Katja Ebstein - Singt Heinrich Heine (1975)

Although she had to wait until early 1970 before she enjoyed her first hit, German singer Katja Ebstein’s involvement in the hippy and student scenes of the late 1960s meant she was often perceived as a voice of the 1968 generation.  

She was born Karin Witkiewicz on 9 March 1945 near what was then the German town of Breslau and is now Wroclaw in Poland. She and her mother fled the approaching Red Army and ended up in Berlin.

After swapping Karin for Katja, the young singer became a familiar face on the local music scene. She performed backing vocals for local group Insterburg and Co and for orchestra conductor James Last.

In 1966 she landed a recording contract with the Ariola label, where she released her first single, Irgendwann. That year she also took part in the Knokke Cup in Belgium, appearing alongside singers such as Britain’s Truly Smith and Belgium’s Ariane.

She met Liberty label bosses at a German Woodstock-type festival in Burg Waldeck and they showed an interest in signing the singer.

With the addition of a surname, which she adapted from the name of the street where she lived, Ebsteinstraße, she joined the Liberty label in 1969.

In 1975 she took to the stage with the Heinrich-Heine-theatre company. Together they performed a Heine-cycle with music composed by Christian Bruhn. This song-cycle was released on the album "Katja Ebstein - Sing Heinrich Heine".

Apart from her musical career Katja is politically very active and outspoken. She was an active member of the 1968 student movement, she supported Willy Brandt in 1972 and was arrested in the eighties for participating in a blockade of an American atomic weapon depot in Germany. In 2003 she demonstrated against the war in Iraque. In 1992 she founded the 'Katja Ebstein Foundation' which has the goal to support children in socially weak families. She also supports the social development program in Mali called 'Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe', which helps local people to build houses for poor people.

Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose is distinguished by its satirical wit and irony. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

 
Tracklist:
1. Es erklingen alle Bäume
2. Die schlesischen Weber
3. Wir saßen am Fischerhause
4. Es ist eine alte Geschichte
5. Kleines Volk
6. Es fällt ein Stern herunter
7. Lied der Marketenderin
8. Du hast Diamanten und Perlen
9. Auf die Berge will ich steigen
10. Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten
11. Panaschierter Leichenwagen
12. Eine grosse Landstraß' ist unser Erd
13. Meeresstille
14. Es war ein alter König
15. Mein Kind, wir waren Kinder
16. Die Liebe begann im Monat März
17. Die heil'gen drei Könige
18. Das Fräulein stand am Meere

Fresh link:
Katja Ebstein - Singt Heinrich Heine (1975)
(192 kbps, front & back cover included)