Herbert Grönemeyer
Encyclopedia
Herbert Grönemeyer is a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 and actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

, popular in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. He starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...

's movie Das Boot
Das Boot
Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann...

, but later concentrated on his musical career. His fifth album 4630 Bochum (1984) and his 20th album Mensch
Mensch (album)
Mensch, released in 2002, is the 20th music release by prominent German rock/pop artist Herbert Grönemeyer. Mensch is Grönemeyer's 11th full-length album of original compositions. The title track Mensch became Grönemeyer's first number-one single in Germany...

(Human) (2002) are the best-selling German-language records of all time.

Early life

Grönemeyer often refers to his personal roots as lying in the German town of Bochum
Bochum
Bochum is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. It is located in the Ruhr area and is surrounded by the cities of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, Castrop-Rauxel, Dortmund, Witten and Hattingen.-History:...

 where he spent most of his childhood, youth and early adulthood. Still today, the song Bochum, first released in 1984, is one of his signature songs, especially during live performances. Being born in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

 and not in Bochum he has his own explanation: "I was only born in Göttingen because my mother often fainted when she was pregnant with me. She did this every time she turned to her left side, and no one believed her. In Göttingen there was a professor, a specialist, and he didn't believe her either, at which point she lay down, fainted, and brought me into the world. This is why I was born in Göttingen."

Work

Grönemeyer’s interest in music was sparked at the age of eight, when he started to take piano classes. These later formed the basis for his work as a pianist and composer at the local theatre Schauspielhaus Bochum. In 1979, at the City of Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

 Theatre (Schauspielhaus Köln), using his musical talent to great effect, he gave an excellent performance as Lorenzo in the The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

. Although never having attended an acting school he soon appeared in several TV productions. During one of the shootings he met his later wife, the actress Anna Henkel. Additionally, Grönemeyer published an album he had recorded with the jazz formation "Ocean Orchestra" in 1978, a year in which he also composed the music for the film Uns reicht das nicht by Jürgen Flimm
Jürgen Flimm
Jürgen Flimm is a German theater and opera director, and theater manager. After establishing himself as one of the exponents of Regietheater, Flimm was called to manage renowned theaters and festivals...

, together with Jens-Peter Ostendorf. His first solo album Grönemeyer, which was published in 1979, was awarded the Golden Lemon for the ugliest album cover of the year. His second album Zwo was released in 1981. Neither managed to chart. In the same year he starred in Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen
Wolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...

’s successful movie Das Boot
Das Boot
Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann...

as Lieutenant Werner. For the role of composer Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

 in the German-German coproduction Frühlingssinfonie (co-starring Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski
Nastassja Kinski is a German-born American-based actress who has appeared in more than 60 films. Her starring roles include her Golden Globe Award-winning portrayal of the title character in Tess and her roles in two erotic films , as well as parts in Wim Wenders' films The Wrong Move; Paris,...

 and Rolf Hoppe), for which he also composed the film score, Grönemeyer spent six months in the GDR. During the early 1980s Grönemeyer put his main focus on his music; the next two albums Total egal (1982) and Gemischte Gefühle (1983) flopped and most concerts of the planned tour had to be cancelled.

Grönemeyer first met success as a musician in 1984 with the release of Bochum which became the best-sold album in Germany that year, particularly supported by the singles "Männer
Männer
Männer is a 1984 song by german singer Herbert Grönemeyer.The 'Männer' single release is still one of the most successful titles of Grönemeyer. The youth magazine Bravo described the song as "catchy male harassment"...

" ( English lyrics ) and "Flugzeuge im Bauch". A year later Grönemeyer appeared in the TV-movie Väter und Söhne, co-starring Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....

, Burt Lancaster
Burt Lancaster
Burton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...

 and Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz
Bruno Ganz is a Swiss actor, known for his roles as Damiel in Wings of Desire and Adolf Hitler in Downfall.- Early life :Bruno Ganz was born in Zürich to a Swiss mechanic father and a northern Italian mother. He had decided to pursue an acting career by the time he entered university...

