Dieter "Maschine" Birr (born 18 March 1944 in

Köslin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-stat ...

Pommern Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) is a German

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. He was a longtime member of the rock band

Puhdys The Puhdys () were a German rock band, formed in Oranienburg (Brandenburg), GDR, in 1969, although by then they had been performing together—with various lineups—as the Puhdys since 1965. Although they are especially popular in their nativ ...

, which dissolved in 2016.

Life and career

Dieter Birr was trained as a grinder and at the same time taught himself how to play the guitar. From 1966 to 1972 he studied dance music, music theory and guitar at Musikschule Friedrichshain in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

. Until 1969 he was a member of the bands Telestars, Luniks (including

Fritz Puppel Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridoli ...

), Jupiters and Evgeni-Kantschew-Quintett. In 1969, he became

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

of the Puhdys, which became the most commercially successful rock band in GDR history. Birr composed around 250 songs for the band. He got his nickname "Maschine" after bandmate Peter Meyer described him as an "eating machine". In 1974, Birr appeared in a supporting role in the

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

film ''

Elective Affinities ''Elective Affinities'' (German: ''Die Wahlverwandtschaften''), also translated under the title ''Kindred by Choice'', is the third novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, published in 1809. Situated around the city of Weimar, the book relates the ...

''. In 1986,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

released his first solo album, ''Intim'', which was not commercially successful. In the meantime, he was a lyricist for Dunja Rajter and the

Wildecker Herzbuben Die Wildecker Herzbuben are a German music group of the Volkstümliche Musik genre, coming from Wildeck in Hesse. Discography * 1990: ''Herzilein'' * 1991: ''Zwei Kerle wie wir'' * 1992: ''Das tut gut'' * 1992: ''Weihnachten zu Hause'' * 1993: ...

, amongst others.''Die Endlosband.''
pnn.de. 3 January 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2016. In his second solo album, ''Maschine'', released in 2014,

Julia Neigel Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio (given name), Julio and Julius (name), Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the wikt:Iulius#Latin, Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Ju ...

Wolfgang Niedecken Wolfgang Niedecken (, ; born 30 March 1951) is a German singer and musician. He founded the Kölsch-speaking rock group BAP at the end of the 1970s and soon became famous with BAP all over Germany. He is the lead singer and only remaining found ...

and Toni Krahl also appeared as duet partners. The album contains some new additions to well-known Puhdys hits from the 1970s, including '' Geh zu ihr'' and '' Wenn ein Mensch lebt''. Also in 2014, on his 70th birthday, Birr's autobiography ''Maschine – Die Biografie.'' was released. In 2016, the third solo album ''Neubeginner'' was released after the end of the Puhdys. In 2017, he sang together with

Romano Romano may refer to: Food * Pecorino Romano, a hard, salty Italian cheese * Romano cheese, an American English and Canadian English term for a class of cheeses Places Italy Municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Latium * Arcinazzo Ro ...

on the song ''Karl May'', which appeared on his album ''Copyshop''. In 2019, he appeared at Lieder auf Banz with Julia Neigel.

Personal life

Birr lives in

Neuenhagen bei Berlin Neuenhagen bei Berlin is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 19 km east of central Berlin, and was founded around 1230. History Neuenhagen bei Berlin was founded around 1230. Geograph ...

and has been married since 1979 in his second marriage. He has two children. His son Andy Birr is a vocalist, guitarist and drummer of the pop band Bell, Book & Candle.

Awards

* 1982:

National Prize of the German Democratic Republic The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (german: Nationalpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, ...

Discography

* 1986: ''Intim'' (

) * 2014: ''Maschine'' (Universal) * 2016: ''Neubeginner'' (Heart of Berlin) * 2018: ''Alle Winter wieder'' (Universal)

Autobiography

* ''Maschine – Die Biografie.'' Zusammen mit Wolfgang Martin. Neues Leben, Berlin 2014, .

Literature

* Rainer Bratfisch
Dieter Birr
In:

Wer war wer in der DDR? WER or Wer may refer to: * Weak echo region, in meteorology, an area of markedly lower reflectivity within thunderstorms resulting from an increase in updraft strength * Word error rate, in computational linguistics, a common metric of measur ...

5. Ausgabe. Band 1, Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, .

External links

Offizielle Website

„Ich wüsste gar nicht, was ich sonst machen sollte“ – Dieter Birr im Interview
mit '' Die Tageszeitung (taz)'' vom 4. Februar 2017, S. 46–47.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Birr, Dieter German rock singers German rock guitarists German rock musicians East German musicians Living people People from Koszalin 1944 births 20th-century German male singers