Söder recalls Spider Murphy Gang at ski camp

BR24 reports that the Spider Murphy Gang has received the Bavarian Minister-President’s honorary award, as Markus Söder recalled hearing the band during a ski camp in the 1980s. The awards ceremony took place at the Bergson, an arts venue in Munich.

Söder remembered listening to Bavarian radio’s weekly charts with a cassette recorder, where the band was a regular presence. He said its music offered something positive to listeners drawn to darker songs such as “Goldener Reiter”.

The Bavarian Arts Awards also recognised actor Samuel Koch in the performance category. Koch, who has been paralysed from the waist down since an acrobatic stunt went wrong on the television programme “Wetten, dass..?” in 2010, is currently attracting attention as Wallenstein in Friedrich Schiller’s play at the Munich Kammerspiele. He said one of the greatest challenges of acting was to set himself aside and give himself fully to a role.

Director Christiane Huber was honoured for her innovative work, which often explores difficult historical subjects. She described a collaborative process involving extensive discussion and differing artistic ideas, adding that her work was generally not very hierarchical.

Other award recipients included jazz musician Michael Wollny and exhibition organisers Michaela Breil and Karl Borromäus Murr of Augsburg’s textile museum. Each of the award winners receives 10,000 euros; the Minister-President’s honorary award carries no prize money.

Wilhelm Koch, known for founding an air museum in the Upper Palatinate, was also among those honoured. He dedicated a green temple to Europe, built with 47 oak columns representing the continent’s 47 countries. The awards also recognise positive engagement, including the work of Wilma Rapf-Karikari and Ingo Kübler, who renovated a 300-year-old stable in Adlmannstein to accommodate contemporary art.

Munich writer Dana von Suffrin spoke at the ceremony about finding inspiration for her writing, describing how a voice or tone can suddenly emerge and seem capable of carrying a novel, though that feeling does not always prove right.