The question “How do they do that?” Peter Plate and Ulf Leo Sommer have to ask themselves two questions: How do the two Berliners write the most successful songs and albums with German stars from Helene Fischer to Roland Kaiser to Sarah Connor? And how did the duo become the most sought-after musical producers in the country? One doesn’t necessarily have to lead to the other.
So, how do you know them? Peter Plate, that was the man Rose pride. The chanson-pop superstars poured their hearts into countless songs in the first decade of the millennium and received love, gold and platinum awards in return: “Love is everything”. What was less known was that, in addition to the singer Anna R., Plate’s favorite at the time, the stage-shy Ulf Leo Sommer, also took part. This author partnership lasted longer than Rosenstolz; And they, too, say Plate and Sommer, are no longer a couple, but as a lyricist-composer team, the friends harmonize and bicker and create like newly-in-love married couples.
Anyone who not only likes to listen to hits, but also reads the author credits, will find their names in “Daylight in Your Eyes” by them as early as 2001 No angelslater on the album “36 Grad” by 2 room apartment and Helene Fischer’s long-running hit “Our Day”, followed by “The Perfect Moment” with Max Raabe; and the fact that Sarah Connor topped all of her triumphs ten years ago with German lyrics was also due to Plate/Sommer: “Vincent doesn’t get excited when he thinks about women…” for example, they fought through it together with her, against the record company and against one’s own concerns (“Sarah, please don’t abuse us for a gay song…”).
They also tell how Roland Kaiser (“a monument!”) impressed them when he rebelled against Pegida and right-wing fans, and how they then offered him to write a peace anthem. Now thousands of people pull out white handkerchiefs at Kaiser’s concerts during “Love Can Save Us.” They do it for moments like this. And only with people they can. “I always have to fall in love,” says Sommer. But writing with others is also “like sex: you undress in front of each other. Every stupid idea has to be put on the table, sometimes it’s the stupidest one that’s good.”
Peter Plate (left) and Ulf Leo Sommer are no longer a couple, but as friends and songwriter duo they harmonize perfectly.
(Photo: IMAGO/APress)
Condensed 300 pages of her script into 100 pages for the libretto: Annette Hess.
(Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa)
This is why commissioned work usually goes wrong, as they explained in a recent interview at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. Also in the seating group: Annette Hess, one of the country’s most successful screenwriters with the television series “Weißensee”, “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhofzoo” and the “Ku’damm” three-part trilogy, who was awarded the Grimme and Television Prize, always with her Attitude and standards at work, such as her book about the Auschwitz trial.
In 2020, they wanted to team up the thoughtful ones with the two heart-hit craftsmen who say: “Making music is like playing in a sandbox.” Would it fit? She had never written a libretto before, and Plate and Sommer had “never done such a huge ham.” But the two had previously celebrated every single episode of Hess’ TV Straßenfeger (an average of six million viewers) about the Schöllack family and their dance school in post-war Berlin. They had never “said yes to a request so quickly” in their lives.
Three sisters from the Schöllack dance school family tell “Ku’damm 56” their stories.
(Photo: Jörn Hartmann)
But they definitely had show experience. You could even say that a musical was the seed of everything for Plate: As a high school student, he staged “Justus and the Land of Dreams”, without any teachers, queer cast with a female Justus, it was about burnout among young people. When he switched to the FOS for social education after the tenth grade and was supposed to play Brecht in the Theater AG, he asked the teacher (which is embarrassing for him today): “The music is terrible – can I write new ones?” What is needed, say Plate and Sommer, are more anti-authorities that “just let the kids do what they do.” Just as the producers “left them alone” with “Ku’damm 56 – the Musical”. That’s the key to creativity.”
A brief mention should be made of the music for the “Bibi & Tina” films, which not only led to extremely successful touring teenage shows (February 14, 2024, Munich, Olympiahalle), without horses, but with good, loud singalongs like ” Girl on the Horse”, which became a summer and club hit in 2023 with new techno oomph. And then there was “Romeo & Juliet” as a musical, a first attempt in Kiel in 2014, the next “big smash hit” in Berlin since 2023.
Big musical with a small budget: “Ku’damm 56”.
(Photo: Jörn Hartmann)
The musical and Rosenstolz community is always a bit wary of anything new, they say. And then they do get them around. After 15 months in the Theater des Westens, “Ku’damm 56” not only had more than 300,000 visitors and four prizes at the German Musical Prize 2022 (best musical, best composition), but also real fans who dressed up in petticoats got a ticket – Record holder came eighty times. You only know something like that from London’s Westend, not from an “original German musical” like they had in mind.
The creative team is from here, like director Christoph Drewitz (“Fack ju Göhte”), the actors are huge talents (musical award for best leading actress: Katja Uhlig), and the themes in these stories are also welded to the fate of the Nation: war trauma, weapons companies and etiquette courses on the one hand, youthful rebellion, football and love of rock culture on the other. It’s also about rape and repressed homosexuality.
The singer Freddy survived the Holocaust – the themes in the musical are not easy.
(Photo: Jörn Hartmann)
In the 1920s, people were already much further ahead, says Sommer, and now that the German right is gaining strength again, one must always keep in mind: “The freedoms we have fought for can be taken away from us in a flash: history repeating! ” Annette Hess reacted with shock to the leaflet affair involving Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger: “I couldn’t breathe for half a day.” Then she rewrote a dialogue for Munich, the first guest performance outside of Berlin: “Freddy, one of our main characters, is a rock’n’roller who survived the Holocaust.”
It shouldn’t be too difficult. But the audience should develop an opinion as they sing along. “Attitude with humor is our credo,” says Ulf Leo Sommer, “the world is going to hell, but we’re dancing to it.” Their snappy songs like “Berlin, Berlin” are the soundtrack; “Melodies,” they say, “are the supreme discipline.” You can tell that they set to work like they would a pop album production.
Nice to see that the three are fans of their own musical. And fans always want more. With their new friend Annette Hess, Plate and Sommer were soon thinking about what they could do next. She suggested “some North Pole thing,” but “your mines were petrified.”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”That was the Botox,” jokes Plate. But the three soon agreed to bring a “crazy idea” to the stage: After “Ku’damm 56” they are in the starting blocks for a “Ku’damm 59” musical for part 2 of the ZDF series (which also should get a fourth part). A musical theater with a sequel is unique – not just in Germany.
Ku’Damm 56 – The Musical, Wed., Nov. 29th, to Sat., Dec. 16th, Munich, German Theater