DETROIT – This is about a musical connection going back more than 20 years, when Detroit techno provided the beat to a newly liberated East Berlin after the wall fell.
It's 20 years later and some Berliners want to return the favor.
Kraftwerk Berlin is a derelict power plant turned into a cultural mecca. It's three dance clubs, but also host to fashion shows, the philharmonic, and an urban event space unlike any other.
The man who turned it from basket case to show case wants to do the same at Detroit's old abandoned Fisher Body plant.
View: Kraftwerk Berlin website
Dimitri Hegemann has visited Fisher Body Plant 21 more than a dozen times, hoping it can become "Kraftwerk Detroit." Longtime music writer Walter Wasik is Hegemann's point man.
A recent Berlin collaboration meeting in Detroit drew 200 people. Berlin survived a war, communism, and a chaotic re-birth, and sees reflections of itself here.
Detroit City Councilwoman Raquel Castenada Lopez was encouraged by the projects prospects after visiting Kraftwerk.