Introduction

The tagline "Wir sind neu in der Hamburger Schule" (Whe are new to the Hamburg school) of Tocotronic gave name to a group of rock bands coming from Hamburg in the 90s formed around the L'Age D'Or label. Most prominent participants are above named Tocotronic, Die Sterne and (earlier) Blumfeld. The musical influence can be heard in recent German bands including Sportfreunde Stiller, Wir sind Helden, Angelika Express and Kettcar.

Also notable is Bernd Begemann - the so-called "Grandfather of Hamburger Schule".

Story

Hamburger Schule is/was a music (and youth)-movement that started in the late 80s and lasted until the mid 90s. They had similar traditations as Neue Deutsche Welle (99 red balloons, for example was NDW) and connected it with punk, grunge, experimental pop music elements. It brought a whole new image and idea to Pop music in German Language.

Hamburger Schule isnt a group of similar sounding bands. It's about intellectual lyrics with postmodern theroies and social criticism (99.9% left orientend). Guitar music with intellectual content, wow! (That was pretty rare at the time)

It was very hard to get a record deal in the late 80s, if you sung in German. Therefor a label was found named L'age D'or in 1988. Now atleast a few bands found a home to release their music.

The confusing, and maybe cool thing about Hamburger Schule is that you don't have to be from Hamburg to be in it. The Hamburg-connection (Hamburgverbindung) originated through Bernd Begemann (the so called Godfather of Hamburger Schule), as he was born/raised in Bad Salzuflen but started his band "Die Antwort" in Hamburg.

The record label "Fast Weltweit" was also a big step for the scene because it was part of Hamburger Schule, without even being in Hamburg either. It was started by Frank Spilker (Die Sterne) and Jochen Distelmeyer (Blumfeld) and others. Now all bands from all parts of Germany and even Austria were in the scene.

Fast forward to the early mid 90s. Three bands were pretty successful: Blumfeld, Die Sterne and Tocotronic. Hamburger Schule was the quintessence and the founder of german indiepop. New bands with similar style ermerged but soon everyone forgot what Hamburger Schule was all about. Hamburger Schule wasn't anything special anymore. And pretty much died with grunge.

Rebirth

Beginning of 2000, more and more bands are helping HS recover . With much help of the HS fanzine Pittiplatsch3000 (http://www.pittiplatsch3000.de) and their compilations. And the new "Fast Weltweit"-esque label called "Hotel van Cleef" (founded by Thees Uhlmann of Tomte, Marcus Wiebusch and others).

External links

Labels

• L'Age D'Or (http://www.lado.de)
• Hotel Van Cleef (http://www.ghvc.de/)

Fanzines and Magazines

• Pittiplatsch3000 (http://www.pittiplatsch3000.de)
• Intro.de (http://intro.de/)
• Visions (http://visions.de)

Bands

• Tocotronic (http://www.tocotronic.de)
• Blumfeld (http://www.blumfeld.de)