German rap artistDoppel-U (a.k.a. Christian Weirich) performed at the Memorial Union Theater on March 3, 2010 to a crowd of almost 600 UW-Madison students and area high school students at the invitation of the Department of German with the support of theGoethe Institute in Chicago.
This was his first concert tour in the U.S. and Madison was his largest audience so far.
While here, Doppel-U was stopped several times by students on State Street who wanted to have their picture taken with him and get his autograph. He was impressed to learn that he has fans here in America!
Doppel-U got his start when he was commissioned to set poetry of renowned German writer Friedrich Schiller into rap lyrics for the celebration of the poet's 200th birthday in 2005.
Since then Doppel-U has traveled throughout Europe giving concerts and workshops for schools with the goal of inspiring young people to find their own ways of interpreting classical texts, by poets such as Schiller and his contemporary Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.