Walter Mossmann - Flugblattlieder (Trikont, 1975)

Walter Mossmann was a German singer / songwiter and political activist. He was a veteran of the 1960s Burg Waldeck Festivals.

Under the influence of the student movement, he had become a supporter of the anti-authoritarian wing of the Socialist German Students Association. In the 1970s, after a long artistic break, he performed in the anti-nuclear movement as a singer of Flugblattlieder and supporter of a socialism of "the Third Way". As a vehement opponent of the DKP, he articulated a widespread feeling in the folk and Liedermacher scene that the Party (DKP) was dogmatic, conservative and incompatible with the "New Left" with which many of us identified.

He represented the typo of intellectual political singer who, from a decidedly anti-capitalist position, used songs to politically enlighten his audience. He held an undogmatic left-wing viewpoint and found himself in constant battles with other left-wing groups in the anti-nuclear movement, who, like the K-Gruppen or the DKP, tried to use the protests for their own ends. 

He called his songs Flugblattlieder to emphasize their everyday use value (Gebrauchswert) as opposed to being a performance art form for public consumption. 

The album "Flugblattlieder" was recorded at Tonstudio Zuckerfabrik, Stuttgart. "Westendsong" is a translation of a song written by Phil Ochs. 

In 1974  an alliance of anti-nuclear action groups from South Baden (Germany) and Alsace (France) organized the occupation of the planned construction site for the AKW Whyl.  Mossmann´s song "In Mueders Stübele" was his contribution to the site occupation - the song became a kind of anthem for the Whyl anti-nuclear movement. It was originally a traditional German folk song known to large sections of the population in this part of Germany and France. Mossmann kept the melody, structure and first verse of the song, but his new text gave it an anti-capitalist slant relating to the situation in Whyl. The new message was that there was a war, this time not between the French and Germans, but between the farmers and the rich men of the nuclear industry. By using an everyday, naive language, Mossmann connected with the everyday experiences of his audience in such a way that his analysis of the conflict and the concequences appeared plausible. 

In the "Offenburger Erklärung" of 1976 the Baden-Württemberg regional government agreed on a moratorium with the nuclear opponents and finally renounced their plans to build the Whyl atomic plant in 1977 after a negative court decision. At the same time plans for a nuclear plant in Kaiseraugust in Switzerland and a chemical plant in Marckolsheim in France were cancelled. 

Tracklist:

A1 Der KKW Nein Rag
A2 Mueders Stübele
A3 Bruckelied
A4 Ballade von der salzigen Monika ...
A5 Lied von der Gedankenfreiheit
A6 Lied vom grünen Gras

B1 Lied vom Betriebsfrieden
B2 Ballade vom Hexenhammer
B3 Sieben Fragen
B4 Westendsong

Walter Mossmann - Flugblattlieder (Trikont, 1975)

(320 kbps, cover art included)