Kraftwerk Frequently Asked Questions
Sources of further information
- Where can I find out more about Kraftwerk and related projects?
- Where can I find news about Kraftwerk's current activities?
- Are there any books about Kraftwerk?
- What is Aktivität? Where can I obtain copies?
- Are there any useful mailing lists and forums?
Where can I find out more about Kraftwerk and related projects?
Several books about Kraftwerk have been published in recent years, and there are many pages about Kraftwerk on the World-Wide Web; see for example the list of these on this site.
There are Kraftwerk mailing lists and forums.
Where can I find news about Kraftwerk's current activities?
The band members are, let's say, secretive about their activities. You will often only learn of their activities through the music press and mass media. However, via the Internet you might find some fresh news...
The official website nowadays communicates the new concert dates in advance, but there is no more information.
Also there is not very much information at the Kraftwerk facebook profile, mainly the event / shows, but here the fans can write and read comments, so it can be very useful.
Are there any books about Kraftwerk?
Apart from the books issued officially in the Minimum Maximum Notebook (which features photos, pictures and some technical data), the 3-D Book (contains only 3D pictures), the photo book Roboter, and the 228-page hardback book in the '3-D The Catalogue' (contains mainly pictures of screenings), there are some books have been written about Kraftwerk.
Here are some important books, without the need for completeness:
- Pascal Bussy - Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music
- Tim Barr - Kraftwerk: From Düsseldorf to the Future
- Wolfgang Flür - Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot
- Vanni Neri and Giorgio Campani - A Short Introduction to Kraftwerk
- Albert Koch - Kraftwerk: The Music Makers
- Sean Albiez and David Pattie - Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop
- David Buckley - Kraftwerk: Publikation
- Karl Bartos - Der Klang Der Maschine, Autobiografie
- Uwe Schütte - Mensch-Maschinen-Musik: Das Gesamtkunstwerk Kraftwerk
- Uwe Schütte - Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany
(In addition to these titles, Karl Bartos wrote the preface to Martin Pesch and Markus Weisbeck's Techno Style (Edition Olms, 1995; English translation published by Gingko Press, ISBN: 3283002908), a book about artwork used on flyers, record sleeves and fashion related to modern dance music, and Florian Schneider wrote the preface to Peter Badge's Oskar Sala: Pionier der elektronischen Musik (ISBN: 3930333341).)
Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music
Pascal Bussy's Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music contains many suppositions and a few minor errors, but it is nevertheless recommended as essential reading for the Kraftwerk enthusiast. Kraftwerk: Man, Machine and Music should be obtainable through any good bookshop. Failing this, it can be ordered direct from the publishers:
SAF Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 0 946719 09 8.
A German edition of Bussy's book was published in 1995, under the title Kraftwerk - Synthesizer, Sounds und Samples - die ungewöhnliche Karriere einer deutschen Band. The style of this edition has been criticised but it does contain an update to the English-language edition by way of a (very incomplete) Elektric Music discography. The photographs are the same as in the English version, but the front cover of the German edition uses a photograph from Kraftwerk's appearance from 1982 on the German television programme Na Sowas.
A Japanese edition of Pascal Bussy's book was published by Suiseisha in 1994 (ISBN: 4891762977), with album cover art replacing the photographs featured in the English edition, a postscript by the translator and and an addendum to the discography.
The book was also published in French, under the title Kraftwerk, le mystère des hommes machines (published by Camion Blanc, ISBN: 2910196097)
The second edition of this book was issued in 2001. ISBN: 0 946719 38 1
(SAF Publishing Ltd.)
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Kraftwerk: From Düsseldorf to the Future
In 1998 Tim Barr's Kraftwerk: From Düsseldorf to the Future was published in the UK (Ebury Press, paperback). This book has been criticised for drawing too heavily on previously published material and for its spurious (even garbled) cultural references, but praised for its selection of photographs and for placing Kraftwerk in the context of modern popular music, which Bussy's book did not.
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Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot
August 1999 saw the publication, in Germany, of the long-awaited book by Wolfgang Flür about his time with Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk - Ich war ein Roboter (ISBN number 3854451733) was praised for its readable style and many previously unavailable photographs. Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider took exception to some of the claims made in Flür's memoirs, and legal pressures were applied.
An English language edition, Kraftwerk: I Was a Robot, was published in the UK by Sanctuary Publishing Ltd in January 2001 (ISBN number 186074320X), with some offending material removed but some new material added, including several chapters covering Flür's interpretation of the lawsuit against the original German edition.
A Japanese translation was published in April 2001 by Shinko Music
ISBN 4-401-61678-2.
