-30 years of freedom!
30 years of freedom!
Hello, Berlin.
Ich bin ein Berliner.
What is The Hoff?
Hoff is a character that was created
that has become worldwide,
and I'm no longer, 90% of the time,
called Mr. Hasselhoff or David Hasselhoff.
I'm called "The Hoff."
Are you guys ready to party? !
[cheers and applause] -Does The Hoff
have any insecurities?
-No. -No?
♪ Here I go again on my own ♪
-No, The Hoff is not afraid of anything,
and The Hoff just loves life and The Hoff falls down on his face
but he gets back up and gets back in the race
and he just keeps moving forward,
and he seems to make people really happy.
-That is, of course, David Hasselhoff,
from "Knight Rider," from "Baywatch,"
but why is he onstage in Germany,
shouting about the collapse of the Berlin Wall?
-Hello! So, 30 years of freedom!
[cheers and applause] -It all started with a song.
♪ I've been looking for freedom ♪
-That's the song.
It actually had nothing to do with the wall.
It was a cover of a song
about a man who wanted to break free from his rich family.
But the song went to number 1 in Germany in 1989,
and it somehow morphed into an unexpected protest song.
-"Looking for Freedom." -Thank you.
-It only made sense for Hasselhoff to perform it
on Germany's New Year's Eve TV show.
-And I wore this cheesy jacket, which is upstairs.
I was supposed to wear it last night.
-You have the original jacket? -Yeah.
And I was gonna wear it last night
for the last time, and I forgot.
[laughs] -Oh!
In a bucket truck overlooking Brandenburg Gate,
he sang to tens of thousands and who knows how many more on TV?
He became an unexpected piece of Cold War history.
-I was so moved and attracted to the people,
I kept hanging over the railing, singing to the people,
when I should have been singing to the people at home,
but I didn't really care about that.
-You were really into that moment.
-I was into the people.
It was amazing.
-The song was like just more of a target
and more kind of like feeling, "Okay, we're free."
-It's -- I have goose bumps now when I think over 30 years ago.
-This man would make the East and the West together, yeah?
So we love David Hasselhoff, yeah?
-Let's go.
-It can be hard to understand,
unless you're walking down the street with him,
how popular Hasselhoff is in Germany.
-Sometimes I go up there and sing "Looking for
Freedom" for fun,
and everyone comes over, like, "Oh, my God!"
-In Berlin, people immediately move in
for pictures, autographs,
and to tell him how much he means to them.
♪ I've been looking for freedom ♪
♪ I've been looking so long ♪
-Tonight on German Unity Day,
the day commemorating the wall coming down,
he's playing Max Schmeling Hall in Berlin,
named for the boxing great.
Max Schmeling Hall.
That's awesome.
[cheers and applause]
-Well, now, that's the way we should have done that.
Alright. Take a break, guys.
Go have a cigarette, a Coke, a beer.
Anybody drink beer anymore?
-For Hasselhoff, playing in Germany
wasn't just a career move.
He was a star.
He can still bring in thousands of people
when he barely plays concerts in the United States.
-Show business is how well you deal with rejection.
When you're onstage, when you get the job, it's almost a gift,
and I'll take that gift, whatever that is.
Of course I'd like to be in a Brad Pitt movie
or a superstar in films.
Of course I would like to do a great song
and be accepted in America.
But that's not what was put in front of me.
What was put in front of me was Germany.
So I went to Germany, and I played that hand.
Come on and jump in my car.
-In Germany, this isn't just shtick.
There is some of that -- fans dressed as "Baywatch"
lifeguards or in goofy Hoff masks --
but it's also nostalgia.
These hits from the '80s and early '90s were huge.
They know the words.
It's also, dare we say it,
pretty good music, and Hasselhoff commits.
♪ I've been looking for freedom ♪
♪ I've been looking so long ♪
♪ I've been looking for freedom ♪
-If you want to go into Checkpoint,
the museum is right there.
-We end up at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum,
named after the famous crossing point at the wall.
-Let's go upstairs and see where my photo is.
-Inside, you'll find objects used for escape attempts,
including armored cars and hot-air balloons.
-It's a little -- little KITT. -There are also photos of world
leaders of the past and of David Hasselhoff.
-That was me with my lighted jacket.
My lighted jacket's in the hotel!
-He feels a deep connection to that moment in his past.
-What does it mean to see that
on the wall in this museum with all this stuff?
-It means that I'm a part --
It means that I'm a part of history.
-[speaking German]
-That celebration that night was absolutely real.
People were crying. People were sharing.
They were hugging.
It's kind of like what my concerts are about.
This is what people should do.
They should celebrate, like --
And you celebrate life, you know?
Last night people were just --
they were celebrating being alive.
They weren't celebrating anything else
but just being alive.
-Yeah. -How cool is that?
-Yeah.
-You know, that's what these people were.
They were celebrating, "Oh, I can see my sister
for the first time in 20 years!"
"I can see my grandparents!" "I can go to their wedding!"
It was an amazing experience.
Yo. We're gonna take a photo.
We're gonna take a photo. We're gonna take a photo.
No, no. Go over there.
Go over there. Go, go, go, go, go.
If I know the truth, that's all that matters to me.
I know the truth about David Hasselhoff.
I know the truth of how significant that moment was.
Wait a minute. Hang on.
Let me point to where I sang -- right there.
If people want to make fun of it or they say
that I brought down the wall, which is not true, and it --
I know the truth.
I was singing a song about freedom.
♪ I've been looking for freedom ♪
And it became an anthem to all the people in East Germany,
because here's this man singing about freedom.
It was a song of hope.
30 years later, we're still talking about it.