. In his next albums Sprünge (1986) and Ö (1988) he increasingly expressed his political opinion, criticising the government under German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German conservative politician and statesman. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998...

. In 1986 Grönemeyer performed at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival
Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival
The Anti-WAAhnsinns Festivals were political rock concerts, which took place in Germany in the 1980s. Their purpose was to support protests against a planned nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf. In 1986, the fifth festival marked the peak of the protest movement against the plant...

 against nuclear power and he composed the film score for the TV film Sommer in Lesmona, for which he received the Adolf Grimme Award
Adolf Grimme Awards
The Adolf Grimme Award is a television award and one of the most prestigious awards for German television, which is named after the first general director of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Adolf Grimme . It is also called the "German TV Oscar".The awards ceremony takes place annually at Theater Marl...

 in gold. The release of his first English album What’s all this was followed by a tour through Canada, where it had success in the charts. After the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

 had fallen Grönemeyer released the album Luxus in which he addressed the feelings in East and West Germany. Having two children together, Felix and Marie, he married his companion Anna Henkel in 1993. In the same year Chaos was released and became a Top 1 hit record in Germany. More than people saw the following tour. In 1994, Grönemeyer was the first non-English-speaking artist who was invited by MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 to do an unplugged concert. Four years later Grönemeyer moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and released Bleibt alles anders (Everything Remains Different). He also founded his own record label, Grönland Records
Grönland Records
Grönland Records is an independent record label originally founded in London, England, which relocated to Berlin, Germany in 2009. "Grönland" refers both to the country and the label's founder, Herbert Grönemeyer.-Origin:...

. In the same year his brother Wilhelm and his wife Anna died of cancer (both dying within 3 days); it took Grönemeyer a year to resume his work. In 2000 he recorded a concert with a philharmonic orchestra and released the DVD Stand der Dinge (State of Affairs). In August 2002 he released his so far most successful album Mensch
Mensch (album)
Mensch, released in 2002, is the 20th music release by prominent German rock/pop artist Herbert Grönemeyer. Mensch is Grönemeyer's 11th full-length album of original compositions. The title track Mensch became Grönemeyer's first number-one single in Germany...

(Human) which was awarded Platinum even before release due to advance orders. The single "Mensch" became Grönemeyer’s first number one hit in Germany and 1.5 million people saw the 2-year tour. In 2004 and 2006 Grönemeyer recorded songs for the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 in Athens ("Everlasting") and the 2006 FIFA World Cup
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

 in Germany ("Celebrate the Day
Celebrate the Day
Celebrate the Day is a song in Herbert Grönemeyer featuring Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia that was adopted as an official theme song for the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany. The song appears on the CD Zeit, dass sich was dreht / Celebrate the Day ....

").

In March 2007 he released his 12th studio album 12
12 (Herbert Grönemeyer album)
"12" is the 12th full-length album by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer, released in March 2007. It was recorded between 2006 and 2007 in London and was produced by Alex Silva and Herbert Grönemeyer....

which was followed by a stadium tour across German-speaking countries. Smaller concerts took place in September in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

.

The three re-recorded albums What's all this, Luxus and Chaos for the English-speaking market were met with limited sales success. Grönemeyer was scheduled to make his American debut on September 17, 2007 at the Beacon Theater in New York City, but the performance has since been postponed.

In January 2010, Grönemeyer performed the anthem "Komm zur Ruhr" as part of the opening ceremony of the "Ruhr.2010" - The city of Essen being the "European Capital of Culture
European Capital of Culture
The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

 2010" on behalf of the entire Ruhr
Ruhr
The Ruhr is a medium-size river in western Germany , a right tributary of the Rhine.-Description:The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an elevation of approximately 2,200 feet...

 area.

The magazine TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

awarded him the title of "European Hero" in 2005 for his humanitarian work.

