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Roland Kaiser: Made the breakthrough in 1980 with “Santa Maria”
Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa
Roland Kaiser has been active as a pop singer for several decades - and thus also experienced the difficulties as an artist that appearances in the former GDR could bring with them.
Once he even wrote a letter to Erich Honecker, as he reports in his biography entitled »Sunny Side«.
The GDR did not want Kaiser's keyboardist to perform at a concert in the Friedrichstadt-Palast to mark the 750th anniversary of Berlin.
The SED was a thorn in the side that the musician had fled the GDR in 1980.
Keyboard player on stage under a pseudonym
Kaiser, who was born in West Berlin as Roland Keiler, threatened to cancel the performance.
"Definitely, I would have pulled it off," he told the dpa news agency.
The head of the artist service remained tough.
Thereupon Kaiser wrote the said letter to Honecker in 1987.
“I sent it off with a lot of tension.
I hope he'll write back, I thought.
At least I was almost certain that he would read the letter, «said the singer, who is considered a staunch social democrat.
The order was issued through Stasi chief Erich Mielke that Franz Bartzsch was allowed to enter the country after all.
"You have caused us a lot of trouble," said the cultural official and added, "Comrade Honecker has read your letter."
The originals are printed in the book.
There was one restriction after all.
The keyboard player was only allowed to perform under a pseudonym.
Franz Bartzsch became Daniel Matthi.
"I underestimated people's ability to empathize"
Kaiser also writes about personal topics in the book, such as his chronic lung disease COPD. “I told my family not to talk about the disease. From today's perspective that was wrong. I underestimated people's ability to empathize. My wife had advised me much earlier to go public with it, «Kaiser tells the dpa. He had a lung transplant in February 2010.
In addition, Kaiser gives a detailed account of the death of his foster mother for the first time in the book.
When he was 15 years old, she suffered a stroke.
With a one-sided paralysis, she could no longer speak.
She died three weeks later.
“It was a difficult time, a special turning point in my life.
I didn't know what to do next and was worried about coming to the home, «said the 69-year-old.
"The question was, who will look after me?"
The family, which is widely ramified in West Berlin, caught the youngster.
With Kaiser's success it became more difficult.
“The relationship with my relatives has always been very ambivalent.
I tried to stay connected.
But at some point it was said that he is no longer one of us. "
Kaiser had his breakthrough in 1980 with the song "Santa Maria".
"To love you" or "Sometimes I would like to be with you ..." were further successes.
With around 90 million records sold, he is one of the most successful German singers of his generation.
bbr / dpa