Hamburger Schule - Rise and Fall

Rise and Fall

By the mid 1990s, three bands met with great commercial success: Blumfeld, Die Sterne, and Tocotronic. The Hamburger Schule became known as the epitome of German indie pop music. When other German guitar bands, whose music and lyrics were of a different style, were able to profit from this success, however, a new nationwide Indie pop scene emerged. The Hamburger Schule began to be marginalised by a movement which it had helped to create.

Other artists that are considered part of the Hamburger Schule are Milch, Rocko Schamoni and the Mobylettes. But as time went by, the term eventually encompassed such a broad spectrum of musical content that it could hardly be associated with a particular musical genre anymore. As several bands have started to sing in foreign languages, it has begun to lose any meaning it once had.