When Wolfgang saw the first live pictures of the 911 attacks, he was in Germany and had just returned from a recording session. He thought this couldn’t be reality. He thought it was a movie, and was shocked to find out this was actually taking place. With tears in his eyes, he had to acknowledge this had happened in the pulse of the free world, New York. In the same evening as his heart ached, he wrote, “Let’s build a house of peace”.Wolfgang Hildebrandt (born 29 June 1959), is an German singer-songwriter, musician, producer, philanthropist, actor, and Founder of Hollywood Hills Records. Wolfgang Hildebrandt was raised in Euskirchen, Germany,where thanks to the positive influence of his father, he began his musical career on the piano and guitar at the age of six. Wolfgang went on to study music intensively over the next 14 years, which landed him the position of lead singer for his church choir and later Choir Director.
Wolfgang said to himself that the terrorist brought pain to the American people, but it wasn’t enough to dampen their spirit, as the world stood “united against evil”. After Wolfgang composed the song he wondered what he would do with this heart felt expression. First he was thinking where do I want record this song, so he decided to contact the legendary Electric Lady Studio (Jimmy Hendrix) in New York. They were very excited about Wolfgang’s sentiments and gave him a special rate and dates for the recording. Then Wolfgang had the idea to invite the New York police department choir to join him in this recording so he wrote to the police commissioner with his idea along with the lyrics of the song. A few days later he received a personal response from the police commissioner of New York City thanking him for the song. In the same letter the police commissioner said thank you for all of the forty thousand officers and mentioned a lyric that moved him.
Near the end of the letter he mentioned he was sorry and said he has no police choir. Wolfgang was a little bit sad about that, but a few hours later his phone rings and it was Police officer Ann Marie Maloney. She sang with New York police officer Danny Rodriguez and Sgt. Kim Royster at the memorial event “Prayer for America” at Yankee Stadium to honor the victims, both living and deceased. This event took place just a few days after the terrorist attacks, and was televised worldwide. Ann Marie Maloney said she loved the idea and said she would look for a few officers who would sing to form the choir. After this both parties were excited about the recording and the friendship has stood even unto this day. Amidst the excitement he wondered where he was going to be staying, so he called the Pennsylvania Hotel and mentioned what he was doing. One of the other terrorist planes crashed in Pennsylvania and Wolfgang wanted this to be a memorial as well. The hotel graciously donated two rooms for his
Wolfgang wondered which airline he would be using to fly to the United States so he called American Airlines, as a memorial, and told them what he wanted to do, and they donated two seats! Everything was ready for Wolfgang’s first international flight to The United States. When he arrived at JFK, the New York police picked him up and it looked like he was being arrested, but they were taking him to the hotel. The recording session was a very emotional time for everyone as you can imagine because they were remembering the dead and wounded souls who suffered from this unthinkable evil perpetrated against innocent lives in America. Little did Wolfgang realise these worldwide shock waves would give birth to his “Peace Mission”.
“Let’s build a house of peace” made its debut in New York City, but it’s actually a prayer/song for our entire planet. Wolfgang performed the song several times. The most emotional performance was in a little Baptist church in Harlem New York. When Wolfgang performed this song at the United Nations in New York City, he was the first German who ever performed there.
The German chancellor at this time was Gerhard Schroeder, gave the CD “Lets build a house of peace” as a official gift to President George W. Bush when he visited Germany a few months later. Wolfgang received a note from President George W. Bush thanking him for his goodwill towards the American people. Later did Wolfgang realize these worldwide shock waves would give birth to his “Peace Mission”.