Frank Schöbel: “There is an acoustic wall between East and West” – Economy

He was a star in the GDR, after reunification it became more difficult: a conversation with the pop singer Frank Schöbel about unwanted status symbols, a meeting with the head of the Stasi and the reason why he would never have fled to the West.

Frank Schöbel, the undisputed hit giant in East Germany during the GDR era, doesn’t look like he’s 80, you have to give him that. But he is. The pop singer and composer comes to the SZ office in Berlin in jeans and a leather jacket – he later says he still has around 20 others hanging at home. A tick, just like the doctor’s bag he’s carrying today. He has been touring with a model like this for 60 years. Actually, Schöbel didn’t want to talk at all, he says he’s had to be annoyed too often by malicious reports in the press in the West. Now he’s talking.