UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Sound-tracking Germany: 70 years of imagining the nation from Schlager to Techno Schiller, M.M. Publication date 2016 Document Version Other version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Schiller, M. M. (2016). Sound-tracking Germany: 70 years of imagining the nation from Schlager to Techno. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:01 Oct 2021 SOUND-TRACKING GERMANY Sound- tracking Germany 70 Years of Imagining the Nation from Schlager to Techno Melanie Schiller Melanie Schiller In the mid-seventies, Kraftwerk asked, “What is the sound of the German Bundesrepublik?” and answered with their international über-hit “Autobahn”. In the eighties, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft [DAF] ordered the dance-obsessed New German Wave youth to “shake your ass and do the Adolf Hitler!” – and caused a national scandal. Twenty years later, Trance superstar DJ Paul van Dyk and Synth Pop singer Peter Heppner celebrated German pride in their anthem “Wir sind Wir”, and today—seventy years after the end of Word War II and twenty-five years after the German reunification—resident Teutons Rammstein successfully promote sales by having confidently entitled their greatest hits collection Made in Germany. Clearly, the nation has been a central theme in the history of German pop music. But popular music – as commodity and social practice – also plays an important role in the imagination of the nation. By tracking different national narratives throughout seventy years of German pop and across diverse genres like Schlager, Beat, Krautrock, Neue Deutsche Welle, Techno and Heavy Metal, this thesis shows how pop is constituted in and constitutive of discourses of Germanness. Printed by Ipskamp Drukkers Layout by Ahmet M. Ogut Cover front based on image “PSM V13 D183 Compressed and rarefied air particles of sound waves”, 1878 (author unknown). © 2016, Melanie Schiller All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author. SOUND-TRACKING GERMANY [70 Years of Imagining the Nation from Schlager to Techno] ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op vrijdag 15 januari 2016, te 12:00 uur door Melanie Mareike Schiller geboren te Düsseldorf, Duitsland Promotiecommissie: Promotor: Prof. dr. ir. B.J. de Kloet, Universiteit van Amsterdam Copromotor: Dr. J.W. Kooijman, Universiteit van Amsterdam Overige leden: Dr. C.J. Birdsall, Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. dr. R.W. Boomkens, Universiteit van Amsterdam Prof. dr. J. Fornäs, Södertörn University Prof. dr. C. Jacke, Universität Paderborn Prof. dr. M.D. Rosello, Universiteit van Amsterdam Dr. B. Titus, Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen The research of this doctoral thesis received financial assistance from the Swedish Institute. Table of Contents Danke! [Acknowledgements] p. 7 Made in Germany [Introduction] p. 11 1. The Natives of Trizonesia [Germanness Without a Nation] p. 39 2. The Sound of Uncanny Silence [Beat, The Silent Nation and International Imaginaries] p. 77 3. Fun Fun Fun on the Autobahn [Kraftwerk and the Open-Ended Narrative of the Nation] p. 107 4. Hitler on the Dance Floor [Queering the Nation] p. 125 5. Most German of the Arts? [Techno and the Celebration of the Nation] p. 151 Another Time of Writing [Conclusion] p. 181 Summary p. 191 Samenvatting [Dutch Summary] p. 197 Bibliography p. 203 Appendix [DVD: Soundtracking Germany] p.229.