Studio albums

  • 1979 — Grönemeyer
  • 1980 — Zwo
  • 1982 — Total egal
  • 1983 — Gemischte Gefühle
  • 1984 — 4630 Bochum
  • 1986 — Sprünge
  • 1988 — Ö
  • 1990 — Luxus
  • 1993 — Chaos
  • 1998 — Bleibt alles anders
  • 2002 — Mensch
    Mensch (album)
    Mensch, released in 2002, is the 20th music release by prominent German rock/pop artist Herbert Grönemeyer. Mensch is Grönemeyer's 11th full-length album of original compositions. The title track Mensch became Grönemeyer's first number-one single in Germany...

  • 2007 — 12
    12 (Herbert Grönemeyer album)
    "12" is the 12th full-length album by German singer Herbert Grönemeyer, released in March 2007. It was recorded between 2006 and 2007 in London and was produced by Alex Silva and Herbert Grönemeyer....

  • 2011 — Schiffsverkehr

Live albums

  • 1995 — Unplugged
  • 1995 — Live
  • 2000 — Stand der Dinge (Double DVD/CD)
  • 2003 — Mensch live (Double DVD)

English albums

  • 1988 — What's all this
  • 1991 — Luxus
  • 1996 — Chaos

Other releases

  • 1978 — Ocean Orchestra (feat. Grönemeyer as lead vocalist)
  • 1994 — Cosmic Chaos (Remix album)
  • 2006 — "Zeit, dass sich was dreht" / "Celebrate the day" (Official 2006 FIFA World Cup
    2006 FIFA World Cup
    The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

     Anthem) (Maxi CD)

Collaboration with other artists

  • 1985 — "Nackt im Wind" (Single) by Band for Africa (with Nena
    Nena
    Gabriele Susanne Kerner , better known by her stage name Nena, is a German singer and actress. She rose to international fame in 1983 with the New German Wave song "99 Luftballons". In 1984, she re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". Nena was also the name of the band with whom she...

    , Udo Lindenberg
    Udo Lindenberg
    Udo Lindenberg is a German rock musician and composer.-Career:Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969 Lindenberg founded his first band Free Orbit and also appeared as a studio and guest musician . In 1970 he collaborated as a drummer with jazz-saxophonist Klaus Doldinger in...

    , Peter Maffay
    Peter Maffay
    Peter Alexander Makkay better known as Peter Maffay is a German musician.- Biography :Born in Brasov, Romania, the son of a German , he was 14 when his family relocated to his parents' Germany in 1963. In the same year, he started his first band, The Dukes...

    , Rio Reiser
    Rio Reiser
    Rio Reiser , was a German rock musician and singer of the famous rock group Ton Steine Scherben. He was born Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin and died at the age of 46 in the little German town of Fresenhagen. Rio Reiser was politically active during his whole life...

    , Wolfgang Niedecken
    Wolfgang Niedecken
    Wolfgang Niedecken is a German singer, musician and visual artist. He founded the Kölsch speaking rock group BAP at the end of the 1970s. He soon became famous with BAP all over Germany. He is the lead singer and only remaining founding member of BAP.- Life :Niedecken attended boarding school in...

     and others)
  • 1991 — The Fall of the House of Usher
    The Fall Of The House Of Usher (opera)
    The Fall of the House of Usher is an opera by Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith . It is based on the short story of the same name by Edgar Allan Poe....

    as The Herbalist (album by Peter Hammill
    Peter Hammill
    Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...

     and Judge Smith
    Judge Smith
    Christopher John Judge Smith , is a songwriter, composer and performer, and a founder member of progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Initially working under the name Chris Judge Smith, he has been known simply as Judge Smith since 1994.- Early years :In 1967, with Peter Hammill, Judge...

    )
  • 1996 — "Uebers Meer" (Album: Tribute to Rio Reiser)
  • 2003 — "Taxi Europa" (Album: Taxi Europa) by Stephan Eicher
    Stephan Eicher
    Stephan Eicher is a Swiss singer.His songs are sung in a variety of languages, including French, German, English, Italian, Swiss-German, and Romanche and sometimes he even uses different languages in the same piece.His success started in German-speaking countries in the 1980s when as part of the...