The second edition of this book was issued in 2003 by Sanctuary Publishing Ltd. ISBN: 1 86074 417 6
Flür's book was also published in 2003 in French under the name of J'étais un robot by Camion Blanc. ISBN: 2-910196-31-3.
In 2004 VGS Verlag re-released the German version of the book.
ISBN: 3-8025-2926-X (ISBN 3-8025-3377-1 is accompanied by a CD)
In 2004, it was released also in Italian by Cyberpunkline, ISBN-13: 978-8888865096
In 2011, a Spanish version was issued by Milenio Publicaciones, ISBN-13: 978-8497434485
The recent version of this book was published in 2017 by Omnibus Press, revised edition, paperback, 432 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1785585807
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A Short Introduction to Kraftwerk
A Short Introduction to Kraftwerk by Vanni Neri and Giorgio Campani was published in May 2000 by Sonic Books. This small, 84-page book is in Italian with a full English translation, and is accompanied by a CD of unauthorised remixes. This CD was the source of misleading publicity in the UK which overshadowed discussion of the book itself. It is probably fair to say though that the book is concise, opinionated, unreferenced but of good taste - in that it prints the URL of Kevin Busby's old Kraftwerk links list (the page was removed).
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Kraftwerk: The Music Makers
Albert Koch's Kraftwerk - The Music Makers, a German language book published in 2002 by Hannibal Verlag, ISBN: 3 8544 5213 6.
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Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop
Edited by Sean Albiez and David Pattie.
Published in end of 2010 by Continuum Publishing Corporation,
written in English.
256 pages, paperback, ISBN : 9781441191366
256 pages, hardcover, ISBN: 9781441165077
" This collection of original essays looks at Kraftwerk - their legacy and influence - from a variety of angles, and demonstrates persuasively and coherently that however you choose to define their art, it’s impossible to underestimate the ways in which it predicted and shaped the future. "
(source: www.continuumbooks.com)
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Kraftwerk: Publikation
Author: David Buckley
352 pages, hardcover, publisher: Omnibus Press,
August, 2012., in English.
ISBN-10: 1847729312; ISBN-13: 978-1847729316
" The inner workings of this most secretive of bands are revealed through interviews with friends and close associates, whilst the story of their incredible impact on modern music is traced up to the present day using interviews with a host of musicians, from original electro pioneers such as Gary Numan, the Human League, OMD and John Foxx, to contemporary acts still in awe of the original Man Machines. "
In 2013, the 'Kraftwerk: Publikation' was issued in German language by Metrolit Verlag (ISBN-13: 9783849303051), and in 2015 in Portugal language by Seoman (ISBN-13: 9788555030246).
In 2015, an updated edition was issued, with details of the group's recent concerts under the director Ralf HÜtter, and interview with former member Wolfgang Flür / ISBN-13: 9781783059942
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Der Klang Der Maschine, Autobiografie
Karl Bartos's biography, Eichborn Verlag / Language: German
ISBN-10: 3847906178 / ISBN-13: 9783847906179
602 pages / 756g / 221x146mm
Release date: Aug. 2017.
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Mensch-Maschinen-Musik: Das Gesamtkunstwerk Kraftwerk
14 June 2018.
by Uwe Schütte (editor), Stephen Mallinder (preface)
Hardcover, 368 pages
Publisher: C.W. Leske Verlag
Language: German
https://cwleske.de/buecher/mensch-maschinen-musik/
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Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany
by Uwe Schütte / Publisher: Penguin Books (Feb., 2020)
Language: English / Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 0141986751 / ISBN-13: 9780141986753
"The story of the phenomenon that is Kraftwerk, and how one band revolutionized the cultural landscape of our time."
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What is Aktivität? Where can I obtain copies?
Aktivität was a consistently well-produced magazine about Kraftwerk and Elektric Music, edited by Ian Calder. Unfortunately issue 10, published in April 1998, was the last, and issues are no longer being sold by the editor. There is however an official Aktivität website, which has a news section as well as archives of articles from the magazines.
Are there any useful mailing lists and forums?
Social media is now inevitable in almost all areas, including here, there are some useful Facebook groups:
- KRAFTWERK closed fan group,
- Kraftwerk open channel,
- Kraftwerk 12345678 group,
- technopop2000 fanpage,
and many similar pages / groups, changing from day to day, some of them can be good source of information.
There are plenty of national / local mailing lists and forums all over the world but those old-fashioned forms of communication(?) are not significant internationally.
The most remarkable forum was the Electric Cafe (mainly in English) but nowadays (27 of April, 2019) it is not available. The archives of the inactive Music Non Stop Kraftwerk mailing list (by Lazlo Nible) can not be seen and due to a server error the archives of the closed Antenna mailing list is also not available...