Rock star died: he founded one of the most successful German bands ever

Klaus Selmke, drummer of the successful German rock band "City", has died. The cause of death is known. His musician colleagues mourn him.

• The rock band "City" mourns the loss of a musician .
• The drummer Klaus Selmke is dead .
• Without him the band would never have existed.

Berlin - He was an exceptional drummer who liked to sit barefoot on the stage: Klaus Selmke, drummer of the band "City", died of cancer on Friday evening (May 22nd) . His bandmates mourn the musician, who celebrated his 70th birthday just a month ago. Without him the rock band would never have existed.

City drummer Klaus Selmke is dead: without him the band wouldn't exist

It has been 48 years since Selmke founded the band City with Puppel in Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin . The starting point for everything that followed was in a cultural center in Köpenick in the spring of 1972: there the City Rock Band, as it was originally called, stood on stage for the first time - and Klaus Selmke was on the drums . The band was supposed to provide a musical accompaniment for a five-hour youth dance evening. Her repertoire included songs by Santana , the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix . Ten years later, 10,000 fans made a pilgrimage to the open-air concert in Berlin's Plänterwald. The band has been active ever since. 

City at a concert in 2012.

© picture alliance / dpa / Jens Wolf

She was also one of the most successful rock groups in the GDR . The five bald heads who once advertised for themselves with the slogan "Without bass and without hair - with city through the 80s!" Were often on the edge of what was allowed with their critical texts in the socialist state for example in "Wall to Wall" and "Half and Half" the German division.

City band drummer is dead: Klaus Selmke died of cancer

For his colleagues and friends, his death is a bitter loss. They mourn the drummer: "The" General "Klaus Selmke put down the drumstick forever at 2pm today. We are sad and speechless, "wrote the band's singer, Toni Krahl, according to dpa on Friday evening. His band expressed their sadness by the fact that their Facebook page was completely black on Friday. Only the white background said on the black background:" Klaus Selmke - 4/21/1950 - 5/22/2020 ". Among them were two red drumsticks.

This popular band also mourns its colleague and a music legend: he died of the corona virus. The German film world mourns a real legend: Irm Hermann, who starred in several films and series, is dead.

Meanwhile, the TV world is mourning for this popular "All that matters" star. He died surprisingly at the age of 50.

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