Kurt Demmler (12 September 1943 Posen – 3 February 2009

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 ...

) was a German

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

, who in the earlier part of his life was a dissident

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

songwriter. Accused of alleged

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...

of underage girls during castings for a female pop group, he hanged himself in his Berlin jail cell.

Career

Demmler grew up in

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exten ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

, in East Germany. He qualified as a doctor in 1969. He was a well-known dissident lyricist and songwriter for many German rock bands. Some of Demmler's compositions, such as “Come Into My Guitar Boat” and “Every Person Can Love Everyone”, were award-winning works.East German Songwriter Commits Suicide in Jail
''The Local'', February 3, 2009. He was active in the peaceful revolution against the East German communist government, which led to the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

in 1989.

Accusations and suicide

In 2009, Demmler was to stand trial for alleged

, stemming from accusations that he molested six underage girls between 1995 and 1999 during castings in his

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right. However, that year it was incorp ...

district apartment in Berlin for a female pop group. The day of the trial, Demmler hanged himself in his jail cell in the

Moabit Moabit () is an inner city locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany. As of 2016, around 77,000 people lived in Moabit. First inhabited in 1685 and incorporated into Berlin in 1861, the former industrial and working-class neighbourhood i ...

district in Berlin. He was 65.

Discography

* 1971 ''Kurt Demmler – Lieder'' (

Amiga Records Amiga is a popular music record label in Germany. Once an organ of the East German state-owned music publisher VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Amiga became a label of the Bertelsmann Music Group in 1994. In 1947, actor and singer Ernst Busch got pe ...

) * 1974 ''Verse auf sex Beinen'' (Amiga) * 1979 ''Komm in mein Gitarrenboot'' (Amiga) * 1982 ''Jeder Mensch kann jeden lieben'' (Amiga) * 1985 ''Die Lieder des kleinen Prinzen'' (Amiga) * 1989 ''Kerzenlieder 1989'' (Amiga) * 1990 ''Windsandundsternenlieder'' (DSB) * 2001 ''Mein Herz muss barfuß gehn'' (Unionton)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demmler, Kurt 1943 births 2009 suicides Child sexual abuse in Germany German people who died in prison custody German rock musicians German songwriters 20th-century German musicians Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany People who committed suicide in prison custody Prisoners who died in German detention Suicides by hanging in Germany