German Liverpool

Music slide show video and musician interview

In July 2020 I made a slide show for a video by the singer Zinney Sonnenberg. The video was showcased on 04.07.2020 in the Global Liverpool Facebook Event. The song ‘Liverhearts – Where can I find me another river’ is about the songwriter’s love for his adoptive home city of Liverpool and the pain of having to leave it. For this feature I present the slide show video featuring my photos and the transcript of the interview.

Written by Aidan O’Rourke | Sunday the 12th of July 2020

ENGLISH VERSION | GERMAN VERSION .

For the music slide show video I chose around fifty of my photos of Liverpool. I wanted to find out more about Zinney Sonnenberg, so I did an Interview with him via Zoom. The Audio and the transcript appear here in English as well as German.

Aidan O’Rourke Productions · The Leaving of Liverpool because of Brexit – Zinney Sonnenberg audio interview

Interview transcript

First I want to ask: What is your name? Where are you from and where do you live now?
My name is Gerd Zinsmeister. My artist name is Zinney Sonnenberg. I’m originally from Saarland. It’s on the border triangle of Germany, Luxembourg and France. I’ve been living in Bavaria, Dachau, for a year, known for the concentration camp in Dachau.

What is your profession?
I’m a musician by profession and work at the Dachau Music School as a music teacher and teach guitar, piano and singing. Otherwise I record and play live in Germany, England and Holland.

What kind of music do you play?
My music could be described as folk music with influences from pop and rock and world music.

How long were you in Liverpool?
I lived in Liverpool for 21 years.

When and why did you move to Liverpool?
I moved to Liverpool on the 10th of August, 1998 with my wife and three year old daughter to do a course at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

What were your early impressions of Liverpool?
I immediately fell in love with Liverpool, a fantastic city with friendly, open-minded people, a very special light, a lively nightlife and a very special accent that I had to get used to.

Where did you live?
For the first three years we lived in Toxteth on Pengwern Street, behind Saint Silas School in the Welsh Streets area. Our home was the second to last house at the end of the street, with a view of the schoolyard of Saint Silas school. Later, we lived in Aigburth for fourteen years.

Why did you stay in Liverpool?
After my course at LIPA was over, we had acclimatised ourselves well to Liverpool. I worked as a nurse in a nursing home on Mill Street in Toxteth. My wife took a course at Arts College on Myrtle Street. Our daughter Zoe had already made a lot of friends at Windsor School.

How is Liverpool different from other cities?
As a port city, Liverpool is home to people from many cultural backgrounds. In my daughter’s class at primary school, there were children from thirteen different countries.

Architecturally, the centre of Liverpool is very compact. The River Mersey, which has been the main artery of Liverpool for decades, dominates the city. But the the most striking peculiarity is the humorous, friendly and open-minded mentality of the Scousers.

What are your top 10 recommendations for visitors?
There are many interesting attractions in Liverpool and many things to do. Be sure to visit the Antony Gormley exhibition ‘Another Place’ in Waterloo. In addition, the two cathedrals, connected by Hope Street, are well worth seeing.

All the museums in Liverpool are free, and above all the Maritime Museum, with its Slavery section, is an absolute must for every visitor.

The new museum in the docks is interactive and describes the history of Liverpool. On the second floor you have a wonderful view of the Liver Building and the mouth of the Mersey.

You should definitely dive into the nightlife of Liverpool. Just go along to the various restaurants, pubs, clubs, live music venues or comedy clubs.

For those interested in art, there is the Walker Art Gallery and the Tate at the Albert Dock. You can combine a visit to the Palm House in Sefton Park with a glass of wine in Lark Lane or Penny Lane. For football fans it’s an absolute must, once in your life, to hear ‘You’ll never walk alone’ in Anfield.

The sunsets in Liverpool are unique and so I would highly recommend a walk between Aigburth and Liverpool city centre.

What is your personal favourite place?
My favourite place in Liverpool is Otterspool Park. The walk that leads through the park and ends at the Mersey is a wonderful walk and means a lot to me personally because I used to take the dog for a walk there every day.

Describe your career on the Liverpool music scene.
After studying at LIPA, I worked at first in order to buy more recording equipment. I was able to buy an analogue tape machine from The Christians and later a computer that I could use to record.

In between times, I regularly went to open mike events and played two or three songs there. In 2004 I met Jeff Davis from Probe Plus Records in Berlin at a music fair.

In 2007 we released my first album ‘Fishing In The Pool’ on the Probe Plus label with my band called Sonnenberg.

Then we released two more albums, ‘The End of the Rain’ and ‘Into The Light’.

Between 2004 and 2018 I went on tour with the band or solo in Scandinavia, the UK, Germany and Holland and as a supporting act for Half Man Half Biscuit, I played mainly in larger venues in the UK, such as the Shepherds Bush Theatre or the Liverpool Academy

Why did you decide to leave Liverpool?
The sole reason for leaving Liverpool was Brexit. We didn’t want to live outside of the EU as second class citizens in Britain without the right to vote.

When did you leave Liverpool and where did you go in Germany?
We left Liverpool on the 19th of July, 2019. We then moved to Bavaria, to Dachau.

When and why did you write the song ‘Where can I find me another river?’ ?
I wrote the song ‘Liverhearts Another River’ in 2018. It’s intended to reflect my love for Liverpool, as well as the pain and sadness of having to leave my adopted home because of social or political circumstances.

In general, as a songwriter, you try to express your feelings or create some breathing space for yourself. In this case, it was the frustration with the political change in 2016 that influenced some of my songs between 2016 and 2019

Thank you very much! I’m sorry about Brexit. I hope that you can come back to Liverpool some time.

I will do.

This article is adapted from the script I wrote for this video for my Explore Learn German YouTube channel, launched 9.1.2019. Using bilingual headings I outline 11 reasons why it’s a good idea to learn the German language.

1. Viele Leute sprechen Deutsch! – Many people speak German.
In fact German is the most widely spoken language in the EU. Over 100 million people speak German as their first language in Germany, Austria Switzerland, Liechtenstein, in the east of Belgium, in the north of Italy and in Luxembourg. German will take you from the border with Denmark in the north, down to Vienna in the east of Austria, or from the border with France in the south west to Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden next to Poland and the Czech Republic. That’s a large part of Europe.

2. Deutschland ist ein fantastisches Land – Germany is a fantastic country.
Here’s my photo of Dresden on the River Elbe. And this is the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Here’s Köln – Cologne, the magnificent view across the Rhine to the Kölner Dom – Cologne Cathedral. This is an attractive corner of Leipzig and here’s the skyline of Nürnberg, Nuremberg with its cathedral and this is Schloss Neuschwanstein – Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. Germany has many amazing attractions you probably don’t know about, like Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg or the Einstein Tower in Potsdam. It’s all there to discover and your knowledge of the language will help you to discover it.

3. Man kann einen Job finden – You can find a job with German. For most jobs in the country, a good knowledge of German is essential. There are some areas, for example IT and Travel where you might be able to get by with just English, but it’s much better if you know the language. Ihre Karrere startet hier! Your career will take off here. This advert says Wir suchen Verkäufer und Verkäuferinnen in voll- und Teilzeit – We’re looking for sales people, male and female, full and part time. For these jobs, German is essential. Startbahn für Ihre Laufbahn – runway for your career. This leaflet has informaiton about jobs and training at Hamburg Airport. In general people who know Fremdsprachen – foreign languages – have better job prospects.

Die Deutsche Sprache ist eine wichtige Sprache – The German language is an important language for art music culture philosophy science. Here is a list of some famous German scientists. Alois Alzheimer, who identified the disease called Alzheimers, Emil von Behring, the Nobel prize-winning physiologist saved children from diphtheria and Melitta Bentz, who invented the coffee filter and Albert Einstein, who needs no introduction. And by the way, this music is by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born in Salzburg, Austria. It’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik – a little night music or a small evening serenade. This plaque commemorates Werner von Siemens, inventor of the electric railway. Germany and the other German-speaking countries have played a very positive role in the development of Europe and the world. There is a large but often hidden German influence in the UK and the United States. That’s one of the themes of this channel.

Man kann die deutschen Medien erkunden – You can explore the German media, like these magazines and newspapers. The German media are in many ways superior to the media in the English-speaking countries, with greater choice and better quality – but that’s just my opinion – das ist nur meine Meinung. Nowadays thanks to the Internet its possible to access these media in a way that was impossible before. The more German you know the more you’ll be able to appreciate them.

Englisch ist eine germanische Sprache – English is a germanic language, alongside Dutch, Frisian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and of course German. That means that you will know many German words already. For instance Haus, muss, Traum, Mann, gehen, Schwester, Wunder and many more.

Die deutsche Sprache ist eine schöne Sprache – German is a beautiful language.
I love the architecture of the German language, how the sentences are built as well as the sound of the words. The spelling is regular, it’s easy to work out the pronunciation, nouns have a capital letter, and there are many wonderful compound words. But there is a prejudice against German. Many believe it is not as beautiful as other languages, aber das istfalsch! Thats wrong! To me German is like the Kölner Dom – ancient, solid, dominating and with many secrets. The more German you learn, the more you will appreciate its unique quality.

Deutsch lernen ist Gehirnjogging – Learning German is brainjogging. Like learning any other language, it promotes brain power, and studies suggest it can help against Alzheimer’s disease. There are many fascinating studies on how knowing a second language improves your thinking and even your ability to take decisions. You also get a feeling of achievement when you make progress in the language. Learning a language is a form of mental exercise that can benefit you in a similar way that physical exercise helps your body.

Man kann neue Freunde finden und vielleicht auch die Liebe – You can make new friends and even find love, if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s great to make friends with people from a different culture and language and to be able to speak to them in their own language. You can start practicing in your home country. There are local groups with a mixture of German and English speakers who like to meet up and speak German. Many of my students are in mixed relationships. And being with a German-speaking partner will help you learn the language even faster.

Man kann über die eigene Kultur und Sprache lernen. – You can learn about your own culture and language. Another very important benefit of knowing a foreign language is that you can look at your own culture from a different point of view. People who only know English are often less aware of aspects of their culture and language. It’s fascinating to see your own culture through through different eyes. The only way you can really get to experience this fully is to make progress in the language until you start to see things from the point of view of the foreign culture. In fact, it’s no longer is foreign, it becomes part of who you are.

Machen Sie mehr aus Ihren Reisen – Get more out of your trips to the German-speaking countries. Even a small amount of German will make a big difference to your trip, for example to read important signs, ordering things in shops and when travelling by bus or train. Knowing some German can make your trip go a lot more smoothly and help avoid problems. You get so much more out of your visit when you can understand and appreciate the cultural background. A vocabuary of just a hundred words will help you a lot. Thousand will take you a lot further.

And so we come to the Zusammenfassung – the summary