Minister of Justice Buschmann composes charity song

Marco Buschmann swaps the file folder for the piano: the FDP politician raises money for children with heart disease with a self-composed song. The proceeds go to former footballer Gerald Asamoah's foundation.

Wearing a blue double-breasted suit, the minister sits down at his electric piano in his office. "So, we need a nice piano sound," says Marco Buschmann as he switches it on. Then he hits the keys. The melody of a song he wrote and wrote the lyrics for himself resounds through the Ministry of Justice in Berlin. And which was released on Friday.

The track is called"We will survive". It was created with two professional producers and the singer Hannah Jaha. All proceeds from streams and purchases will go to a good cause. Buschmann is the patron of the foundation set up by former national team player Gerald Asamoah. The aim: to save children's lives.

Buschmann started playing music at the age of twelve.

As patron, however, Buschmann is not only helping with his name and his political contacts. "When I do something like this, I always want to make an active contribution," he says. "Then we thought about it and that's how the music project came about."

Electric piano instead of a sofa bed

The Minister of Justice has been making music for years, having started at the age of twelve. "Music is a very emotional thing. Everyone has something with which they express their emotional side," says Buschmann. His profession in particular is very rational. Playing the piano is his way of bringing a bit of color into the otherwise rather dry everyday life as Minister of Justice. In the small room next to his office, where there would be room for a bed for all-nighters, is his piano.

Despite his busy days, Buschmann makes time for social work: "Of course, you have to organize a bit, but we can manage that. And if you can also get involved, like now with the charity song, I don't see it as work either."

Work that pays for vital operations for children with heart conditions. Like that of little Jayden from a slum in Nairobi. At the age of one, the foundation flew him to Germany in 2022. Jayden was born with Down's syndrome and two holes in his heart. Specialists operated on him at the German Heart Center in Berlin.

"Schalke connects"

At the meeting in "his living room", the Schalke 04 stadium, Asamoah grins as he always does. He himself has a congenital heart defect. His career was on the brink, doctors advised him to end his career. But the native Ghanaian decided to carry on with his life. And to accept the risk. His illness was the driving force behind setting up the foundation: "I decided I wanted to give something back," says Asamoah. "There's nothing better than seeing a child laugh."

The fact that the song is being released during Advent is no coincidence. "I hope that people will think about it now, especially at Christmas time. That people ask themselves where they can do something good," says Asamoah.

The contact between the ex-professional and the Minister of Justice was established by a mutual friend. "Schalke connects. We hit it off straight away," says Asamoah. "When you come from the Ruhr region, you know how quickly friendships develop."

As "MBSounds" on Soundcloud

Buschmann, the member of parliament for the Gelsenkirchen constituency and therefore the royal blue man in the Bundestag, and club legend Asamoah - it's a perfect match. "If you were born in Gelsenkirchen, you can't get past Schalke," says Buschmann. He grew up in the shadow of the old Parkstadion. "My parents bought a small terraced house there when I was seven years old. And whenever there was a game, we used to hear the goal cries when they were broadcast on TV."

"In Gelsenkirchen, Schalke is religion," says Buschmann. And if Schalke is the religion, then Asamoah is probably something of a prophet. He played for the club for twelve years and his farewell match took place in the Schalke Arena. It was called his "last shift". Even though the club has long since become a multimillion-dollar business, the old Bergmann mentality is still maintained. "I felt understood here straight away. The people simply accepted me," beams Asamoah.

The charity track is not the minister's first work. He uploads his finished songs to Soundcloud. The profile photo shows him there with sunglasses, the account is called MB Sounds. You can only guess that this is a federal minister. For example in the song "Train To Kyiv". Anyone visiting Ukraine travels by train. For security reasons.

"You can't express that in words alone"

Buschmann did the same. "I couldn't sleep on that night train. You were so shaken up and it rattled the whole time." At some point, half asleep, he began to hear rhythmic patterns in the chattering. "If you're a bit musically inclined, you start to automatically translate these into rhythmic structures."

Minister of Justice Buschmann visited Kiev in November 2022.

For Buschmann, it is a way of coming to terms with what he has experienced. In Kiev, he stood in front of a destroyed apartment building with Mayor Vitali Klitschko. "It was in ruins," reports Buschmann. And while he was there listening to the mayor, there was suddenly an air raid alarm. His security people became very nervous, the minister explains. "I said: Mr. Mayor, I have to leave now. My people have rules of engagement for situations like this." Back in Germany, he sat down at the piano and composed music based on what he had experienced. "You can't express that in words alone," says Buschmann.

This hobby has now resulted in the charity song. And the money can be used for the original purpose despite the federal government's huge financial worries. When asked whether Finance Minister Christian Lindner has already knocked on the door to claim the proceeds for his budget shortfall, Buschmann laughs and replies: "No, no one has had that idea yet!"

But his ministerial colleagues have already announced that they will be streaming and buying the song diligently. So that a lot of money can be collected for further operations.