50 Fun Facts About Kraftwerk

In which German city was Kraftwerk formed in 1970?

Düsseldorf is where the two founders were studying music when they began playing together, and the band stayed put: its studio remained in the city until 2009.

What does the German word "Kraftwerk" literally mean?

Power plant: Kraft means power and Werk a works or factory, a fitting name for a band that called its own sound 'industrielle Volksmusik', the folk music of the factories.

Which roadside object appears on the covers of Kraftwerk's first two albums?

A traffic cone in pop-art colours fronts both Kraftwerk (1970) and Kraftwerk 2 (1972), an industrial answer to Andy Warhol's banana sleeve for the Velvet Underground.

The German chorus of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" is often misheard as a nod to which American band?

The Beach Boys: 'fahr'n, fahr'n, fahr'n' ('drive, drive, drive') sounds like their hit 'Fun, Fun, Fun', though Wolfgang Flür later insisted the echo was never intended.

On which BBC science show did Kraftwerk perform "Autobahn", a 22-minute track on record, in 1975?

Tomorrow's World filmed the four at their electronic kit; the album track runs almost 23 minutes, yet an edit of about three and a half minutes turned it into a hit single.

What was at the centre of Kraftwerk's long court fight with German producer Moses Pelham?

A two-second sample of 'Metal on Metal', looped under a 1997 rap track, was still being fought over twenty years on, when the EU's top court ruled that such sampling needs permission.

In which country did Autobahn, Kraftwerk's first release there, reach the album top five in 1975?

United States: Autobahn climbed to No. 5 on Billboard's album chart although its lyrics were sung in German, and the band made its first American tour that year.

What was the name of Kraftwerk's own recording studio?

Kling Klang, set up in 1970, kept the world out: the band barred visitors from the studio and left fan mail unanswered.

Which producer and engineer co-produced Kraftwerk's first four albums?

Conny Plank made much of Autobahn at his farmhouse studio near Cologne; after it became a hit the band parted with him and produced every later album itself.

What was the pre-Kraftwerk quintet of Hütter and Schneider, which released Tone Float, called?

Organisation made one album, Tone Float, which RCA issued only in Britain; sold in Germany as an import it did poorly, RCA dropped the group, and its two leaders started Kraftwerk.

Which two early Kraftwerk collaborators left to form the band Neu!?

Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger were, with Florian Schneider, the whole band for some months of 1971 while Ralf Hütter returned to his studies; then the pair left to form Neu!.

Which instrument was Florian Schneider's main instrument in Kraftwerk's early years?

His main early instrument was the flute, which he ran through tape echo, ring modulation and fuzz so it could even carry bass lines; he later said he threw it away once synthesizers took over.

On which 1973 album did Kraftwerk first use the vocoder, on the track "Ananas Symphonie"?

Ralf & Florian ends with 'Ananas Symphonie' (Pineapple Symphony), its machine voice made on a prototype vocoder; the band later left this and its two earlier albums out of its official catalogue.

Which painter and graphic artist designed Kraftwerk's artwork and co-wrote their lyrics?

Emil Schult, who briefly played electric violin on stage with the band, went on to paint the Autobahn sleeve and co-write the lyrics of its title track.

Which star invited Kraftwerk to open his 1976 tour, an offer the band declined?

David Bowie asked Kraftwerk to open his 1976 Station to Station shows and was turned down; he later paid tribute with the instrumental "V-2 Schneider" on his 1977 album "Heroes".

Which 1975 Kraftwerk album earned the band a gold disc in France?

Radio-Activity, the band's 1975 album, earned a gold disc in France, where the title track was a hit single; it sold less than Autobahn in Britain and the US.

How did EMI France launch Trans-Europe Express to the press in 1977?

On a chartered train ride: EMI France hired a vintage train to carry critics from Paris to Reims while the album played over its loudspeakers.

The red-shirt-and-black-tie cover of The Man-Machine was inspired by which Russian artist?

El Lissitzky is credited on the sleeve itself, 'Inspired by El Lissitzky', and the back cover adapts a graphic from his children's book About Two Squares.

Which Kraftwerk song reached number one in the UK after being flipped from a B-side to an A-side?

The Model, a 1978 album track, sat on the B-side of 'Computer Love' in 1981; reissued with the sides promoted to a double A-side, it topped the UK chart in February 1982.

Which studio engineer replaced Wolfgang Flür on stage when Kraftwerk returned to touring in 1990?

Fritz Hilpert, a sound engineer at the band's studio, stepped in after Flür lost patience with years of inactivity and quit to design furniture.

Some of the electronic vocals on Computer World were generated with a device made by which company?

Texas Instruments' Language Translator supplied the voice, yet the band made its album about computers without owning one: a computer reached the studio only for the next record.

During which song did Kraftwerk use replica mannequins of themselves on stage on the 1981 tour?

During "The Robots" the four members were replaced on stage by showroom-dummy replicas of themselves; for the 1981 tour the group took its entire studio set-up on the road.

Under which title was Kraftwerk's Electric Café reissued in 2009?

Techno Pop was the name EMI had announced for the album, but the band kept reworking it and released it as Electric Café; the 2009 remaster restored the abandoned title.

Which hitmaker inducted Kraftwerk into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021?

Pharrell Williams did the honours, telling the Hall that electronic music is everywhere today but that what Kraftwerk did first was revolutionary.

Demand for Kraftwerk's 2013 residency crashed the ticket website of which London arts venue?

Tate Modern put its eight nights on sale and the booking site failed almost at once, leaving furious fans to queue at the gallery in person.

