Ex-Scorpions singer My
Rockstar and Gerhard Schröder are no longer in contact
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In an interview, rock star Klaus Meine comments on Russia and Gerhard Schröder. Meine was good friends with the former head of government – but not anymore.
Klaus Meine, frontman of the Scorpions, says he no longer has a connection to former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. “We haven’t been in contact for a long time,” the 76-year-old told the newspaper “Augsburger Allgemeine” when asked whether he wanted to comment on Schröder’s role “in the Putin case,” since the former Chancellor and Meine were part of the “Hannover Connection ” belonged and it was said that they were good friends. There was initially no comment from Schröder when asked.
Schröder (SPD), who was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, has been controversial for years because of his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who commanded the war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
In an ARD documentary on his 80th birthday last year, the former Chancellor explained why he does not distance himself from Putin and accepts being an outlaw because of his so-called closeness to Putin. He is a critical friend of Putin, and disowning him would cut off a thread of conversation that may still be necessary. And the rejection doesn’t bother him, he definitely feels liked, just not by everyone, said Schröder.
Klaus Meine: “No longer the time to romanticize Russia”
Even though Meine doesn’t go into detail about Schröder’s controversial friendship with the Russian president in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” interview, the rock star says elsewhere in the conversation that the Scorpions are no longer playing concerts in Russia, “even if we feel sorry for all the fans who want to see us live”. Mine added: “In 2022 I changed the lyrics of “Wind of Change” because I felt it was no longer the time to romanticize Russia.”
The song “Wind of Change” is considered the song for the end of the Cold War, a peace anthem and, so to speak, a hit for reunification. Mine composed the song in the late summer of 1989 – weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
At that time, the group was one of the first foreign bands to appear in the Soviet Union at the “Moscow Music Peace Festival” and was celebrated by fans there. The singer once told the DPA news agency that the idea for “Wind of Change” came to him after a boat trip on the Moskva River. It’s not a song about Berlin, but about Moscow, inspired by the political and social changes of the 80s, “the soundtrack to glasnost and perestroika.”
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Source: Stern

I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.