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The incredible events that led to folk musician and protest singer Wolf Biermann - hailed as the German Bob Dylan - to be exiled from the GDR. Biermann’s expulsion in 1976 fuelled his popularity and triggered a mass protest movement that led to the exodus of many prominent artists and intellectuals from East Germany, along with the imprisonment of many freedom-of-speech campaigners. Biermann’s expulsion has been cited widely as one of the factors that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall thirteen years later.

Journalists Paul Hanford and Rosalie Delaney dive into a world of dissidents and music, state control and protest, leading us through first-hand witness accounts - including from Biermann himself - archive material, and location recordings, including Biermann’s apartment in Berlin, Chausseestrasse 131. This is where the singer lived under 24-hour surveillance by the Stasi - East Germany’s notorious secret police - all the while playing his songs to visitors, including Western counter-cultural figures Joan Baez and Allen Ginsberg. In Germany, Biermann is considered to be a cultural icon whose songs, often passed in secret between people via tape copies, gave hope to a generation living under a regime.

Produced by Rosalie Delaney and Paul Hanford. A Munck Studios Production.