You get a shiver in the dark
It’s a-raining Treptow Park but meanwhile
North of the river it’s all Kultur and Kunst
A place is showin’ sculpture, German new style
You feel alright when you see that Zeitgeist art

And now you step inside and you sure see familiar faces
Coming in out of the rain to see a performing clown
Competition in other spaces
But there’s no hipper place than this in-town
Way in midtown, way in midtown, Mitte ground

And check out Biesenbach, he knows every hack
Mind he's strictly hippin'
He doesn't want to take a risk or chance
A run-down factory is all he can afford
When he gets up to New York in a curatin’ trance

And Klaus wouldn’t really mind if he didn't make the scene
He's got a jet set job, he's doing alright
He can pull the swanky talk like anyone
Savin’ it up for a MoMA night
With the children, with the children of Berlin

And the gallery fools
They're hanging around at Kunst-Werke
Drunk and dressed in their Camper shoes
And their Prada gear
They don't give a damn about any honest working life
It ain't how you build a career
But the children, yes the children sneer

And then Biesenbach steps right up to the microphone
And he says at last, just as the Bier dries up,
"Goodnight, thank you, we’re better than Köln"
And he makes it clear with one more thing;
"We are the children, we are the children of Berlin!"

*a response to the exhibition
Children of Berlin: Cultural Developments 1989-1999, P.S. 1, New York, 1999

Curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Alana Heiss

Originally recorded by Dire Straits as Sultans of Swing. Published by Rondor Music/Strait Jacket Songs