Why Germany Loves David Hasselhoff

David Hasselhoff is known as the star of “Baywatch” and “Knight Rider” here in America, but in Germany he’s a mega-popular singer after he belted out an emotional tune at the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Back in 1988, Hasselhoff released his song “Looking for Freedom,” followed by an album of the same name the following year — cementing his status as the surprising symbol in Germany of the destruction of the wall separating East and West and the end of the Cold War.

Then on New Year’s Eve 1989, the Hoff was invited to perform at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate and has returned to the now unified Germany as his song was No. 1 there.

“I said, “Sure, only if I can sing on the wall,’” he reveals. “I thought, ‘No way will that ever happen.’ They called me back and said, ‘You’re going to be in a crane above maybe a million people.’

“And I said, ‘Oh my God, let’s go!’ ”

The actor-singer was especially touched by a 45-year-old man who wept when they met. “He said he was 15 years old and grew up in Rostock, a city in East Germany,” Hasselhoff recalls. “He said, ‘You really had something to do with bringing down the wall.’ I said, ‘No, I didn’t. I was just singing a song about freedom, and I went behind the wall and met some girls.’ He said, ‘No, it was a song of hope.’ ” Hasselhoff adds, “It was surreal … I was on a mission from God.”