There is no peace in a Germany where people of non-German origin, non-Christian faith, non-white skin color, non-heterosexual lifestyle and with disabilities still have to fear.
There is no peace in a Germany in which perpetrators are protected and supported.
There is no quiet life, no quiet life for ALL in a Germany in which an openly right-wing extremist party makes it into the Bundestag.
Superficially, the Nazi era was processed, but the idea lives on and the majority of society is more concerned about the political left than the right, which is growing stronger day by day. Not only in Germany, but worldwide.
WL//WH is very honoured to premiere the immersive new video for the heartfelt remembrance of “Judith Auer” by Hamburg’s Synth duo Christian Klesz and Francis Kussatz AKA Paragraf 201, who, play a minimal, frigid, equally dark and crystalline synthetic sound, blending elements of 80s Synth-Pop and New Wave.
Subdued soft alluring female vocals hang suspended in an anaesthetized void, against a bouncing and hypnotic backdrop of crackling retro-percussion charged mechanical dry beats, obsessive throbbing bass hums, icy cold bright synth swathes, and intersecting wistful strings of flashing and tinkling glaring chords, to sway between nervous witty longings and breathy detached yearnings in a deceitfully playful and surreal, yet poignant dance where tragic brave memories, inglorious foreboding realities and a dystopic future coexist.
The enigmatic lyrics reveal a biographic map of dates, locations, and metaphors to connect the dots between the hidden and public lives of Judith Auer and all that she was fighting against.
The panoramic outdoor views shot on location at Stadtpark Prenzlauerberg in Berlin, opposite to the memorial “Judith-Auer” street, in the district of Lichtenberg, shine light, tears, and shame over a visual contemplation about the daughter of the communist writer Erich Vallentin, whose actions as a resistance fighter against Nazi Germany led to her execution on September 6, 1944. Keen camera angles and zoom lens motion open alternate timelines where heinous medical crimes at Evangelical Hospital Queen Elisabeth Herzberge took place whilst depth-defying reflections, shadowy silhouettes, and graffiti-strewn symbols merge the past with the present through a series of evocative cues. A warning to let us not forget the crimes of the past and to remain vigilant in these uncertain times.
Keep up with Paragraf 201:
