East German dissident singer Wolf Biermann celebrated in Berlin exhibition

Exile in 1976 spawned mass protest movement and led to exodus of some of GDR's top artists and actors

The life of East Germany's most prominent dissident singer-songwriter, Wolf Biermann, is being celebrated for the first time in a major exhibition that examines his pivotal role in the country's divided post-war history.

Biermann's banishment from the GDR in 1976 by communist authorities - who were unable to tolerate his outspoken criticism - not only fuelled his own popularity but helped spread his lyrical, incisive ballads, songs and poems to a far wider audience. It also spawned a mass protest movement, leading to the exodus of some of the German Democratic Republic's most popular artists and actors and the imprisonment of scores of freedom of speech campaigners.