Berlin names street after Frank Zappa

updated 1:37 p.m. ET July 30, 2007

BERLIN - Berlin has named a street honoring Frank Zappa.

Zappa’s brother, Bobby Zappa, said the Grammy-winning rocker, who died in 1993, would have been pleased, in a letter of thanks.

Frank-Zappa-Strasse or Frank Zappa Street — formerly Street 13 — lies on the eastern outskirts of Berlin amid empty industrial buildings in what was communist East Germany.

The street is home to Orwo Haus, a former Communist-era film factory that now provides practice studios for more than 160 bands.

Musicians at Orwo Haus campaigned for two years to have the street’s name changed. Eighteen bands, including the Frank Zappa cover band Sheik Yerbouti, celebrated the renaming this weekend with an all-night concert for more than 2,800 people.

The Orwo Haus association said it wanted Zappa’s name for its street because “he was without taboo, musically versatile, provocative, and didn’t allow himself to be captured by capitalistic enterprises.”

“I am absolutely certain that he would be very proud to have his name as an address for so many musicians,” Bobby Zappa wrote.

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