Friedman, Perry b. September 25, l935;Winnipeg, Manitoba d. March 16, 1995; Berlin, Germany
Canadian folksinger and immigrant to the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where he deeply influenced East German musical culture.
After a shattered childhood, Perry Friedman was dismissed from school without a degree in 1952.
Soon after his seventeenth birthday, he decided to move around North America seeking work. He left home carrying his birthday gift, a newly made banjo, with him. On his trips, deeply influenced by the famous American folk singer Pete Seeger, he started his career as a folk musician. In 1959 he gave a concert on the occasion of an international meeting of Communist parties in London. After the show, he was invited to live in East Germany by the GDR government. Friedman agreed and migrated to the GDR at the age of twenty-four.As a guest of the government, Friedman introduced typical elements of the North American musical culture to the public culture of East Germany. He became the icon from which the youth learned techniques to play the guitar and the banjo. Furthermore, he demonstrated the impartial exposure to traditional music. Because of his high profile and his popularity, he was the ideal adviser for the Central Committee of the Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ, or Free German Youth). Inspired by Friedman’s person and music, a new youth movement, the Singebewegung emerged at the beginning of the 1960s. This new popular music inspired the youth of East Germany with lyrics relating to problems of East German society.
Seven years after his emigration, on February 15, 1966, Friedman founded the Hootenanny-Klub Berlin, which was later renamed the Oktoberklub. This club was a concertlike event consisting of a group of singers and musicians improvising live on stage. Since the day of his immigration, Friedman preached this mode of collective musicmaking in the GDR. The Hootenanny-Klub quickly became very popular and at the same time it was integrated into official ceremonies of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED, or Socialist Unity Party of Germany) and GDR.
Because of this popularity, the FDJ channeled these activities and youth movements into a new component of the cultural policy of the SED.In 1971 Friedman returned to Canada to work for a broadcasting station, but he stayed for only five years, when East Germany’s leaders invited him to the “Festival of the Political Song” in 1976. However, it was not easy for Friedman to tie into his old success. Because of changed attitudes in the East German government, he no longer received invitations to festivals. He toured West Germany, gave concerts at labor union meetings, participated in the Ostermarsche (Easter March) movement, and played at concerts organized by the Socialist Youth, the youth organization of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD, or Social Democratic Party). In cooperation with the FDJ he toured the GDR in the early 1980s. This successful annual event took place every October until 1987.
In spite of never losing his North American accent and because he lived for over three decades in East Germany, the GDR became his second home. His last concert took place in the Berlin Club Mowe on November 2, 1994, where he once started his career with his first concert in the GDR in 1959.
Alexander Emmerich
See also Reed, Dean
References and Further Reading
Friedman, Perry. Wenn die Neugier nicht war: Ein Kanadier in der DDR. Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag, 2004.