Holger Czukay – Der Osten Ist Rot / Rome Remains Rome 2×10” Gronland

When I was a child I had to leave my hometown Danzig in Poland. My mother had already bought the tickets for the ship, the Wilhelm Gustlof, when my grandmother warned us that the “water hasn’t got any planks”. I never forgot this sentence because it saved our lives. We didn’t go onboard the ship but went to the main station on January 13 1945. It was a freezing night. We were extremely lucky that a train with wounded soldiers picked us up and they gave us a little bit of room on their matresses to sleep and we headed to Berlin. When we arrived i looked out of the window and all I could see were stones and a free field and I asked myself if this can be a capital city?”. A long time passed by and I went on a trip to London. the baggage controller at the airport stopped me and asked “What ship are you on sir?” I answered “the General Belgrado sir”. The ship had just been sinking to the bottom of the ocean after it had been destroyed by the British Navy during the Falklands war. These ships stories have to be completed by another one where me and my friend Conny Plank were on a trip to Hong Kong in 1982. Conny wanted to know more about his roots because his grandfather had left Germany with the imperial troops of Emperor William II to China as a ship builder and had settled down there. Remembering Conny I must also think of my promotional tour to Japan in 1982 where we went together. The record company decided to do promotional spot for the album with the a famous Japanese Whiskey. A man enters a little boat rowing slowly away on a lake. He sometimes stop rowing in order to have a little sip and then continues. After 40 seconds a bottle of whiskey rises up out of the water saying ‘For people who are searching for independence and freedom’… Holger Czukay