Punk in Germany

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Punk in Germany developed in the late 1970s, shortly after punk emerged in the United States and Great Britain around 1977.

history

The trendy and artists' pub Ratinger Hof in Düsseldorf, 1978, where punk originated in West Germany
For the development in the German Democratic Republic, see Punk in the GDR

The beginnings (1976–1981)

While the street boys from Frankfurt were still a pure birth of the record industry at that time (CBS, 1977), the Hamburg Big Balls and the Great White Idiot (Rüssel Records, 1978) were still almost 100% oriented towards the Sex Pistols, Male sang from Düsseldorf (1979) already their lyrics in German, but also sounded a lot like British bands like The Clash . The first punk bands in Germany included the Fred Banana Combo and Pack, which had English lyrics and whose first LPs were released in 1978, as well as the band PVC from West Berlin , founded in 1977 , which gave the genre its name, Wall City Rock for Berlin rock and punk music of the late 1970s , Clox, founded in Dortmund in 1977 with their English singer Steve Waymouth, and Rabies from Munich , founded in 1976 , who recorded an often-covered scene classic with Amok , which was only released on record in 1980 appeared.

The first scandal in the German punk scene came when singer Nina Hagen vividly demonstrated various masturbation techniques in the ORF discussion program Club 2 . The controversial appearance led to the controversial singer quickly becoming known in German-speaking countries. The debut album Nina Hagen Band (1978), which attracted international attention and contained, among other things, a German-language version of the The Tubes classic White Punks on Dope (English title: TV-Glotzer ), was released in advance .

At this point in time, at least in Germany, there were hardly any opportunities for musicians to publish records alongside the music business. Gigs and the music press also offered few alternatives. During the years of conflict over Wackersdorf , the Startbahn West and in the anti-nuclear movement , the first punk bands emerged that (almost) exclusively sang German, had their roots in political movements or at least sympathized with them. At the same time, squatted houses and autonomous centers that were emerging in almost every city at the time offered opportunities to perform. Very active musical movements developed - for example in Düsseldorf ( Ratinger Hof ), Hamburg (Markthalle), Berlin (KZ36, KOB, SO36 ).

After the first releases were almost exclusively on compact cassette , the first independent labels were founded around 1979. These included the later right-wing rock label Rock-O-Rama , ZickZack Records , the only one still in existence today, and a number of relative short-lived label. As a result, the first few years were mainly characterized by a lack of structures. The mostly self-produced sound carriers were not available in any record store and spread via word of mouth. In order to close this gap, a number of independent stores opened in the metropolitan areas, and the first mail order companies supplied the market. The only national music magazines that dealt with punk were Sounds and the magazine Spex , founded in 1980 , which mainly published photos by the scene photographer ar / gee gleim . It was in these early years that the first fanzines were founded . This also includes The Ostrich , which was first introduced to the people in March 1977.

From around 1980, several musical directions emerged. On the one hand, especially in Düsseldorf, there was a movement towards electronic music . These groups initially appeared together with punk bands, but were increasingly reviled as “intellectual student bands” (many of these bands can be described as predecessors of techno music - e.g. DAF , Der Plan ). Other German-speaking bands such as Fehlfarben or Ideal stood in line with the trio and are therefore considered to be pioneers for the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW). Their music was influenced by punk, but more oriented towards mass taste. Around 1979 a demarcation began between the older punks of the first hour, who mainly migrated to the NDW, and the young punks, who were looking for harder styles of expression. As in England with punk and new wave , the fan base split into two irreconcilable camps. A well-known, musically fought feud, for example, was between ZK / Campino and Male / Jürgen Engler . Most of the NDW bands from Düsseldorf, which can actually be assigned to the punk camp, such as SYPH , the KFC and lunch break , were quickly ousted by the more commercially oriented stars such as Hubert Kah and Nena . At the same time, ZK and Soilent Grün formed the forerunners of the later superstars Die Toten Hosen and Die Ärzte .

Other bands such as Chaos Z and Neurotic Arseholes from Stuttgart and Minden pushed into the hardcore camp and mainly used political texts. The first fun punk band, whose singer Fabsi is also a former member of the Central Committee, also developed with Die Mimmi’s .

Hardcore and Funpunk (1981–1989)

From around 1981 the labels Aggressive Rockproduktionen (Berlin) and Weird System (Hamburg) released records that were among the milestones of German punctuation. Bands like HASS , Slime , Razzia , Neurotic Arseholes , Canal Terror , Toxoplasma and Daily Terror , some of which are still active today, shaped punk in Germany with their catchy and political lyrics. Slime became the prototype of this style and together with Middle Class Fantasies with the title Helden became the first German punk band whose music was banned due to such titles as Deutschland , Bullenschweine and Polizei SA / SS . Lyrically, this second generation of punks also distinguished itself from the so-called poppers and also from the hippies . Also, alcohol (in contrast to the first generation) became an integral part of the subculture that still shapes the image of punks today. The political part led to a rapprochement with left-wing positions and an organization in the squatter scene (for example, the members of the pre-war youth lived in squats in West Berlin). At the same time, the do-it-yourself idea spread, which gave rise to numerous left-wing shops and record companies.

