SN Online: Childrens festival with Tokio Hotel

Langenhagen: children’s festival with Tokio Hotel
The 14-year-old Viktoria Dräger is a Tokio Hotel fan like millions of other teenagers. But she’s already played with the two figures of the successful band from when they still used to go the kindergarten in Krähenwinkel.
From 1993 until shortly before the start of 1996, the identical twin brothers Bill [now vocals] and Tom [guitar] celebrated with the neighborhood’s children birthday parties when they were still in Birkenweg 66b at home.
Viktoria still lives opposite. “We had a large tub in which the twins liked to bathe in,” says Viktoria’s mother Sabine Dräger. “Then they quickly ran home across the street dressed in a bathrobe.”
When Viktoria was still small, Simone Kaulitz, the mother of two brothers, used to take care of her when the parents had to leave for a bit. Kaulitz worked as a day mother, her husband as a truck driver for a Langenhagener DIY store. For the parents, this job was the reason for their move from East Germany to here.
“The truck was always parked in front of the front door in the evenings,” recalls Sabine Dräger. Even a few doors down, the boys went in and out from the Weigert family. Daughter Melanie visited with them kindergarten.
“Bill has always been the feminine one of the two,” says mother Petra Weigert. Bill, with his now androgynous image and flamboyant make-up style, has always liked to dress up; not like the other boys as a cowboy or knight - a carnival photo shows him as the fortune teller Esmeralda.
“He’s always had the imaginative costumes,” raves Petra Weigert. His mother sewed them for him, seeing as she was famous in the neighborhood for her artistic skills and craft. Her services were gladly taken in any case, such as if a fantastic wedding dress was needed.
On the wall of the children’s room from the twins was a Mickey Mouse painted from their mother - with an electric guitar in his hand.
“The two were always very fussy with their stuff,” the Dräger and Weigerts agree. Bill never allowed anyone to touch his Barbie with the mermaid look. “Above all, no one should get to her hair,” says Petra Weigert. “But because of his fondness for dolls, Bill was already very popular by the girls.”
Already back then the two weren’t afraid of being the center of attention. Often have they been down the runway as child models for a childrens boutique in Langenhagner. And many Krähenwinkeler sat in front of TV as the two made their first appearance in an NDR series. “Always neat, but also a little bit extravagant,” describes the Krähenwinkeler Bill and his ten minutes younger brother Tom. Their trademark was pirate headscarves.
Petra Weigerts would have loved to cook for her young guests: “But if they were with us, they only wanted noodles with ketchup.”

Dark spot in the biography

Nice memories with a bitter aftertaste: The two Tokio Hotel musicians Tom and Bill Kaulitz seem to not want to know anything about their past in Krähenwinkel.
There is a black hole in their biographies: Born in Leipzig, grew up in Magdeburg as it’s often told. Even the record company blocks off on that.
On request from the Nordhannoverschen, they informed that the musicians did not wish to have any reports about their childhood in Krähenwinkel, thus leading to why there are no photos, material and definitely no interviews. Only after Bill’s performance in the casting show Starsearch did the Krähenwinkler take note of their former neighbour.
They heard about the band’s success in newspapers. All contact attempts to the twins through the internet and youth magazine have failed. But even so, ex-neighbour Petra and daughter Melanie Weigert still went to their first big gig in Magdeburg. Like many thousands of other fans, they weren’t able to get near the band.
“Three months after they had moved due to the separation from her husband, Simone Kaulitz called me and said she doesn’t want to have anymore contact. She wanted to close off with her past.”, explains Petra Weigert. “I got the impression that she stamped off that time as bad.”, says neighbour Sabine Dräger regretfully.” Although, we did experience so many nice things together.”
Viktoria Dräger is an open fan of her past play mates. She’s long had up a star cut in her room before it started to tear and curl on the edges. Last weekend she was allowed to take part in a big fan meeting in Cologne, where at least there were doubles of her old friends. “The band is simply amazing.” she says. She especially likes the German lyrics: “Not all tralala unlike the most.”

source: SN Online