Pfefferberg Theater, Berlin, Germany21st May 2025
Sascha Lange - “Depeche Mode Trilogie & more”
A warm Berlin evening. The Pfefferberg Theater is buzzing long before the lights dim. Not for a concert, and yet the atmosphere crackles with musical energy. The reason: DEPECHE MODE - and the man who has perhaps chronicled their story with more soul and humour than anyone else, SASCHA LANGE.
Announced was a reading from his now iconic trilogy: ‘Monument’, ‘Behind the Wall’, and ‘Live’. But in typical Lange fashion, what the audience received was far more than a reading. It was a night of stories, laughter, shared memories, and quiet reflection - wrapped in synth nostalgia, East German anecdotes, and a deep love for music that shaped generations.
Sascha Lange didn’t enter the stage like an academic author. He strolled on like a friend pulling up a chair, ready to spin a few tales. With a twinkle in his eye and that mix of modesty and cheek he’s so known for, he immediately set the tone: this would not be a dry presentation, but a deeply personal evening.
He started with ‘Monument’, weaving together facts, fandom, and a quietly growing obsession with DEPECHE MODE’s early mystique. Rather than drowning the room in dates and details, he let the material breathe - pausing for off-the-cuff remarks, curious artefacts, rare images and memories that danced somewhere between collector’s joy and emotional resonance.
Then came ‘Behind the Wall’, the most intimate of the three volumes. Here, Lange’s upbringing in the former GDR gave his storytelling a rich, authentic texture. With a mix of affection and irony, he described the strange cultural half-light in which East German fans worshipped a Western band. Secret gatherings, swapped tapes, hand-made T-shirts, youth club disputes and home-recorded radio broadcasts - it was a coming-of-age drama in eyeliner and trench coats. The crowd, many of them old enough to remember it first-hand, nodded, chuckled, and - at times - visibly blinked away memories.
By the time we reached ‘Live’, the mood shifted. This was the part where we were no longer just listening - we were remembering. Lange played brief clips of concert footage, some iconic, some grainy and lovingly rough. He let the cheers and synths fill the room, then stepped in with reflections that felt more like personal letters than historic commentary. Whether you’d seen DEPECHE MODE at the Waldbühne, in Prague, or in your bedroom via VHS - this part hit home. It was emotional, but never sentimental. Honest, but never heavy-handed.
And just when the audience thought the evening had reached its arc, Lange pulled one more surprise. With a grin, he switched gears and read a few lively extracts from his other beloved book: ‘Our Darkness - Gruftis, Synthies und Punks in der DDR’. What followed was pure joy. Descriptions of improvised goth fashion under socialism, of safety pins, hair dye made from God-knows-what, and the defiant creativity of kids who had little but made it look like everything - the theatre erupted with laughter. It wasn’t just funny - it was human, real, full of warmth for those strange, beautiful years when being “different” meant being everything.
It wasn’t a reading. It wasn’t a lecture. It was a shared memory session. Sascha Lange didn’t just talk about DEPECHE MODE - he gave shape to what the band has meant to so many: rebellion, emotion, unity, longing, and above all, identity. He made you laugh. He made you feel seen. He made you remember. And in the end, you left the theatre not just knowing more about a band - but somehow, knowing a little more about yourself.
All Pictures by Dagmar Urlbauer
