Rio Reiser was the first German singer to publicly announce his homosexuality. Together with his band, Ton Steine Scherben, he created not only the soundtrack for the 68-Generation but also the soundtrack for the beginning of the German gay movement when he, along with theatre groups Brühwarm and Transplantis as well as Ton Steine Scherben, produced and brought the first gay musicals to the stage in the 1970s. In 1977 Rio Reiser was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for his first film roll in "Johnny West".
On the occasion of the homage to Rio Reiser, the band Ton Steine Scherben has been on stage with all the original members for the first since the death of their frontman. Furthermore, the motto of the 24th TEDDY AWARD came from a song from Rio Reiser and the Ton Steine Scherben:
MY NAME IS HUMAN BEING
Foto: © Carsten Bund„He is the only German singer that I admired, his passionate lust for commotion, for diva-dom, for kitsch and for anarchistic patriotism. He wrote the most beautiful German fight songs and love songs. He was a romantic and he sung, pulling everything out of the German language that is possible to get out of it."
Herbert Groenemeyer