Flea de Cologne

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Flea de Cologne
Flea de Cologne in 1969: from left Gerd Wollschon, Hansi Frank, Markus Schmid, Dick Städtler, Dieter Klemm
Flea de Cologne in 1969: from left Gerd Wollschon, Hansi Frank, Markus Schmid, Dick Städtler, Dieter Klemm
General information
Genre (s) Political rock
founding 1966
resolution 1983
Website www.flohdecologne.de
Founding members
Jürgen Allef until 1968
Udo Weinberger until 1968
Britta Baltruschat until 1968
Markus Schmid until 1974
Gerd Wollschon until 1976
Other members
Hansi Frank from 1966
Dieter Klemm from 1967
Dick Städtler from 1969
Theo König from 1972
Vridolin Enxing from 1973

Floh de Cologne was a Cologne political rock band and cabaret group active between 1966 and 1983 from the left extra-parliamentary opposition and the environment of the new social movements .

Band history

The band was founded on January 20, 1966 by students from Cologne, initially as a political cabaret . The band came from the Cologne APO around the SDS , their political orientation changed over the years to a clearly dialectical-Marxist position. The band members joined the DKP independently between 1970 and 1973 . On September 6, 1970 the group performed at the Fehmarn Festival after Jimi Hendrix ; this was his last appearance before his death. In 1973 Floh de Cologne appeared as the musical part of a West German delegation at the Xth World Youth Festival in East Berlin . From 1980, parts of the band (Vridolin Enxing as chairman) were active in Rock gegen Rechts , in the same year the group received the German Cabaret Prize together with Gerhard Polt . 1983 Floh de Cologne dissolved.

Cabaret, beat, rock

When the originally conventional cabaret group experienced underground bands such as the Mothers of Invention , the Fugs and the Edgar Broughton Band at the 1968 Essen Songtagen , they changed their style with their third program "SimSAlabimbambaSAladUSAladim" and combined agitational texts with beat music and a stage show to create what are known as so-called "Agitation revues" and developed into one of the leading political rock bands. In 1969 Floh de Cologne signed an exclusive record deal with the Ohr / Metronome label for the production of “Conveyor Belt Baby Beatshow” and other productions. The metronome producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser was instrumental in building up the so-called Krautrock scene in those years.

In 1971 Floh de Cologne created the first German-language rock opera called "Profitgeier". In the three-movement "Geyer Symphony" from 1973, the band worked into their music original excerpts from speeches by politicians on the occasion of the funeral of the German industrialist Friedrich Flick . With the cantata for rock band "Mumien" the band responded to the 1974 coup in Chile in 1973 , including a setting of the last speech of the ousted President Salvador Allende . In the same year, the group worked with Hans Werner Henze to develop alternative settings of the Chilelied ("This Chilean Summer Was Sweet"; 1974), text: Rudi Bergmann (* 1950), the premiere was on May 31, 1974 in Essen (Grugahalle: Memorial concert for Víctor Jara , also a solidarity event for the resistance in Chile). The collaboration with Mauricio Kagel on the "Cologne Courses for Political Music" (1975) also crossed borders . In 1980, in the rock opera "Koslowsky", for which the band researched on site, Floh de Cologne traced the fate of a worker from the Ruhr area who came to Maxhütte in Bavaria .

theatre

Flea de Cologne, 1978 - from left Dieter Klemm, Vridolin Enxing, Hansi Frank, Theo König, Dick Städtler

Less known, but essential to the band's development, were their theater work. In collaboration with Roberto Ciulli at the Kölner Schauspielhaus: "A New Florentiner Hat" after Eugène Labiche (1976 Rowohlt-Theaterverlag), with the Markgrafen-Theater Erlangen and the Staatstheater Wiesbaden: "Little Red Riding Hood - a fairy tale with lots of rock and pop and rum - ta-ta "after Evgeni Schwarz (1977/1980 Kiepenheuer & Witsch-Theaterverlag). Further work was carried out with a smaller cast after the dissolution ( Dick Städler , Theo König, Vridolin Enxing): At the Grillo-Theater Essen, together with David Esrig, a new version of "Der Krieg" by Carlo Goldoni (1984 Sessler-Verlag Vienna), "Babette or peu à peu "with Helmut Ruge at the Markgrafen-Theater Erlangen (1986), also there:" The girl with the sulfur woods "(1986).

reception

The band's criticism mostly reacted ambiguously, as Graves / Schmidt-Joos summed up: "The thoroughly groundbreaking music agitation with hard facts [...] was always weakened by the addition of useless fictions about exploitation, worker misery, class struggle and a socialist utopia", but recognized : "After all, Floh de Cologne was the first German rock band to do justice to the aggressiveness, spontaneity and emotionality of rock 'n' roll, which can be motivated by their ethnic and social origins, with texts that are almost the same."

