MARIUS VS. THE REST OF THE WORLD

A somewhat pebbly voice, combined with a rather defiant look: Most Germans will never forget him in the film “Theo, gegen den Rest der Welt (Theo vs. the rest of the world)” in which he played a proletariat rebel from the Ruhr region who literally provokes everyone, was given a real thrashing and nevertheless came back for more, swearing and bloodied. Marius Müller-Westernhagen embodied Theo in the 1980 cult film by Peter F. Bringmann so convincingly that he not only won the Ernst-Lubitsch Prize, but also persuaded everyone that he was actually like that in real life. Marius, however, whose father Hans Müller-Westernhagen was a Düsseldorf actor and whose mother was a governmental official, wasn’t really against the rest of the world. And the world was certainly not against him.

With hard work and talent and a feeling for populism he was able to stylize perpetual raw youth and a Ruhr region proletarian identity in songs like “Lady” and “Geiler ist schon”, songs that can hold their own with any other rock music, and that reveal a feel for the underdog. The song “Mit Pfefferminz bin ich dein Prinz” from 1978 is a masterpiece - even after 31 years. The single “Dicke (Fat People)” however, turned into a scandal as Westernhagen was accused of making fun of the obese. His album Westernhagen irritated his fans as he cast off his image as the boyish fighter “Marius” and, from that point on, appeared as a well-dressed, smart and somewhat arrogantly-styled “Westernhagen”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he filled stadiums with hymns like “Freiheit (Freedom)” and “Lass uns leben (Let us live).” With a good measure of instinct he captured the general mood of what was going on, yet didn't want to be pigeonholed as a by and large patriotic artist. Over 30 years ago, he adopted the motto: “I want to return to the streets / Want to sing again / not just pretty, but lustily and loudly.” Even today, he enjoys irritating his fans and not being a product, not being a star.

He has now turned 60, and despite it all, is still a super-star. He looks pretty much the same as he always has, but the miners, who he sang about, no longer go down into the mines - and his suit fits a bit too perfectly for a rebel. His yearning though for "grit" has remained. “I smell the grit / I breathe it in / And that’s when I’m sure / That I’m back home again,” are the words of a more recent song. He knows that it all remains an illusion. Which makes him more honest than many of the others, and also makes him the ambassador of all those who grew up with rock and have given up on the rebel role.