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Catharina “Nina“ Hagen (born 11 March 1955) is a German singer and actress. She has performed throughout the world for over 40 years. Early years Nina Hagen was born in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva-Hagen), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz), an actress and singer. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (her father was Jewish).[1] Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine. When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen. Hagen left school at age sixteen, and went to Poland, where she began her career.[2][3] After that, she returned to Germany and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritz's Steamboat Band), together with Achim Mentzel and others. She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the “allowable“ set lists during shows. From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, she formed the band Automobil. Music career 1970s In East Germany, she performed with the band Automobil, becoming one of the country's best-known young stars. Her most famous song from the early part of her career was Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You forgot the colour film), “ a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state,“[4] in 1974. Her musical career in the GDR was cut short, however, when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather. The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his adopted home country. Hagen submitted an application to leave the country. In it, she claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter, and threatened to become the next Wolf Biermann if not allowed to rejoin her father.[clarification needed] Just four days later her request was granted,[citation needed] and she settled in Hamburg, where she was signed to a CBS-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimate herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits andSex Pistols. Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, which included the single “TV-Glotzer“ (a cover of “White Punks on Dope“ by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, aboutWest Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of “Rangehn“ (“Go For It“), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music. ...
