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Photo: DPA

David Hasselhoff to rock Berlin Wall protests

Published: 13 Mar 13 10:27 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130313-48507.html

He once sang about freedom as the Berlin Wall was torn down - now he's returning to the German capital to save what is left of it. US entertainer David Hasselhoff plans to join protests to save the East Side Gallery on Sunday.

The former star of popular television series Knight Rider and Baywatch announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he would return to Berlin more than two decades after his now legendary performance at the Brandenburg Gate in 1989.

It was just after the Berlin Wall fell that year that The Hoff gave a rousing rendition of the song "Looking for Freedom" in front of half a million Germans still giddy from the peaceful revolution in communist East Germany.

Although he has called that concert one of the most important moments of his life took place in front of the battered Wall, now Hasselhoff wants to help save the longest remaining segment of it.






Known as the East Side Gallery, the stretch of the once-hated concrete barrier is covered in colourful murals by artists from around the world.

Plans to tear down part of the open air gallery to create access to a proposed luxury block of flats and new footbridge over the Spree River sparked angry protests. The city's mayor brokered a compromise last week, but a demonstration this Sunday is designed to maintain pressure on developers and officials.

The Hoff's decision to jet to Germany to show his support for the East Side Gallery could turn the event into a spectacle. Though he hasn't said whether he would be singing his old hit on Sunday, he did recently tell the Huffington Post that he would be open to holding a benefit concert in Berlin.

"I think the best way to do this is to fight capitalism with capitalism," Hasselhoff said. "If you get the whole world behind it, I'd be happy to come over and help and do what I can and do a concert. If you're gonna fight money, you gotta fight money with money."









The Local/mry

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

11:55 March 13, 2013 by Bigfoot76
I am packing my bags and heading to Berlin NOW! HOF! HOF! HOF!
15:11 March 13, 2013 by Steve1949
I hope the Wall's survival doesn't rest with Hasselhoff. We Americans are glad you Germans like him though. You can keep him as well.
15:35 March 13, 2013 by Bigfoot76
But he was such a great hero in the US. He saved many people while driving his talking car. He also pulled many people out of the water when he was a lifeguard. Why would Americans not want him? Also remember if not for his show Baywatch, we would never have discovered Pamela Anderson and her beautiful.....uh, eyes.
18:35 March 13, 2013 by Wrench
Hasselhoff is a joke. I met the guy when I lived in LA. I find him to be an arrogant nitwit. He may have a ton of money and fans, but the guy has an intellectual level of 2 points above a rock. I still can't believe he is a rock star here.

BTW @bigfoot76 Pamela Anderson was discovered on the show Home Improvement.
19:08 March 13, 2013 by parografik
I believe Pamaler was discovered with her clothes off in some magazine, can't remember the name of it offhand.

Regarding the wall: There is a documentary film where Tilda Swinten tours the route of the wall twenty years after it was torn open. Seems she lived in Berlin back then, and was continually struck by how often traces of the wall have vanished, almost as if there was concerted effort to erase it from the memory. What is the discomfort they are trying to conceal?
20:11 March 13, 2013 by wxman
The German fascination with this no-talent loser has always intrigued me. He's not even a has-been; he's a never-was!
22:19 March 13, 2013 by MaKo
Oh, Berlin, did you invite the Hof? I think what I'm feeling is 'Fremdschämen' but with this one, I can't figure out just where to place it.
04:53 March 14, 2013 by hanskarl
Hmmmm This reminds me of watching KISS at the Superbowl halftime show years back. Not very good watching old men with ueber make up try to rock out. Now with Hof you get now much of the same. Be sure to keep him away from the alcohol and do not keep him in Germany. He needs to go back to LA where he is so low on the list he is hard to find........
17:10 March 19, 2013 by franconia
Foot bridge? Tunnel !!! More appropriate !!
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