Two weeks ago was the first major protest against the planned removal of part of the longest remaining stretch of Berlin Wall - know as the East Side Gallery. The first planned major protest took place a couple of days after a small section of wall was removed by developers. Work had to stop as a small group of demonstrators got in the way.
We went to the first major protest on the following Sunday, 3 March 2013. There were thousands of people there and I would have thought the point was made. However, a second protest was planned and scheduled for today. To add some star power to this rally, David Hasselhoff offered / was invited to come and lend his support.
Hasselhoff is a star throughout the world from his TV roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch. In Germany he is also loved as a pop star. He famously sang on the Berlin Wall not long after it fell in 1989, singing his 'hit' song 'Looking for Freedom' in a very fetching jacket with flashing lights.
In preparation for the protest we watched this 1989 Looking for Freedom clip on the internet. This was a mistake. The song is so bad but has that horrible quality of unshakable earworming. All week we've been catching each other singing this song against our will. Watch it yourself if you dare, but be warned, you can't unlisten to it.
Back to the protest. Like the last time it was scheduled for 2pm. Social media, and Hasselhoff himself invited people to come at 2pm to walk the wall with him. Not wanting to miss anything we got there a little early.
Down at the wall it was already busy. There was a crappy blue truck with a big yellow metal cabin parked amongst the throng. This looked to be 'The Hoff's' ride. A bit less cool than KITT - his rad knight rider car.
The area where this truck was, and where we were waiting is right next to the Ostbahnhof - a big rail station. People were streaming out of there. In the other direction people were also flooding in and the crowd numbers swelled. We were soon amongst a very big crowd.
We went to the first major protest on the following Sunday, 3 March 2013. There were thousands of people there and I would have thought the point was made. However, a second protest was planned and scheduled for today. To add some star power to this rally, David Hasselhoff offered / was invited to come and lend his support.
Hasselhoff is a star throughout the world from his TV roles in Knight Rider and Baywatch. In Germany he is also loved as a pop star. He famously sang on the Berlin Wall not long after it fell in 1989, singing his 'hit' song 'Looking for Freedom' in a very fetching jacket with flashing lights.
In preparation for the protest we watched this 1989 Looking for Freedom clip on the internet. This was a mistake. The song is so bad but has that horrible quality of unshakable earworming. All week we've been catching each other singing this song against our will. Watch it yourself if you dare, but be warned, you can't unlisten to it.
Back to the protest. Like the last time it was scheduled for 2pm. Social media, and Hasselhoff himself invited people to come at 2pm to walk the wall with him. Not wanting to miss anything we got there a little early.
Down at the wall it was already busy. There was a crappy blue truck with a big yellow metal cabin parked amongst the throng. This looked to be 'The Hoff's' ride. A bit less cool than KITT - his rad knight rider car.
The area where this truck was, and where we were waiting is right next to the Ostbahnhof - a big rail station. People were streaming out of there. In the other direction people were also flooding in and the crowd numbers swelled. We were soon amongst a very big crowd.
There was a reasonably subtle police presence. The cops appeared just as amped to see 'The Hoff' as everyone else.
At about 2:15pm there was movement near the shitty truck. A guy with a video camera got on top, and someone played with the on board sound system.
Hasselhoff had just finished a press conference (I think) and made his was through the crowd of cameras to his blue and yellow noddy mobile.
He jumped in and the thing slowly rolled through the crowd.
As the truck came towards us we could hear him talking to the crowd and then he began singing 'Looking for Freedom'. We are never going to get that song out of our heads.
The truck came by, and he kept singing and talking to the crowd about its important to keep the wall and not knock it down for the sake of apartments. He also proclaimed that he was stuck in the truck, which looked extra funny as he squeezed his head out of the side window to sing his song directly to us.
And with that he rolled on by as the crowd followed him and his truck.
The crowd was huge and we hung back to watch them march past.
We then walked around the protest area to see the truck make a very slow journey along the length of the East Side Gallery,
We later joined the crowd again and somehow Hasselhoff had disappeared from the truck, yet everyone was still following it. Maybe he had got out and was walking with the people, but we couldn't see.
It certainly was an interesting protest to attend. A different atmosphere from the more 'angry' first one. I am sure that most people however could see that while Hasselhoff provided some (mostly unrequired) public awareness, his good intentions and his involvement made the walk more of an amusing sideshow of an opportunity to see 'The Hof'. Regardless, his involvement and the huge crowd numbers will keep the profile high of the proposed wall removal as the powers that be now meet to negotiate how to proceed - which is what it was all about anyway.
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