme of people you lose on your way