Wolf Biermann to release diaries marking 50 years since GDR expatriation

To mark his 90th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his expatriation from East Germany, singer and critic Wolf Biermann is releasing the first volume of his diaries. Edited by historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, the book, titled ‘Ihr löscht das Feuer mit Benzin. Tagebücher – Über Verbot, Ausbürgerung und Mauerfall’, is scheduled for release on October 7 by Penguin-Verlag.

The diaries cover the period from 1961 to 1990, providing a personal perspective on life between the GDR, his exile, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The records highlight a pivotal moment in November 1976, when Biermann was stripped of his citizenship by the SED Politburo following a concert in Cologne. During that performance, he had criticized the regime as a ‘dictatorship of a handful of politicians.’

Biermann, who viewed himself as a committed socialist, used his diaries to contest the regime's accusations that he had betrayed socialist values, labeling such claims as ‘a lie on short legs.’ The publication offers a unique historical panorama of German-German relations through the eyes of one of the era's most prominent dissident voices.