Music History Ongoing History of New Music

The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 1052: Explaining Krautrock

May 16, 2025 Alan Cross 0 Comments 3 min read

After World War II, Germany was destroyed. The country was divided. The East was under the control of the USSR. The western part was part of democratic Europe. And then there was Berlin, sitting in the east but cut into different zones dominated by the Russians, the Americans, the British, and the French.

Most history books look at the political and military side of things. What we don’t hear about nearly as much is how German society was rebuilt. Imagine being a young person who is too young to have been in the military. What prospects did you have growing up in a divided country ruined by war?

This is where art comes in. Art is always downstream from whatever is happening in society, and in the case of West Germany, many artists wanted things to be different.

Young German musicians had some very serious ideas about what needed to be done. Many were into rock. But they were determined to create rock that was different from what was being made in the UK and America.

And they certainly didn’t want anything resembling traditional German music. It had been tainted by the Nazi legacy. It was time for something new, different, and away from the status quo.

There were experiments in the 50s that were pretty radical and, frankly, all over the place. But the results of these experiments began to coalesce into something by the end of the 60s.

Within a few years, something distinctly German had emerged. It rocked in its own way. It had elements of psychedelic music. Things could either be extremely structured or open to wild improvisation. It certainly wasn’t from any blues tradition or normal rock conventions upon which British or American rock was built.

The structures of some compositions weren’t exactly what you could call normal, at least not in the context of rock, and occasionally, things got political, but not necessarily in a protest sense.

By the middle 70s, we had a new, distinctly German sound. The scene was very diverse in terms of sonics, but there was a Teutonic purpose underlying everything.

The Germans just called it “German rock.” The British, however, gave it another name. It was supposed to be a joke, but the name stuck. And looking back, this sound, approach, aesthetic, and name can be found throughout many different corners of the rock.

This is an explanation of a thing that has become known as a “krautrock.” And believe me, you’ve heard it more than you realize.

Songs heard on this show:

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Rattlesnake
Amon Duul, Ein Wunderhubsch Madchen Traumnt Von Sandoas
Klause Schultze, Irrlicht 1. Satz “Ebene”
Organisation, Tone Float
Neu!, Hallogallo
Kraftwerk, Autobahn
David Bowie, Heroes
Coldplay, Talk

Here is Eric Wilhite’s playlist for the show.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on these stations. Don’t forget that there’s a podcast version, too, in case you miss any episodes. Get them for free wherever you get your podcasts.