VA - Politische Lieder - X. Weltfestspiele Der Jugend Und Studenten · Berlin 1973 · Hauptstadt Der DDR (Eterna, 1973)

In the summer of 1973, East Germany hosted a much anticipated socialist youth festival, the tenth World Festival of Youth and Students, which many subsequently referred to more simply as the Red Woodstock. Under the banner of “anti-imperialist solidarity, peace, and friendship,” the festival in East Berlin convened twenty-five thousand international participants, as well as hundreds of thousands of East German youths and guests, for nine days of music performances, art exhibitions, sports events, and political seminars—all in the name of international socialism. 

Yet, in looking back at the events, participants and scholars alike would cast the festival as a “break” or momentary rupture from the everyday realities of really existing socialism.

Ina Merkel, a young attendee who became a scholar of East German cultural studies, later reflected: “I think that afterwards everything was as before … I believe that, for the young people who had taken part in it, it had been a very important experience in their lives. And, for them, a return to normality meant an awakening, also back to the restrictive situation. So they woke up again; they became depathologized again, i.e., the pathos of the revolution was gone.” In recognizing the Red Woodstock as a singular moment embodying young people's international revolutionary zeal, Merkel points to its significance as an aberration rather than as a reflection of East German everyday life. Her comment reflects a common sentiment—namely, that the “revolutionary pathos” that the festival engendered might be understood as antithetical to the state socialist project.

"Politische Lieder" is a collection of original live recordings from the Weltfestspiel in Berlin.

Tracklist:

A1 –Quinteto Tiempo / Agitprop / Oktoberklub Berlin - El Pueblo Unido
A2 –Oktoberklub Berlin - Wir sind überall
A3 –Quinteto Tiempo - El Rio Está Llamando
A4 –Avantis - Ruce
A5 –Agitprop und Trio des KOM-Theaters - Väliamerikka
A6 –Agitprop - Olen Kommunisti
A7 –Pesnjari - Ballade Vvm Komsomolzenausweis
B1 –Inti Illimani - Venceremos (Hymne der Unidad Popular)
B2 –Il Contemporaneo - Bella Ciao
B3 –Dieter Süverkrüp - Konzertierte Aktion
B4 –Claude Reva - Paris - La Provence
B5 –Fria Proteatern - Hoch soll sie leben, die werte freie Forschung
B6 –Renft - Lied auf den Weg (sorry, missing!)

VA - Politische Lieder - X. Weltfestspiele Der Jugend Und Studenten · Berlin 1973 · Hauptstadt Der DDR (Eterna, 1973)

(ca. 192 kbps, cover art included, B6 is missing)