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The band City plays with its members Manfred Hennig (lr, keyboardist), Fritz Puppel (guitarist), Toni Krahl (singer) and Georgi Gogow (not in the picture, violin) live on their farewell tour in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin.
© Annette Riedl/dpa
Music was his life.
Fritz Puppel founded the band City together with drummer Klaus Selmke.
They became one of the most successful rock groups from the GDR.
Berlin - He was the founder of one of the most important GDR rock groups: Fritz Puppel, guitarist and composer of the Berlin band City, is dead. He died unexpectedly on February 10th at the age of 79.
City singer Toni Krahl told the German Press Agency on Thursday.
“We are at a loss for words and are stunned that we are losing our friend and comrade-in-arms for over five decades,” said Krahl.
“And in general, the German music world is missing another creative mind who has enriched all of our lives with his art and his songs and touched millions of people.
“
Puppel founded the band in East Berlin in 1972 with drummer Klaus Selmke.
City not only had many fans in the GDR, but also in non-socialist countries - for example through the hit “Am Fenster”.
A few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berliners' success continued.
There have been different line-ups in the band's history, but Puppel has always been there.
For five decades.
At the end of 2022, City said goodbye to the stage.
Puppel led the band through ups and downs for 50 years, until the farewell concert on December 30, 2022, said Krahl (74).
And: “He always put his own personality, free of musical vanities, on the back burner and was inspired by the idea of creating City as a band.
With a cool head, Fritz was constantly the inspiring driving force for the challenges ahead and was valued for his loyalty throughout the music scene.”
“Do one thing!
But they’re right.” That was Puppel’s life motto.
Although he completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker as a teenager, he founded his first band in 1963 together with the later Puhdys singer Dieter Birr: the Lunics.
When both were drafted into the army a little later, the Lunics were history again.
On February 3, 1972, the City Band played in a club in Berlin-Köpenick in front of around 200 listeners.
In the repertoire: songs by Santana, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix.
The city musicians later composed their own songs - in German.
Whether “Am Fenster”, “The King of Prenzlauer Berg”, “Wand an Wand” or “Glastraum”: many texts were on the edge of what was permitted in the GDR.
And a lot of songs became hits.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, their career took a hit, but after a few years the fans returned in their thousands, the band filled large halls again and a new album was released almost every year.
After the death of drummer Klaus Selmke in 2020, the remaining four band members decided to end City at the end of 2022.
“We want to try when it's best to stop.
And not to waste the whole thing,” said Puppel at the time.
In addition to Puppel and Krahl, the last band line-up also included violinist Joro Gogow and keyboarder Manfred Hennig.
dpa