CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

Since 1967, the men around Uwe von Trotha have been taking on “philistines, cold warriors, officers, very specific politicians and desk jockeys with the with the lower bodies of Käthe Kruse dolls” - with changing line up and with longer breaks in their work. But Checkpoint Charlie still exists despite reunification, soon with a new CD.

Checkpoint Charlie self-portrayal: The Undercover ROCK Agents

When you hear the name Checkpoint Charlie, the first thing that comes to mind is the former border crossing in Berlin. But that’s not what we’re talking about here, of course.

CHECKPOINT CHARLIE is a band from Palatinate from the hippie 70s, who, in 1978, brought in as a new band member: A pink cardboard pig, “Franz-Josef”, as a new band member and always drove it across the stage during their concerts so that its feet wouldn’t fall asleep.

Somewhere in Bavaria it happened that an upright fellow countryman was the sight of the sow and the fact that her name was the same as that of the then with the then Prime Minister, so much so that he reported the incident to the that he reported the incident to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, that it was indeed a conspiracy against their beloved prime minister.

After a long back and forth, CPC was sentenced by the Kempten district court to to leave the pig at home in the future and to pay a fine of then 15000.- DM for insulting Mr.Franz-Josef Strauss. This of course went through the German press at the time and was a positive contribution to the popularity of the anarchist band CHECKPOINT CHARLIE.

But not only through this action, but also through their unconventional and outspoken interpretations, CPC’s concerts were a different kind of happening of a different kind. The shows of Jürgen Bräutigam, Lothar Stahl, Wilfried Sahm and front man Uwe von Trotha were formative for the term term “subculture from below”!