Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany Page #2

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performance was a certain Wim Wenders.

Wenders was part of radical generation of directors

reinventing German cinema.

The most political of these directors

was Rainer Werner Fassbinder

seen here making a cameo in Die Niklashauser Fahrt,

a film that also featured Amon Duul.

But the most famous young director to emerge was from Munich.

Werner Herzog would make films exploring the extremes

of the human condition.

The soundtracks to his films were written by Popol Vuh,

a Munich-based band with close ties to Amon Duul.

They were led by the late talismanic Florian Fricke.

Let me see. Was heisst denn Menschenswuerde?

Das ist es. Dignity!

In those days, he also had the first work

for Aguirre with Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog.

The reason why they could get together so good,

Werner and Florian,

they had been friends.

They know each other from the schooldays and, you know.

Aguirre, Zorn Gottes,

I give you the fact why it sounds so tremendous.

And...the choral... that sounds like the voices.

There is a machine that came from Vienna

that was just by accident, they found it.

It was really helpful.

It has nothing to do with metronome.

It has nothing to do with playing on the click.

We just... Our heart, our emotion was the timing, you know.

Beautiful.

Of course, the real German music, it was the electronic music.

At a time when most of the West was rocking out to guitar gods,

something very different was brewing in Germany.

Electronic music was virgin.

Neither tainted by the past nor an Anglo-American import.

In 1968, it was being nurtured in Berlin,

a city like no other.

First of all, you have to remember

that Berlin was kind of an isolated place.

So, you couldn't compare Berlin to any other city in the world.

There was a huge wall around it.

In the old days of West Berlin, this was the end of the world.

On the other side was Siberia. Or at least East Germany.

What looks now like a very quiet and peaceful place

was the border.

And...was closely guarded.

In case you wonder on which side of the old border you are,

these hostel ships are named Eastern Comfort

and Western Comfort.

It was a community which had to control more or less

themself.

So, culture and underground whatever you want to call it

was kind of a very, very specific melting pot.

That was the signature of the city at the end of the '60s.

The key underground venue in Berlin was the Zodiak Free Arts Lab

founded in 1967.

It was a magnet for musicians

who wanted to experiment.

Ah, haven't been here in a long time.

This is what's left.

A normal cafe.

This was quite different 40 years ago.

In the evenings, they opened the door.

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