Berlin band Pankow bids farewell to the stage after 44 years

The Berlin band Pankow will bid farewell to the stage next year after 44 years. The "Stones of the East", as they are sometimes called, will tour Germany for the last time in 2025. According to their management, the band will announce next Tuesday (January 30) in Berlin's Prater where the musicians around singer André Herzberg will be performing.

Pankow announced their first farewell there in 1998 - according to the band, the 1990s were difficult. Partly because the public's appetite for East German rock had waned. However, the adrenaline that was still present then allowed them to return to the stage in 2004. "Nur aus Spass" was the fitting name of their comeback album (2006).

This was followed by numerous concerts and another album in 2011 with "Neuer Tag in Pankow" (Buschfunk). A quarter of a century after their last goodbye, the time has now really come. "We don't want to sound like our own cover band at some point," guitarist Jürgen Ehle told the German Press Agency. In addition, there has been a lack of continuity over the past 20 years.

The band formed in 1981 in the GDR. They managed to become one of the most influential in the East and still be different. With their authentic, German-language rock, the musicians stirred up the stale East German cultural scene in the early 1980s and gave a voice to the sensitivities of those who had often become a wordless mass. Female characters invented and sung about for their songs, such as Inge Pawelczik, working-class boys like Paule Panke and "Rock 'n' Roll im Stadtpark" reached thousands.

Guitarist Jürgen Ehle, singer André Herzberg, drummer Stefan Dohanetz and keyboardist Andreas Dziuk want to say a fitting farewell to their fans next year with the "Bis zuletzt" tour.