In 1983 the Hanover Police Department introduced the punker card index , in which punks and skinheads were listed, in order to “gain an overview of the punk scene in Hanover” and to counter a feared threat to public safety and order. As a reaction to the card index, the Chaostage, which later regularly took place in various cities, was proclaimed for the first time .

Around 1985/1986 the active part of the punk movement - i.e. the part that organized concerts, brought out fanzines or founded music labels - turned to American hardcore , which was just becoming popular in Germany . At the end of the 80s there was another short wave of so-called fun punk , in which bands such as the Ärzte or the Falling Carrier Pigeons were marketed by big labels, but also by Bravo .

In the early 1980s, the punk scene also developed into a skinhead movement, whose musical works are based on the British Oi! aligned. A new wave developed around the fanzine scumfuck - which waged real (writing) wars with the trust or zap , which were published by supporters of the hardcore movement - but it was more likely to develop both lyrically and socially apolitical gave. In addition to skinhead bands that were ideologically close to the punk scene, such as Herbärds and Die Alliierten , a right-wing extremist music scene developed very quickly around bands such as Kraft durch Froide and Endstufe , which was still musically based on current punk music, but its own musical one Division that established the so-called right - wing rock . The forerunner here was the Cologne label Rock-O-Rama , which tried to exploit this new niche in the market from 1984 with the release of The Nice Man and other right-wing rock records.

Situation after German reunification (1990-today)

After reunification there was a lot of catching up to do, especially for East German punks, who had limited opportunities to get to the records. Bands like Slime, Toxoplasma and Ausbruch formed anew and released new records, some of them very successfully. Labels like Nasty Vinyl , Impact Records , Suppenkazper or Höhnie Records were able to benefit from this wave and threw countless bands onto the market.

The model was the series Sure There Are Better Times, but this was ours (from 1990, Höhnie Records), which united bands from East Germany and on the one hand gave East German punks the opportunity to finally acquire their bands on sound carriers (in the GDR was As a punk band it was almost impossible to produce sound carriers, even audio cassettes were very expensive) and on the other hand West German punks to discover the development of the other side of the wall. Up to this point in time there were only publications by L'Attentat (Leipzig) and Schleim-Keim (under the code name Saukerle) in West Germany, which were made under very conspiratorial circumstances. Only from 1989 onwards a few punk bands were produced on Amiga as part of the de-escalation policy of the SED . B. The Skeptics and Feeling B , which were accordingly controversial in the scene. But West German punk bands like Die Toten Hosen were also published in the GDR via Amiga.

In the course of the renaissance of German punk rock at the beginning of the 90s, a style became increasingly popular in which the striking texts of the 80s were pushed into the background by intellectual and personal texts. Bands like ... But Alive , the Boxhamsters , Dackelblut or the EA80 and 1. Mai 87 , which had existed since the 1980s, brought a new impetus to the scene and also influenced many of the newer, nowadays popular bands such as Turbostaat , Muff Potter , Scrap Limit or Pascow . These groups also exerted an influence on the emergence of the so-called Hamburg School , which produced bands such as Tocotronic and Die Sterne . For example, the popular band Kettcar consists of former ... But Alive members.

At the same time, bands that combined political statements with humor achieved great popularity since the 1990s; these include in particular WIZO and the Berlin terror group . At the same time, groups such as Die Lokalmatadore or Die Kassierer , who attracted attention with crude texts on topics such as alcohol and sex, gained popularity.

Nowadays, numerous new punk bands are still emerging, which stylistically orientate themselves in all different directions and also enjoy great popularity in the scene. There are also many bands that were founded in the 1980s and are still active and popular today, or that have reformed in the last two decades. Labels like Weird System are also still in operation today and are often concerned with maintaining punk history by re-releasing older, long-sold-out records or creating compilations on specific topics. In addition, there is still a fanzine scene, such as the Plastic Bomb , Trust and Ox-Fanzine , which made the leap into the normal magazine market. Younger magazines such as Slam and Taugenix also report on the German punk scene, while Spex concentrates more on the alternative scene. Since the triumphant advance of the World Wide Web , the fanzine culture has increasingly shifted to punk portals and fan pages.

literature

(Listed by publication date)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bertram Küster: The G-spot in the talk studio in Der Tagesspiegel from November 1, 2007
  2. ↑ Jürgen Teipel : Waste your youth . Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2001, ISBN 3-518-39771-0 . P. 370.
  3. ↑ Peter Seewald: Unbridled Passion . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1983, pp. 51-53 ( online ).

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