  • 2004 — "Everlasting" (Album: Unity – Athens 2004) with Youssou N'Dour
    Youssou N'Dour
    Youssou N'Dour is a Senegalese singer, percussionist and occasional actor. In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, in Senegal and much of Africa, "perhaps the most famous singer alive." He helped develop a style of popular music in Senegal, known in the Serer language as mbalax, a type of music...

  • 2005 — "Einmal nur in unserem Leben" (Album: Dreimal Zehn Jahre BAP) by BAP
    Bap (German band)
    Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....

  • 2006 — "Grauschleier" (Album: 26½) by Fehlfarben
    Fehlfarben
    Fehlfarben is a German post-punk band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The band name is from a German printing term referring to erroneous colors in prints: singer Peter Hein was in this line of work at Xerox while in the band...

  • 2006 — "Zeit, dass sich was dreht / Celebrate the day / Fetez cette journée" (Single) with Amadou and Marjam
  • 2006 — "Geld 2006 (Internet Warm-Up Version)" song released as a bonus track on rarities compilation "Mon Amour" by Klaus Dinger
    Klaus Dinger
    Klaus Dinger was a German musician and songwriter most famous for his contributions to the seminal krautrock outfit, Neu! He was also the guitarist and chief songwriter of new wave group La Düsseldorf and briefly the percussionist of Kraftwerk.-Pre-Neu! :Klaus Dinger was born in Scherfede,...

  • 2007 — "Einfach sein" (Album: Fornika) by Die Fantastischen Vier
    Die Fantastischen Vier
    Die Fantastischen Vier , also known as Fanta 4, is a German hip hop group from Stuttgart, Germany. The members are Michael Bernd Schmidt alias Smudo, Andreas Rieke alias And.Ypsilon, Thomas Dürr alias Hausmeister Thomas D and Michael 'Michi' Beck alias Dee Jot Hausmarke...

  • 2008 — "Will I Ever Learn" (Album: Was muss muss) with Antony Hegarty
    Antony Hegarty
    Antony Hegarty is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons.-Early life:...

  • 2009 — "Mes Emmerdes" (Album: Duos) with Charles Aznavour
    Charles Aznavour
    Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...

  • 2009 — "Als es mir beschissen geht" (Album: Duos) with Charles Aznavour

Filmography

  • 1976 — Die Geisel (directed by Peter Zadek
    Peter Zadek
    Peter Zadek was a German theatre and film director, play translator and screenwriter and is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater. He was the head of the Schauspielhaus Bochum, Bochum , the Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Hamburg and the Berliner Ensemble from 1992 to 1996...

    )
  • 1978 — Von Tag zu Tag (directed by Ulrich Stein)
  • 1978 — Uns reicht das nicht (directed by Juergen Flimm)
  • 1979 — Daheim unter Fremden (directed by Peter Keglevic)
  • 1981 — Das Boot
    Das Boot
    Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann...

    (directed by Wolfgang Petersen
    Wolfgang Petersen
    Wolfgang Petersen is a German film director and screenwriter. His films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon...

    )
  • 1982 — Doktor Faustus (directed by Franz Seitz)
  • 1982 — Frühlingssinfonie (directed by Peter Schamoni)
  • 1984 — Die ewigen Gefühle (directed by Peter Beauvais)
  • 1985 — Väter und Söhne (directed by Bernhard Sinkel
    Bernhard Sinkel
    Bernhard Sinkel is a German film director and screenwriter. He directed seven films between 1975 and 1993.He co-shared the Special Recognition award at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival for the film Germany in Autumn...

    )
  • 2007 — Control (directed by Anton Corbijn
    Anton Corbijn
    Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...

    )
  • 2010 — The American
    The American (2010 film)
    The American is a 2010 American thriller film directed by Anton Corbijn and starring George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Irina Björklund, and Paolo Bonacelli. It is an adaptation of the 1990 novel A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth...

    (directed by Anton Corbijn)

External links

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