Overview

It began with a handful of East Berlin teens who heard the Sex Pistols on a British military radio broadcast to troops in West Berlin, and it ended with the collapse of the East German dictatorship. Punk rock was a life-changing discovery. The buzz-saw guitars, the messed-up clothing and hair, the rejection of society and the DIY approach to building a new one: In their gray surroundings, where everyone's future was preordained by some communist apparatchik, punk represented a revolutionary philosophy--quite literally, as it turned out. But as the East German punks became more numerous, more visible, and more rebellious, security forces--including the dreaded secret police, the Stasi--targeted them. They were spied on by friends and even members of their own families; they were expelled from schools and jobs; they were beaten by police and imprisoned. Instead of backing down, the punks fought back, playing an indispensable role in the underground movements that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. The story of East German punk rock is about much more than music; it is a spellbinding cultural and political history that also serves as a rallying cry against authoritarianism everywhere.

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9781665134170

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Reviews

A thrilling and essential social history that details the rebellious youth movement that helped change the world. -- Rolling Stone In case you weren't sure just how political music, fashion, and a certain attitude can be: read this book. Burning Down the Haus is wonderful. -- Norman Ohler, New York Times bestselling author Original and inspiring..An im-por-tant work of Cold War cul-tural his-tory. -- Wall Street Journal This audiobook is an amazing piece of work. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies' delivery could only have been made better with snippets of the punk songs that inspired a generation to defy the tyranny of the East Berlin regime in the 1980s. Davies provides a sincere narration...[of] a story few have heard, told with with enough authority and outrage to inspire people to fight for what they believe in, as the East Berliners did...Punk music truly helped free a nation. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile Wildly entertaining...A thrilling tale...A joy in the way it brings back punk's fury and high stakes. -- Vogue With meticulous research and impassioned prose, Tim Mohr brings to life the saga of a bunch of East German punk rock kids who broke the state that wanted to break them. -- Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble

"""A thrilling and essential social history that details the rebellious youth movement that helped change the world."" -- ""Rolling Stone"" ""In case you weren't sure just how political music, fashion, and a certain attitude can be: read this book. Burning Down the Haus is wonderful."" -- ""Norman Ohler, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Original and inspiring..An im-por-tant work of Cold War cul-tural his-tory."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""This audiobook is an amazing piece of work. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies' delivery could only have been made better with snippets of the punk songs that inspired a generation to defy the tyranny of the East Berlin regime in the 1980s. Davies provides a sincere narration...[of] a story few have heard, told with with enough authority and outrage to inspire people to fight for what they believe in, as the East Berliners did...Punk music truly helped free a nation. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Wildly entertaining...A thrilling tale...A joy in the way it brings back punk's fury and high stakes."" -- ""Vogue"" ""With meticulous research and impassioned prose, Tim Mohr brings to life the saga of a bunch of East German punk rock kids who broke the state that wanted to break them."" -- ""Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble"""

Author Information

Tim Mohr is an award-winning translator of authors including Alina Bronsky, Wolfgang Herrndorf, and Charlotte Roche. He has also collaborated on memoirs by musicians Gil Scott-Heron, Duff McKagan of Guns n' Roses, and Paul Stanley of KISS. His own writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, New York magazine, and Inked, among other publications, and he spent several years as a staff editor at Playboy magazine. Matthew Lloyd Davies is a veteran actor, director, and Audie Award-winning audiobook narrator. Highlights of his acting career include regular appearances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre in the West End, on international tours, and in award-winning television shows and films. He has experience in radio, a master's degree in directing, and extensive experience in presenting at corporate events.

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