Udo Lindenberg's hit remains uncensored: Choir singing Special train to Pankow!

Udo Lindenberg's hit remains uncensored: Choir singing Special train to Pankow!

Humboldt Forum, Berlin, Deutschland - Last weekend, more precisely on November 16, the Berlin Humboldt Forum experienced a musical highlight: the choir festival "Muddly 2024". The focus was on the legendary hit "Special train to Pankow" by Udo Lindenberg. Despite prior discussions about a possible censorship of the text, the choirs remained in the original and sang the piece without changes. A triumph for the artists and the fans!

No censorship for the cult song

Hartmut Dorgerloh, the general director of the Humboldt Forum, clearly introduced: "We do not censor Udo Lindenberg, nor do we prescribe what they have to sing." This statement came in the middle of heated debates about the word "Oberindianer", which occurs in the song. Some choir members commented on the discussions: Eberhard Licht emphasized that the song has a kind of cult status for many “old Ossis” and did not want to accept that it should not be sung in its original form. Verena Suchowski, also a singer, added that they had concentrated on the music - and that is exactly what they did too.

The controversy surrounded the word "Oberindianer" because you wanted to make sure that nobody feels discriminated against in the audience. It was originally planned to shorten the word and instead sing "Ober-I". The Humboldt Forum explained that the word had a metaphorical importance in 1983, which was satirical to Erich Honecker. Nevertheless, the historical history of colonization of indigenous peoples was not ignored. Interestingly, representatives of the "First Nation" in the USA expressed that they had no problem with the term "Oberindianer", since "Indians" was anchored in many tribal names.

"Special train to Pankow" has now had its city palace debut! The song was released in 1983, in the same year in which Lindenberg gave its only concert in the GDR. Now, more than 40 years later, the song was finally able to sound in the former SED building, today's Humboldt Forum-a historical Moment for music history!