Gerhard Gundermann was many things at the same time - worker and poet, idealist and doubter, follower and rebel. On the 70th birthday of the East German singer-songwriter, IMMER WIEDER WÄCHST DAS GRAS illuminates the facets of a life between utopia and disillusionment, between open-cast mining and soundtrack. A tribute to an artist who did not avoid the contradictions of his time, but sang about them.

If not much else is known about Gerhard Gundermann, certainly the most famous musician from Lusatia, then at least one thing is often known: that he was a singer-songwriter and also an excavator operator in opencast coal mining. He himself could do little with being introduced in this way. "What basically fails," he once said in an interview, "is the act of the singing, sounding digger driver. I'm not a poster boy. People come to listen to songs. It doesn't matter whether I pull teeth or bake bread rolls. Brown coal doesn't make my songs any better."

And Gundermann was not someone who can be captured with overly simple descriptions. He was a maverick who caused headaches for SED functionaries, but also an unofficial employee who was very committed to spying on his friends for the Stasi. After reunification, he was an environmental activist and at the same time wrote wonderfully melancholy songs about mine closures. And of course he was a socialist, but more from the gut than from the head. "Gundi" lived the contradiction.

In the year of his 70th birthday, IMMER WIEDER WÄCHST DAS GRAS is dedicated to this contradictory life - and the songs and lyrics that emerged from it.
Premiere November 29, 2025
Further performances: December 5, 17 and 25, 2025, January 10 and 28, February 21, March 8, April 1 and 22, May 17, 2025