GOETHES ERBEN Canwe talka little about the beginnings ofGoethes Erben? You started as a duowith Peter Seipt in 1989. Howdid you decide to make music? Goethes Erben has been very creative in recent years, but that is now coming to an end.The story has been told, says mastermind Oswald Henke. It sometimes seemed that the attention for their work in Belgium had faded away. The band’s successful performance in Waregem in February 2024 made it clear that the group has not yet been forgotten.We had a chatwithOswald Henke, and discussed the entire career of Goethes Erben, from the early days in the emerging German Gothic movement, to his announcement of the end of the group. You already had success in Belgium in the nineties. In a way, I always thought the success of Goethes Erben in Belgium was something strange, because you made very experimental music, with long, complex lyrics in German. Howdo you explain that that was possible? I believe that not every word is important for the audience. They will rather look to what emotion comes from the stage. That is the great strength of Goethes Erben, and it also worked in non-German-speaking countries. We played in Mexico City, and the people were completely euphoric, although I highly doubt they understood every word. And I think it has been similar in Belgium. As an audience, you do not understand every word, but you do have an impression of the feelings that are unleashed on the audience from the stage. I believe that's the secret. I agree. I was there in the nineties, and you sold out large halls like theVooruit.Those are great memories for me and my friends. On February15 you played inWaregem. I don't know if you are aware that Waregem played an important role in the Belgian gothic scene. Do you have special memories ofWaregem? We have played there many times in the past. I think there was a series of shows at The Steeple. Could that be? We played there several times, but also at many festivals. www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 18 - Peter was a colleague of mine. I then worked in the hospital and trained as a nurse, just like him.We were both interested inmusic.We startedmaking a very strange formofmusic,with German spoken words and structures that were not exactly made in the usual schemes of verse, chorus,verse,bridge and chorus.The music was really incorporated into the text.There was also the dramaturgy of the music. It was already clear then that the German language was the focus. I am a German. German is mymother tongue. I feel and think in German.That is why I have always only written texts in German. From the start,we were… I wanted to make something dark, because I experienced the world as I show it in Goethes Erben…as not very hopeful. Not completely without hope, but the hope is often well hidden, and it is very dark. In the trilogy I wanted to highlight the borderlands of life: death, the psyche, dreams, nightmares... Hence ‘Das Sterben ist ästhetisch bunt’ (Dying is aesthetically colorful),‘Der Traum an die Erinnerung’ (The dream about thememory) and‘ToteAugen sehen Leben’ (Dead eyes see life).Those were the three border areas. The musicwas verydark.Youwere part of the gothic scene, but you made something different than The Sisters Of Mercy or... well, one can still argue about Nick Cave. It was something completely different from what existed before. That's my view anyway. Yes, we simply created our new thing. We didn't align ourselves with other bands. We just wanted to make very dark music. That is why I have chosen the most different means of expression. We hadn't decided at all whether we wanted to make electronic music, or something with electric guitars, or with violins and cellos. We allowed everything that expressed the mood we wanted to express. In 1992 your debut album‘Das Sterben ist ästhetisch bunt’ was released, and it was…Well, I don't know, I wasn't there at the time, but I think it was a success from the start, wasn't it? Yes, we were lucky that we struck the chord of the zeitgeist from the beginning,in the then young goth scene.It should not be underestimated that the wall had fallen in Germany. That meant that Germany almost doubled in volume, and in fact there was an enormous hunger for music and new impressions in the new ‘Bundesländer’. Before that, it was very regulated. Due to the SED dictatorship (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland, the communist party that ruled in East Germany, xk), people had no chance to listen to ‘dissenting’ or ‘critical’ music, or to visit concerts. As a result, we have experienced a huge surge overnight, because the audience has suddenly Photo © Luc Luyten / Who Cares
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