The Birth of Neu Klang: Exploring Krautrock’s Impact on German Counterculture

The Birth of Neu Klang: A Journey Through Krautrock

“We had to start from zero.” “We wanted to start over at zero.” “It wasn’t an intellectual approach, more an anarchic one: just starting over at zero.” These poignant reflections, articulated by saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, composer Irmin Schmidt, and guitarist Lutz Ludwig Kramer, encapsulate the profound urgency that fueled Germany’s counterculture during the tumultuous decades following World War II.

Inheriting a shattered nation, the youth of Germany faced a landscape marked by a “country in ruins, and thus a ruined culture,” as noted by Schmidt. They were confronted with a painful partition between the democratic West and the oppressive East, a pervasive global fear of anything associated with Germany, and a harrowing identity crisis. The pivotal question loomed large: how does one come to terms with the atrocities committed by the previous generation?

Such weighty considerations might easily fade into the background when immersed in the vibrant and life-affirming sounds produced by this generation in the 1970s. Iconic groups like Kraftwerk, Can, and Popol Vuh, along with their contemporaries, ignited a diverse movement often simplistically labeled as krautrock. This genre not only elevated the standards for electronic experimentation but also championed collaborative democracy within popular music, significantly influencing the evolution of punk, industrial music, and techno.

Oral histories are compelling because they capture the essence of shared experiences, and in Christoph Dallach’s meticulously crafted book “Neu Klang: The Definitive History of Krautrock,” 66 musicians and observers recount their journeys toward achieving their neu klang — or “new sound.” For many, this sonic exploration was deeply intertwined with the act of escaping Germany’s authoritarian legacy.

Reflecting on this turbulent past, pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach recalls, “When I started school, we still had to say ‘Heil Hitler’ for two days — and all of a sudden it turned into ‘Guten Morgen.’” Similarly, for drummer and electronic music pioneer Harald Grosskopf, whose father served as a Nazi officer, the struggle against his father became “the major conflict of my life” and ultimately propelled him into the world of krautrock.