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==