Barbara Thalheim

Barbara Thalheim (born Leipzig 5 September 1947) is a Berlin-based German singer and songwriter. She celebrated the fortieth anniversary of her first stage appearance in 2013.

Life

Family background and early years Barbara Thalheim was born in Leipzig. Her father was a cultural administrator. He had also been a Communist who in 1933 had emigrated first to Africa and later to France. However, he was handed over to the Gestapo, and by May 1945 when Germany's Nazi years ended in military defeat, he had survived three years as a detainee in the Dachau concentration camp. When her parents married her father was 40 years old and her mother was 22. During this time she released, through "Amiga", her first "single" (recording). Her next professional partner was a classical String quartet, with which she continued to work till 1980. Before that, however, from 1977 she was touring abroad, making regular guest appearances in West Germany, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and France.

Despite the unusually wide range of foreign tours, she was also releasing further records in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Her first two LPs – "Lebenslauf" ("Resumé") and "Was fang ich mit mir an" ("What do I do with myself?") – appeared under license in West Germany. Until 1993 the lyrics for her songs were written by the writer-journalist Fritz-Jochen Kopka, She was immediately deprived of her party membership and served with her own personal travel and recording ban. Discography Frühling in der Schönhauser / Sie stand auf dem Balkon (with Klaus-Dieter Adomatis), single 1971, Amiga Lebenslauf, LP 1977, Amiga, Polydor Was fang ich mit mir an, LP 1979, Amiga, Polydor Und keiner sagt: ich liebe dich, LP 1982, Amiga Die Kinder der Nacht, LP 1985, Amiga Ohne Vorschrift leben, LP 1988, Castle Records Die Frau vom Mann, LP 1988, Amiga Neue Reiche, LP/CD 1990, VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Berlin Von der Westlichkeit der Welt, LP/CD 1991, Nebelhorn Ende der Märchen, LP/CD 1992, VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, Berlin (with Pankow (rockband)) Fremdegehen, CD 1993, Nebelhorn So lasst uns scheinen, bis wir werden, CD 1995, Nebelhorn Abgesang, CD 1995, BMG In eigener Sache, CD 1998, BMG Fière de ma grande gueule, CD 2001, Nebelhorn Deutsch zu sein..., CD 2003, duo-phon-records Insel sein, CD 2004, duo-phon-records Poe & Sie – Rabenverse und Wi(e)derlieder, CD 2006, duo-phon-records Immer noch immer, CD 2007, pläne records herzverloren, CD 2009, pläne records Zwischenspiel, CD 2013, conträr musik

Artistic career in the German Federal Republic In 1993 she embarked on a long running musical partnership with the French composer-accordionist Jean Pacalet (1951–2011). Their last tour together took place in 2009. Since 2001 the lyrics to her songs have been produced in close collaboration with the Dresden poet, Michael Wüstefeld.

In 1995, now in her 48th year, she announced that in future she no longer wanted to perform as a singer, and set off on a valedictory stage-tour. She then set up cultural management business organising, among other things, the summer festival "Schaustelle Berlin" for the city council. Then in 1999, following recovery from serious illness, she launched her "Retirement from retirement", and with a new collection of songs embarked on a series of further concert tours and theatre productions with Jean Pacalet and a backing band.

Early in 2012 Thalheim received a part share in a scholarship awarded at the Künstlerhof Schreyahn by the Lower-Saxony Ministry of Culture. This resulted in more songs and more touring, including, in December 2012, a concert in Chile, a country still periodically featured in German news reports as the retirement destination of East Germany's former "first lady", Margot Honecker and, more briefly, of her late husband.

Stasi collaboration On 20 September 1972 She is listed as an informer in Stasi records between 1972 and 1979 under the code name "IM Elvira".

On 29 July 1996 Der Spiegel published a short report purportedly unmasking Thalheim as "IM Elvia". By this time she had already made public her activities as a Stasi informant in a television interview, but at the time of the Spiegel report the television interview in question had not yet been transmitted.