The end

After more than 3000 concerts in Germany and Europe since it was founded, Floh de Cologne broke up in May 1983 after a farewell tour. The farewell concert in the Cologne sports hall on May 17, 1983 had 6,000 spectators and lasted 14 hours with the participation of numerous well-known musicians such as Hannes Wader , Dieter Süverkrüp , Franz-Josef Degenhardt , Hanns-Dieter Hüsch , Die 3 Tornados , BAP and Ina Deter .

“The Floh de Cologne has made cabaret history, and this several times: At first, the old numbered cabaret seemed too tattered and non-binding; they built compact programs with a continuous tenor. They were the first to start incorporating multimedia music as a really equal component, as well as slide and film into the program. They were the first to start producing real program stories, full-length stage works with satirical content - at least for Germany they are the inventors of rock opera. After all, it was they who undressed the committed lyrics of the songwriting aura and turned them into juicy songs; so they finally became the grandfathers of all recent German waves "

- Michael Frank : Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 7, 1983

The estate of Floh de Cologne is in the German Cabaret Archive in Mainz.

Stage programs

Floh de Cologne: Cover image for “ Mummies - Cantata for Rock Band ” by HR Giger

There was a programmatic (advertising) poster for every stage program by Floh de Cologne. The back contained the entire text of the program and, if necessary, "instructions" for action and literature references for further "private revolutionary activity". The front was designed by artist friends. Among them are: Hansruedi Giger , Dieter Süverkrüp , Stefan Siegert, Wolfgang Niedecken u. a. These posters and LPs were sold personally by the group after the events, just as they did everything themselves; There were no professional construction workers (roadies). It was part of the group's code of honor to do their own work, if possible, and thereby keep the entrance fees so low that the target groups (apprentices, young workers, students, pupils) had easy access. Quotation from a program booklet from 1978: Floh de Cologne, this is not a gold record or a golden nose, no place in the hit parade and the evening program on television, no art or culture award and no subsidy. That is bad luck.

Floh de Cologne: Logo by Wolfgang Niedecken
  • Shake head before use 1966
  • Tra-Ri-Tra-Ra, the plague is here in 1966
  • SimSAlabimbambaSAladUSAladim 1967
  • Forcing people out 1968
  • 7th program 1969
  • Assembly Line Babies Beat Show 1969
  • Rock opera Profit Vulture 1970
  • Rock-jazz rocket Lucky Strike 1972
  • Vulture Symphony in Rock Major 1973
  • Mummies, cantata for rock band 1974
  • Rock show TILT 1975
  • Rock-Revue Profitgeier & Co. 1976
  • Great freedom 1978
  • Koslowsky rock opera 1979
  • Faaterland 1982

Radio, film, television

  • 1967 The flea number "SPDeia" is deleted from a broadcast on the Essen Cabaret Days.
  • 1969 A contractually agreed television production of “Zwingt Mensch raus” is discontinued by the WDR because of the “more or less harsh pornographic tendencies”.
  • 1970 Radio play music for "The wonderful dream of Taifun-Willi" by Dick Higgins
  • 1970 Radio Bremen wants to broadcast “Conveyor Belt Baby” live from the broadcasting hall , but withdraws from the contract 2 days in advance by telegraph
  • 1971 WDR program director Peter Scholl-Latour and WDR television director Werner Höfer cancel a planned production of "Profitgeier"
  • 1971 The ORF cancels a planned program a few days before the recording date. The contractually agreed fee is successfully sued.
  • 1971 Radio play music for "Schlußwort" and "Schlußwort 2" by Richard Hey
  • 1972 Music for the funk-singspiel "End well, everything bad" by Richard Hey
  • 1973 Music and songs for the radio play "Das Kraftwerk" by Jens Hagen and Günter Wallraff
  • 1973 Music and texts for the TV film “Das Trauerspiel” by Peter Voigt
  • 1975 Music and title song for the TV film “The Rising Saga” by Rolf Schübel
  • 1975 Music for the film "Greetings from Neckarsulm" by Hannes Karnick and Wolfgang Richter
  • 1975 Music and text for the audio ballad "Good bye, GI" (co-author: Jens Hagen)
  • 1975 Participation in the television film "Die Gruppe Floh de Cologne" by Peter Voigt
  • 1976 Music for the television film "Südblumen aus Oberndorf" by Wolfgang Landgraeber
  • 1977 Music and theme song for the television film “Das Betriebsjubiläum” by Rolf Schübel
  • 1978 Music for the television film "Panteon Militar" by Wolfgang Landgraeber
  • 1978 regular collaboration (text, music, presentation) in the political-satirical magazine DREIZACK of the WDR television
  • 1979 Music and participation in the television film "A Man of Yesterday" by Tom Toelle
  • 1980 Koslowsky - a production of the WDR television
  • 1980 Music for the TV film "The Land of Roses and Nightingales" by Yoash Tatari
  • 1981 Music for the television film “Mitbestimmen im Visier” by Yoash Tatari

