Single Review: Weiße Wand- AnnenMayKantereit

Remember that quote,"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it"

(Clairmont, 2013)? Have we forgotten that or just chosen to ignore it? Because it honestly feels like we are falling back into the early 20th Century with the way global politics are heading. Right wing politics is on the rise in places like Brazil and Hungary. People like Marien Le Pen and Geert Wilders are almost household names. Oh and I almost forgot. Trump.

Perhaps triggered by far right party 'Alternative für Deutschland' entering parliament for the first time last year, German band AnnenMayKantereit's came out with a new single 'Weiße Wand' (White Wall). A far cry from their usual songs of love and loss, this was a politically charged song about white privilege. Unsurprisingly, hearing about privilege from a white male doesn’t rank in my top pastimes, so thankfully they weren’t denying its existence.

“Ich bin jung und weiß in ‘nem reichen Land, das man nicht mit jedem Pass bereisen kann/ Ich bin Teil der weißen Wand/ Und sogar mein Kreißsaal war umkreist von 'ner weißen Wand.”

(May, 2018)

“I am young and white in a rich country that you can not travel about with every passport/ I am part of the white wall/ And even my delivery room was circled by a white wall.”

Almost blended into the white wall, singer Henning May’s illustriously deep voice and the minimalistic instrumentation artistically emphasised the theme. His lyrics admitted the white privilege he was unavoidably born into without denying the reality that it is a display of severe injustice on humanity’s behalf.

(AnnenMayKantereit, 2018)

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English Translation

I am alone with the white wall

and my fucking mind

I do not know, man

I am alone with the white wall

And my fucking mind

I do not know, man

I travel in a white country without paying,

although I can afford the journey

Shit, man

Refugee crisis feels

like the Reichstag fire

even if I can not compare that

Damn it

I am young and white in a rich country

I am part of the white wall

And I think you can tear the glass ceiling down

And I do not know when

And the glass ceiling is just a white wall

I am young and white in a rich country that you can not travel with every passport

I am part of the white wall

And even my delivery room

was circled by a white wall

And everyone knows that she is white

And everyone knows that she is white

And everyone knows that she is white

And everyone knows that she is white

Everybody knows

I am alone with the white wall

and my fucking mind

I do not know, man

I am alone with the white wall

and my fucking mind

I do not know, man