Which 1984 hip-hop dance film featured Kraftwerk's "Tour de France"?

Breakin' used the track on screen, yet it is missing from the film's soundtrack album; later UK pressings of the single carried the line 'As featured in the film Breakdance'.

What put Ralf Hütter in a coma for several days in the early 1980s?

He was in a serious cycling accident while out riding, suffered head injuries and lay in a coma for several days, which delayed work on the band's next album.

Which former Kraftwerk member wrote the memoir I Was a Robot?

Wolfgang Flür filled the memoir with tales of the band's wild parties, and his former bandmates answered with a court injunction against the book.

For which German event did Kraftwerk write a jingle that grew into a 1999 single?

Hannover Expo 2000 paid 400,000 marks for a jingle only seconds long, a fee that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said he would not have spent.

Which Kraftwerk studio engineer joined the live line-up late in 1991, replacing Fernando Abrantes?

Henning Schmitz, long the band's studio engineer, stepped on stage when Abrantes left after a few months of The Mix tour, and he stayed in the line-up for more than thirty years.

Kraftwerk ran its Minimum-Maximum tour on customised laptops made by which company?

Sony VAIO laptops ran the sound and visuals, so the band could at last leave its studio at home instead of hauling it on tour as it had in 1981.

What did Florian Schneider's 2015 track campaign against?

Plastic pollution: Schneider, who left the band in 2008, made 'Stop Plastic Pollution' after swimming off Ghana and watching fishermen haul in nets full of plastic.

Where in New York did Kraftwerk's 2012 eight-album, eight-night retrospective take place?

The Museum of Modern Art staged it in its atrium, one album a night; every night sold out, and reviewers reported that tickets were all but impossible to get.

Which live album won Kraftwerk their first competitive Grammy, for Best Dance/Electronic Album in 2018?

3-D The Catalogue won at the 2018 Grammys, twelve years after the band's earlier live set Minimum-Maximum was nominated for the same award and lost.

Which German astronaut performed "Spacelab" with Kraftwerk from the International Space Station in 2018?

Alexander Gerst joined the band's Stuttgart concert by video link from the International Space Station in July 2018, playing the "Spacelab" melody on a tablet while orbiting Earth.

In which category was Kraftwerk inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021?

Early influence was the way in: Kraftwerk were honoured with Gil Scott-Heron and Charley Patton after their nomination as performers for the class of 2020 fell short.

Which Afrika Bambaataa track interpolated "Trans Europe Express" and "Numbers"?

"Planet Rock", recorded by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force in 1982, lifted the melody of "Trans Europe Express" and the rhythm of "Numbers", launching New York's electro movement.

Which Coldplay song borrowed the melody of "Computer Love" after Chris Martin wrote asking permission?

Talk replays the 'Computer Love' riff on guitars; Martin's request went via the lawyers and, weeks later, an envelope came back with a handwritten note that said simply 'yes'.

Which New Order hit took its choir sound from Kraftwerk's "Uranium"?

Blue Monday lifted the choir with an early sampler, one of several borrowings New Order has happily admitted, alongside ideas from Donna Summer and Sylvester.

Which German rock band covered "Das Model" as a non-album single in 1997?

Rammstein's 'Das Modell' reached No. 5 in Germany, two places higher than Kraftwerk's own single had climbed there.

A sped-up version of "Electric Café" was the theme of which Saturday Night Live sketch series?

Sprockets, Mike Myers's spoof of a West German arts show, played the track at the wrong speed, and host Dieter ended each edition with 'Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance'.

Which 1998 comedy features a fictional band called Autobahn that parodies Kraftwerk?

The Big Lebowski's nihilists once played in Autobahn, a Kraftwerk-style electro act whose single late-1970s album was called Nagelbett, or 'Bed of Nails'.

Hütter and Schneider were granted a patent, filed in 1975, for what invention?

An electronic drum kit: its pads, struck with metal sticks, closed a circuit to trigger the sounds. Wolfgang Flür says the idea was his, but the patent names only Hütter and Schneider.

Which band covered Kraftwerk's "Hall of Mirrors" on its 1987 covers album?

Siouxsie and the Banshees rearranged the song rather than copying it on Through the Looking Glass, an album made up entirely of other artists' songs.

Whose piece did Kraftwerk play at Fuji Rock 2024 as its first-ever cover of another artist?

The piece was Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence", played at Fuji Rock in July 2024 as a tribute to the Japanese composer, who had died the previous year and had long been a friend of the band.

Which Detroit trio fused Kraftwerk with funk into techno?

Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, school friends from Belleville, are credited with inventing techno; May likened it to George Clinton and Kraftwerk stuck in an elevator.

Which pro skateboarder fronted the video announcing Kraftwerk's 2025 tour for 50 years of Autobahn?

Tony Hawk and three fellow skaters posed like the cover of The Man-Machine on a half-pipe while the tour dates flashed across the screen.

Florian Schneider's father, Paul Schneider-Esleben, was a leading German figure in which profession?

Architecture: Paul Schneider-Esleben was a noted modernist whose terminal for Cologne Bonn Airport set a layout that other airports went on to copy.

Kraftwerk's 1978 album The Man-Machine was the first to co-credit which member as a songwriter?

Karl Bartos, hired as a percussionist, earned his first writing credits on The Man-Machine; he quit in 1990, unhappy over songwriting credits and the band's slow pace.

Which British band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award alongside Kraftwerk in 2014?

The Beatles and Kraftwerk were honoured together in 2014; the German band's first competitive Grammy only followed four years later, for a live album.