Discography

Floh de Cologne produced his LPs during the contract with OHR / Metronome with Dieter Dierks , where Wallenstein , Embryo , Tangerine Dream , Witthüser & Westrupp , Ash Ra Tempel , Hoelderlin , Jeronimo and other of the later greats of German rock made their recordings. After the “move” to the Plans publishing house, they made their recordings in what is probably the most important recording studio for German and later also international pop avant-garde music by Conny Plank , who is considered to be the “midwife” of so-called Krautrock. There they met u. a. on Holger Czukay , Can , Grobschnitt , Kraan , Zupfgeigenhansel , Gianna Nannini and others.

  • Single: St. Pauli, you my hole in the world / Bruno song
  • Single: Emil in Erkenschwick / You have to pay
  • Single: Der Löwenthaler / Bayerisches Heimatlied with Dieter Süverkrüp
  • Single: Hey mom fix
  • EP: That Chilean summer was sweet
  • LP: Keeping apprentices together (Floh de Cologne and others)
  • LP: Why is the banana crooked? (Floh de Cologne and others)
  • Double LP: Ohrenschmaus (Floh de Cologne and others)
  • Double LP: Mitten ins Ohr (Floh de Cologne and others)
  • Double LP: Concert for Chile (Floh de Cologne and others)

literature

  • Profit vultures and other birds. Agitation text, songs, reports (= Wagenbach-Quartheft ; 53). Klaus Wagenbach Publishing House, Berlin 1971.
  • Gerd Wollschon, Floh de Cologne: Sudel-Lexikon. Satirical dictionary for learned Germans. 250 catchwords with lots of practical drawings. Satire-Verlag, Cologne 1977, ISBN 3-88268-001-6 .
  • Rock against right. Weltkreis-Verlag, Dortmund 1980.
  • Andreas Ciesielski : “We see red for the future.” Report on “Floh de Cologne” . In: Ernst Günther, Heinz P. Hofmann, Walter Rösler (eds.): Cassette. An almanac for the stage, podium and ring (=  cassette ). No. 5 . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1981, p. 7-15 .

Web links

Commons : Floh de Cologne  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

proof

  • Steve B. Peinemann: The anger you have in your stomach - Political Rock Music : Interviews, Experiences , 1980, pp. 22–43, ISBN 3499146681
  • Archive Floh de Cologne in the German Cabaret Archive Mainz
  • Image sources: Vridolin Enxing archive

Individual evidence

Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under references; the following sources are also cited:

  1. ↑ Who loves the earth; GDR documentary 1973 . DEFA Foundation . Retrieved October 13, 2013.
  2. ^ Theaterlexikon 1, Rowohlt's encyclopedia, 2007
  3. ↑ a b Barry Graves, Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: Das neue Rock-Lexikon - Vol. 1 , 1990, p. 284
  4. ↑ Michael Frank: Last sigh with an uplifted mood . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 18, 1983, p. 3, accessed on June 25, 2018
  5. ↑ Michael Frank: End before it gets slutty. "Farewell to the Fleas" - the last program of the Floh de Cologne , In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 7, 1983, accessed on June 25, 2018
  6. ↑ Legacies , German Cabaret Archive, Mainz, accessed on June 27, 2018