Liedermacher means 'makers of songs': German-language singer-songwriters who set their own lyrics and melodies to spare guitar or piano accompaniment. The subjects range widely, from political critique and social satire to introspective poetry and the small details of daily life. The melodies stay modest, and the meaning of the words sits at the music's center, in the chanson-like spirit of song that prizes the spoken word.

It took shape around 1960 against the backdrop of French chanson's influence and the political tension of postwar Germany. During the Cold War, protest song grew in the East and lyrical song in the West, so different soils on either side of the divide produced varied writers. Wolf Biermann was the leading Eastern figure.

Even without German, you can grasp the essence by noting how extremely sparse the accompaniment is, leaving everything to the voice and the words. The contrast between Biermann's tense, political songs and Reinhard Mey's gentle lyricism is a highlight.

Reinhard Mey's 'Über den Wolken' (1974) is a national favorite with a beautiful, approachable melody. For the political side, hear Wolf Biermann's 'Ermutigung' (1968).

In 1976, while on tour in West Germany, Wolf Biermann was unilaterally stripped of his East German citizenship and barred from returning. The expulsion provoked mass protest from Eastern intellectuals and became a symbolic event of the Cold War.