by LUNATIKS and Lothar Berndorff
Can music be measured? Is its impact predictable? Can it change our political consciousness? The cultural officers of the GDR believed so! 66 years ago, they organized the "First Dance Music Conference" in the Lusatian industrial metropolis of Lauchhammer—to reinvent the sound of socialism.
Image gallery
DIE LAUCHHAMMER FILES
DIE LAUCHHAMMER FILES
DIE LAUCHHAMMER FILES
DIE LAUCHHAMMER FILES
Janette Mickan (Berlin theater collective LUNATIKS) and Lothar Berndorff (Ein Hit ist ein Hit) have unearthed and analyzed the long-lost files of this seemingly absurd conference in the archive of the Academy of Arts in Berlin, transforming them into a play about the connection between political consciousness and popular culture.
In 2025, the LAUCHHAMMER FILES will be staged for the first time. In a docu-fictional reconstruction, the historical figures encounter the reality of today. A live band will perform the sound of Lauchhammer and test its functionality in direct interaction with the audience.
THE LAUCHHAMMER FILES embark on a thought experiment: What might such a conference trigger today? And what responsibility do artists bear in a democracy under pressure? A lively exploration of pop, politics, and the power of music.
This second collaboration between writer and director Janette Mickan and writer and historian Lothar Berndorff follows their production about West German pop music of the 1950s and the emergence of the West German music industry, which premiered at Heimathafen Berlin in 2022.
