Depeche Mode in East(Ern) Germany
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DEPECHE MODE IN EAST(ERN) GERMANY Lev Kerbel’s forty-ton bust of Karl Marx in Chemnitz INTERVIEWS: A.J. SAMUELS AND MAX DAX / PHOTOGRAPHY: ELENA PANOULI AND LUCI LUX Unfairly dismissed in their native England as new romantic fop-pop, Mute label stalwarts Depeche Mode have built up one of the most musi- cally influential and obsessive fan bases almost everywhere else in the world. Particularly in Berlin and the former East Germany, the band has spawned a unique kind of faith and devotion, from DM-themed BDSM parties to the world’s largest archive of band memorabilia. In a country where rock and roll was officially defined as a capitalist plot to corrupt working class youth, Depeche Mode’s apolitical stance translated into real, subcultural capital. It’s a reason why their alternative cultural hegemony continues today amongst the pale and Prussian. And we have the Stasi files to prove it. FRIDAY Kirsten and Thaur of KitKatClub fame decided spontaneously to 6:30 p.m. fuck in the middle of the dance floor downstairs in the legend- BERLIN ary trance-oriented Bunker Club. Because of all the strobes and dry ice, you couldn’t entirely make out DJ Monty – BDSM & sex what was going on, but people fig- party organizer, Insomnia ured it out soon enough and start- Club ed to follow suit, because it some- how fit so well to the music. Pretty My roots are actually in the Berlin soon, every weekend, you had techno scene, which is where the gaggles of writhing bodies on the entire active sex and BDSM scenes dancefloor and when it achieved a in Berlin originated. In fact, it’s critical mass, Kirsten and Thaur traceable to a very specific series of realized their true calling and events: one night—or maybe it was founded the original KitKatClub one day; we had a terrible sense of in Berlin-Kreuzberg—one of the time when partying back then— first truly techno-based sex clubs 86 EB 4/2012 EB 4/2012 87 88 EB 4/2012 in the world. I ended up working gear. The song texts and titles— with owning something like that there for a few years before moving “Freelove”, “Strangelove”, “Master was that there wasn’t a single on to manage a more exclusively And Servant”—they’re all about sex shop in the entire GDR. So BDSM club known as Darkside, an unmistakable mix of sex, pain we improvised. A friend of mine also located in Kreuzberg. and love, while instrumentally, it’s owned a pair of leather suspenders Darkside was less about sex a perfect mix of quiet and ponder- from the East German riot police, per se and more about pure bond- ous on the one hand and loud and which I ended up buying off him age. Most people who only spend pounding on the other. I also think and simply wearing backwards. time in the vanilla world don’t this is the reason why women and Purely in terms of looks, it came really know there’s a difference. men listen to Depeche Mode in pretty damn close to the original. But indeed, the difference is roughly equal numbers, which You have to understand: there Above: Sascha Lange is immense. I worked as a manager is also reflected in our parties. was a lot of thought and plan- a journalist and expert at Darkside for around four years When it comes to fucking to ning involved in figuring out what on youth culture in and eventually felt compelled to Depeche Mode, there are lots of to wear, and there was serious the GDR. A former try something new musically, different songs that fit to lots of intention behind every purchase self-styled Dave- because I was getting sick of inces- different kinds of sex, and some and object modification. If you double, Lange recently santly hearing Gregorian chants not at all. Again, an incredible somehow heard that Mode was wrote a book about and mystical new-age crap. So we variety. For S&M play, “A Pain coming out with a new album, his teenage years hatched a plan to incorporate a That I’m Used To” is probably one you couldn’t just walk over to the in the East, DJ West fat chunk of Depeche Mode songs of my favorites, while for straight store and buy it. You had to think, Radio, which focuses into a DJ set one night . and up “girlfriend” sex, “Freelove” can “OK, now it’s March. Grandma’s on the country’s well- that’s when everything changed. be fantastic. Dave has as much coming for Christmas and mom developed DIY culture. Almost immediately, the guests sex in his voice as Martin has in might get permission for a visit to Without a relative on stopped playing their little bond- his arrangements. At our parties, the