Alles Paletti 1985 -

For many Germans, the phrase is inseparable from Frank Zander’s 1985 hit—a Schlager-turned-anthem about a homeless man who, despite losing everything, still insists to his mother that everything is fine. It’s catchy. It’s tragic. And it might just be the perfect metaphor for the mid-80s.

1985 wasn’t really paletti . It was the eye of the storm. The decade’s excess (big hair, shoulder pads, cocaine, Chernobyl just one year away) was masking a quiet anxiety. The threat of nuclear war was at its peak—"The Day After" had aired two years earlier. The cracks in the façade were everywhere. alles paletti 1985

But the real lesson of 1985 is this: