16 Facts About Wolf Biermann

Wolf Biermann is perhaps best known for the 1968 song "Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.

Wolf Biermann's mother, Emma, was a German Communist Party activist, and his father, Dagobert Biermann, worked on the Hamburg docks.

In 1942, the Nazis decided to eliminate their Jewish political prisoners and Wolf Biermann's father was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was murdered on 22 February 1943.

Wolf Biermann was one of the few children of workers who attended the Heinrich-Hertz-Gymnasium in Hamburg.

Wolf Biermann lived at a boarding school near Schwerin until 1955, and then began studying political economics at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

In 1960, Wolf Biermann met composer Hanns Eisler, who adopted the young artist as a protege.

In 1961, Wolf Biermann formed the Berliner Arbeiter-Theater, which was closed in 1963 before the production of Wolf Biermann's show Berliner Brautgang, which documented the building of the Berlin Wall.

The play was officially banned and Wolf Biermann was forbidden to perform for six months.

In 1964, Wolf Biermann performed for the first time in West Germany.

Later that year, Wolf Biermann published a book of poetry, Die Drahtharfe, through the West German publisher Klaus Wagenbach.

In 1976, while Wolf Biermann was on an officially sanctioned tour of West Germany, the GDR government stripped him of his citizenship.

Wolf Biermann was not allowed to return to the GDR.

Now living in the West, Wolf Biermann continued his musical career, criticizing East Germany's Stalinist policies.

Wolf Biermann was able to perform publicly again in East Germany on 1 and 2 December 1989 during the Wende that eventually toppled the Communist government.

Wolf Biermann supported the 1999 NATO Kosovo War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Wolf Biermann is the father of ten children, three of them with his second wife Pamela Biermann, nee Rusche.