I don't think so. At least not when it comes to really important things - like music ;-) While pretty much everybody in East Germany knew about the Beatles and lots of people I'm sure had heard of Marius-Müller Westerhagen and of course Nena and Udo Lindenberg most of the bands that were popular in the GDR are still not known in most parts of the West. Karat , die Puhdys , Karussell , City - just to name some of the most important ones - are still well-known even in my generation. And I thought that at least their most popular songs would now be known allover Germany. Because here they still are played at parties and people sing along to the tunes.
When I went to a friend's wedding in Northrine-Westfalia (NRW) this weekend however I had to learn that musicwise there is still a huge gap between East and West. One of the best love songs that East German musicians ever wrote is Jugendliebe by Ute Freudenberg . So when at the wedding they started playing all kinds of wedding songs I asked the people at my table ( all in their early to late 20s) whether they thought that song might be played as well or not. You should have seen the faces I got from each one of them. They really hadn't heard of it! Nor of the singer!
Disbelieving I went around to ask more people - and every single time I got that blank and questioning look on their faces. Who? Even the DJ - HE DIDN'T KNOW IT!!! How could that be? The only song of East German rock bands he had was Alt wie ein Baum by the Puhdys. So I had him play that - and only two other people joined me on the dancefloor. At least someone in the crowd knew the song but most people didn't. I was really disappointed. How can such great music not be known?
So here it is, just for my friends: Ute Freudenberg and JUGENDLIEBE =D
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