West in September. OK, she the other side of the age games and made their way to people usually end up wandering could get it for me, but . in six Wall who could score the dancefloor. After a while, they off to the club’s darker corners or months!?” Or if you really wanted them Western swag, continued with the bondage, the upstairs to the mattresses to fuck it that bad, you had to spend, like, GDR youth had to fig- whips, the chains, the rubber, the during the quieter tracks—“A two hundred ostmarks to buy it ure out on their own dominance, the submission to the Question of Lust”, “Somebody” on the black market . which is how to make bondage music—which was extremely excit- or “Blasphemous Rumours”. what I made during my carpentry harnesses like the ing. This truly felt like something Naturally, some people continue apprenticeship in two months. one Martin Gore wore new; it felt like it a perfect match. to dance, but the atmosphere Depeche Mode fan culture in in DM’s early years. That’s when we had the idea to changes. It all gets a bit hot- the GDR was a lot about a kind put an entire BDSM-play party ter. For me, Depeche Mode gives of reenactment and styling our- together surrounding Depeche “functional music” new meaning. selves just like the band. This Mode’s music here in Berlin’s often manifested itself in “band” youngest and most active fetish photos that we would pose for and Left: DJ Monty club, Insomnia. The fact that take ourselves. And as a general slingin’ it in Berlin’s the band never released a maxi FRIDAY matter, the DM visual and graphi- Insomnia Club. Monty without multiple remixes helps to cal style had an immense effect co-hosts Master And diversify what gets played at our 11:25 p.m. on us all. It wasn’t like you just Servant—a monthly parties, although in the scene, looked at a poster, liked it, and Depeche Mode themed there’s a real split between those hung it on your wall. No—you BDSM and sex party, who only enjoy the band in its pur- LEIPZIG studied it. You brought all of your where visitors are est form and those who also dig clothes to the dry cleaner and had encouraged to “go techno versions of the originals. Sascha Lange – journalist them bleached black. Instead of beyond mere danc- This is our sixth year anni- and historian of East Ger- Doc Martens we wore industrial ing” and explore versary at this location and the man youth culture workman’s boots and other clas- the true meaning of audience just gets bigger and big- sic workwear garments that were DM classics such as ger. That said, within the Depeche available in the GDR. However, “Stripped”, “Free- Mode fan scene and within the Growing up in East Germany in in terms of the music, we weren’t love”, “Sea of Sin” sex/fetish scene, we’ve had some the early eighties, DIY was de entirely starved of what was hap- and “A Pain that I’m resistance to combining the two. rigueur—especially when it came pening in the West. We were able Used To”. The club’s For example, on the fetish website to expressing yourself as a fan of to pick up West German radio couchscape (previ- JOYClub, Mode purists accused Depeche Mode. It was all about and television in Leipzig, and that ous double page) us of having “raped” the band making your own DM-style cloth- was an important source for us, encourage just that. for profit! Obviously that’s ing, pins and accessories . and and always the subject of conver- utter nonsense, as the connec- bugging family in the West to sation in school the next day. tion between Depeche Mode and smuggle posters, pins, and Bravo My obsession began with BDSM is pretty straight forward, magazines. Take for example the “Blasphemous Rumours” in 1984. in my opinion. If you look at the S&M leather harness, like the In the beginning, we only heard outfits that Martin Gore wore one that Martin Gore wore in the the singles in the radio, so some- in the eighties, it was all SM early years: the main problem how these morphed into the main EB 4/2012 89 90 EB 4/2012 aspects of our fan identity—that This was literally the party line is, until circa 1986 when the gov- until around 1987, when riots on ernment set up the East German the East side of the Brandenburg youth radio Jugend radio DT64. Gate broke out after hundreds of Specifically, the show Duett — teenagers had tried to get as close Musik für den Rekorder [Music as possible to the border to hear for the Tape Recorder] played David Bowie, who was playing albums from beginning to end right on the other side to com- so that we could record them at memorate the 750th anniversary home onto tape.