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ABSTRACT
Originating from the avant-gardist part of Berlin’s “ingenious dilletants” of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Einstürzende Neubauten have been playing a significant role in Western popular culture for more than 40 years. This article investigates Einstürzende Neubauten’s reception and legacy-building process by using ethnographic field research and documentary analysis. The analysis focuses the dimensions of musical traditions and innovations within the Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) movement, the artistic and philosophic approach of the “dilletants” as well as the social and local context of Berlin during the times of Cold War.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The “wrong” spelling of “dilletant” throughout the article derives from a misspelling announcement for a festival in 1981 by the scene itself (Jäger 141).
2. The quotations from publications originally written in German have been translated in English throughout this article.
3. A strand of innovative Western-German rock music originated in the late 1960s, which was characterized by an experimental use of electronic and psychedelic elements bringing forth internationally acclaimed bands like Kraftwerk, Amon Düül, and Can (see Longerich 21–24).
4. Certainly, the most well-known case is the partial collapse of West Berlin’s Congress Hall on May 21, 1980 (see Schütz 134). The futuristic-looking building on the northern edge of the Tiergarten had been constructed with the help of the US allies in 1957 as “an unbreakable symbol of German-American friendship and an icon of Berlin’s freedom” (Conrad).