Germany was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1985 with the song "Für alle", written by Hanne Haller, and performed by the band Wind. The German participating broadcaster on behalf of ARD, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), selected their entry through a national final. This was the first of three appearances by Wind at Eurovision; they would also represent Germany in 1987 and 1992.
Before Eurovision
Ein Lied für Göteborg
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) held the national final on 21 March 1985 at the Deutsches Theater in Munich, hosted by Wolfgang Mascher and Margit Geissler. 12 songs took part and the winner was chosen by a panel of approximately 500 people who had been selected as providing a representative cross-section of the German public.[1]
Draw
Artist
Song
Songwriters
Votes
Place
1
Jürgen Renfordt
"Am Anfang der Zeit"
Charly Ricanek, Jürgen Renfordt, Horst-Herbert Krause
On the night of the final Wind performed 10th in the running order, following Portugal and preceding Israel. Pre-contest betting had rated "Für alle" as the favourite for victory, and for a large part of the voting it appeared to be living up to its billing. Germany took the lead after Cyprus, voting third, awarded a maximum 12 to the song, and held it until five rounds from the end and the Swiss vote. Switzerland had historically proven themselves very reluctant to vote for German entries – it was widely believed in Germany that the Swiss jury had cost them victory in the 1981 contest – and lived up to expectations by failing to award any points to "Für alle", allowing Sweden briefly, and then Norway, to take over the lead.
At the close of voting "Für alle" had received 105 points, placing Germany second.[2] The overall voting suggested it was a song that juries liked either a great deal or not at all; of the other 18 national juries, eleven placed the song in their top 4, while two gave it low rankings and five gave it no points at all. Pointedly, two of those juries were the two other German-speaking countries, Austria and Switzerland (the others were Greece, Italy, and Turkey). The German jury awarded its 12 points to eventual contest winners Norway.[3]
The show was watched by 13.22 million viewers in Germany.[4]
