Laura Richards on the Hoff’s pivotal role in reuniting East and West.

In recent news it’s been back to rehab for the Hoff. Our hearts go out to him. After all, we owe a lot to a man who has given us so much over the years – those tight red Speedos, Burger-Eating 101 and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Yes, that’s right. Not content with a fan club the size of his libido, David Hasselhoff has attempted to recreate himself as some kind of political mastermind.

In an interview with Germany’s TV Spielfilm magazine in 1989 the ever modest Hoff  admitted that sometimes he feels the part he played in Germany’s history has been drastically overlooked. “I find it a bit sad that there is no photo of me hanging on the walls in the Berlin Museum at Checkpoint Charlie.”

At the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall Hasselhoff’s euro-pop anthem ‘Looking for Freedom’ was number one in the German charts for eight consecutive weeks.

With rousing lyrics like, “I’ve been looking for freedom; still the search goes on… Still it can’t be found!” he may as well have put the words “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” into President Ronald Reagan’s mouth.

The Hasselhoff Foundation, David’s hugely dedicated fan base, is bafflingly in support of the pivotal political role their hero played in German reunification.

“People identified with both the sentiment of the song and the singer who personified in his real life and in his acting roles the American ideal of freedom.” One can only assume that the population at the time had a weak grasp of English.

Hasselhoff’s song tells the story of his formative years struggling to find his own path in life. It bears no reference to the Cold War, if only in the repetition of the word ‘freedom’ over and over and over again.

Yet, the Hoff was invited to perform on top of the wall on 21st July 1990 to celebrate the historic event and he will be returning this year to join in with the twentieth anniversary proceedings. So perhaps the Hoff is right, and his political involvement has been severely overlooked.

Or maybe he’s simply delusional. In a sweeping statement also in 1989 he claims: “Beyond its entertainment value, Baywatch has enriched and, in many cases, helped save lives. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to continue with a project which has had such significance for so many.”

And here was me thinking Baywatch was about slow motion shots of semi-naked rippling torsos. It seems poor old David is simply on another planet.

So where will he find his next ‘project of great significance’? In the last year David Hasselhoff has been focusing on jump-starting the music careers of his daughters Hayley and Taylor. With the three in collaboration, world peace may just be on the cards.