Rock band Pankow releases farewell song after 13-year break

The rock band Pankow haven't released a song of their own for 13 years - now they have a new single. It's called "Bis zuletzt", will be released on November 8th and is also the Berliners' farewell song. In 2025, singer André Herzberg, guitarist Jürgen Ehle, drummer Stefan Dohanetz and keyboardist Andreas Dziuk will go on their last tour. After 44 years, Pankow will leave the stage - and with it, another band with roots in the GDR will disband.

The last song by the well-known rock group, which was founded in East Berlin in 1981, is biographical. "We laughed and argued, were separated and sometimes united. For better or for worse, we were always serious. It was the big thing, it was the dream of the world. Together we were never small," it says. The text was written by André Herzberg. He and Ehle, both 68 years old, have been part of the band since it was founded. There is no album to mark their farewell.

Critical song lyrics in the GDR

With their rock, the musicians caused quite a stir in the GDR cultural scene in the early 1980s and made it difficult for the state to deal with them. The band offered counter-concepts to the ideology of the "communist superhero" and struck a chord with thousands of people. They sang about fictional characters such as working-class boy "Paule Panke" and shed light on real life in the workers' and peasants' state, for example with "Langeweile" and "Aufruhr in den Augen". For a time, the song "Langeweile" was not allowed to be broadcast on GDR radio. The song says: "Seen the same country too long. Heard the same language for too long. Waited too long, hoped too long. Worshipped the old men for too long."

Pankow had already announced the end of the band in 1998. A few months ago, guitarist Ehle said that at the time they thought they would no longer be able to hold out economically. The adrenaline that was still pumping made Pankow return to the stage in 2004.

The farewell tour begins on January 17 in Cottbus and leads through all the federal states in eastern Germany. "We want to celebrate the separation (...) and consciously be there with spirit at the end," Herzberg said at a press conference in January about these performances.