- Title: 30 years on the Hoff is back in Berlin
- Date: 17th September 2019
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 17, 2019) (REUTERS) PROMOTIONAL CUTOUT FOR: UP AGAINST THE WALL BERLIN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 17, 2019) (REUTERS - MUST MENTION AUDIBLE AND RELEASE DATE (3/10/2019) AND NAME OF NEW AUDIO BOOK IN REPORTING: UP AGAINST THE WALL) (SOUNDBITE)(English) POP STAR AND ACTOR DAVID HASSELHOFF, SAYING: "Why do people still believe that I had something to do with bringing down the Wall. I had nothing to do with bringing down the Wall. I sang a song called: I've Been Looking for Freedom, it happened to be the right song at the right time and I capitalised on that because I realised the severity and the horrible dehumanisation of these people because I went there and they were singing my song and they looked at me as a hero and I became a hero because I had to become a hero. It was God gave me Knight Rider, God gave me a lot of good things, God gave me a lot of bad things but God gave me the power to help people have hope and that is what that song is about. It is about hope. And I'm still singing it 30 years later and it's still very pertinent."
- Embargoed: 1st October 2019 17:41
- Keywords: Berlin Fall 30 years fall of wall David Hasselhoff Looking for Freedom
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Celebrities,Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA004AX1OEH9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: He looked for Freedom on the Berlin Wall in 1989 and now, as the 30 anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches pop icon David Hasselhoff is back in Berlin.
Back in the capital with a new album, Hasselhoff is also promoting an audible audio book: Up Against the Wall which is due to be released on the October 3 anniversary of German reunification.
The thriller, set against the backdrop of the end of the Cold War, sees the actual David Hasselhoff mistaken for a spy and the spy mistaken for Hasselhoff.
Affectionately known as "The Hoff", the singer and actor shot to fame on TV shows Knight Rider and Baywatch but in West Germany he found fame on music charts in the summer before the fall of the Berlin Wall with "Looking For Freedom".
The song was a cover version of the 1970s German hit, "Auf Der Strasse Nach Suden" ('Freedom'), and with the political landscape changing in Europe, Germans took it to heart.
For years the myth has circulated, albeit with some tongue in cheek, that Hasselhof was solely responsible for bringing down the Wall and reuniting East and West Berlin.
Hasselhoff, who has maintained strong links to the German capital and took part in several campaigns in 2013 to save a part of the Berlin Wall threatened by developers, will be on tour with his most famous song throughout Germany from 2-20 October.
(Production: Oli Barth, Tanya Wood) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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