Gert "Kralle" Krawinkel (21 April 1947 – 16 February 2014) was a German musician, best known as the guitarist of the 1980s pop group Trio.

Biography

Krawinkel's father was a sailor in his hometown of

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

. Krawinkel's music career started in the mid-1960s in nearby

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...

, where he played the guitar in a band called "The Vampyr". He then teamed up with vocalist Stephan Remmler in a

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

-influenced band called MacBeats (later renamed Just Us). The band was successful in Northern Germany; during its existence, Just Us played a two-week engagement at

Star-Club The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 3 ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1969, Just Us disbanded and Krawinkel started a new band called Cravinkel with some of its former members, including Remmler. Cravinkel's

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

influences did not break them into the mainstream, despite the release of two studio albums. In 1972, after only three years, Cravinkel disbanded. Krawinkel subsequently got a teaching job, but still played guitar in several bands, including the Emsland Hillbillies and George Meyer & Company. In 1979, he teamed up with his former bandmate Stephan Remmler in an attempt to get back into the commercial music business. After intensive rehearsals, they formed the band Trio with drummer

Peter Behrens Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, and i ...

. In early 1980, they went on to become one of the best known bands of

German new wave New German Cinema (german: Neuer Deutscher Film) is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neore ...

. While Remmler contributed most of the lyrics, Krawinkel came up with the music for about half of the songs. When Trio was on a creative break in 1984, he collaborated with

Marius Müller-Westernhagen Marius Müller-Westernhagen (born 6 December 1948) is a German musician and actor. He has been a feature in German rock music since the mid-1970s. Müller-Westernhagen is known for his energetic public concerts, and his fans know his anthem-like ...

, playing lead guitar in his band. He was featured on his album "Die Sonne so rot" ("The Sun So Red") and went on his ''Westernhagen'' album tour in Germany. In 1986, Trio broke up for good. Trio19

In 1989, Krawinkel moved from

Großenkneten Großenkneten is a municipality in the district of Oldenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Großenkneten is one of the largest municipalities in Germany, in terms of its area, and is situated between the rivers Hunte and Lethe, in the land ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1993, he worked with a friend Wilfried Szyslo, who was a musician, on a solo album called ''Kralle''. Krawinkel had written the lyrics for the album entirely in English, but allowed another friend

Rio Reiser Ralph Christian Möbius (9 January 1950 – 20 August 1996), known professionally as Rio Reiser, was a German musician and the singer of rock group Ton Steine Scherben. He supported squatting in the early 1970s and later the green political pa ...

to translate them into German. He sang a duet with

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...

on the single "n Zentimeter Liebe" ("One Centimeter of Love"). In 1998, Krawinkel got an entry in the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

by riding the longest distance from

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

to Hamburg by horse. Krawinkel later operated a private music studio in his adopted home near Seville and also maintained a home in Berlin. He was largely withdrawn from the public. His widow is television producer Monika Kölling, with whom he had a son. They met in 1985 during the shooting of the Trio feature film ''Drei gegen Drei'' ("Three Against Three"). Kölling was responsible for handling the extras. Krawinkel was a heavy smoker and was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2013. He died in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

on 16 February 2014 at the age of 66 years, and was buried at sea.

Discography

Albums

* 1970 LP Cravinkel: Cravinkel (1997 re-released on CD) * 1971 LP Cravinkel: Garden of Loneliness * 1972 LP George Meyer & Company: Holly Holy * 1993 CD Kralle

Singles

* 1971 Cravinkel: Keep On Running * 1993 Cadillac * 1993 'n Zentimeter Liebe (feat.

)

External links

http://www.stephan-remmler.de/kralle/cravinkel_info.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krawinkel, Kralle 1947 births 2014 deaths Deaths from lung cancer in Germany Burials at sea People from Wilhelmshaven German rock guitarists German male guitarists German new wave musicians 20th-century guitarists 20th-century German male musicians 20th-century German musicians Trio (band) members