80's German Punk Compilation

When British bands like the Sex Pistols and The Clash became popular in West Germany, lots of German bands were founded in order to create their own scene in Germany. One of the first bands was Male, from Düsseldorf, founded in 1976 others included PVC, from West Berlin, or Big Balls and the Great White Idiot, from Hamburg. Early German punk groups were all heavily influenced by UK bands, and often wrote their lyrics in English, and also there weren't any real political influences yet.

Around 1980, there were new movements inside the German punk scene, lead by labels like ZickZack Records from Hamburg, that included New Wave influences like synthesizers inside punk music, which resulted in the so-called Neue Deutsche Welle ("New German Wave", a term first mentioned by Alfred Hilsberg, owner of ZickZack Records). Some bands began to play experimental punk rock, using computer effects or synthesizers. Some of these bands include Fehlfarben or Abwärts from Hamburg, who are still active and changed their style several times. In response to these developments, some bands played a more aggressive style of punk rock, because they did not consider those experimental bands to be part of the punk scene. For example, The Buttocks from Hamburg ranted: "New Wave Time? Nein, nein, nein! / Wollt ihr mehr? Nein, nein, nein!" and "Scheiß auf Alfred und die Bande, Punkrock ist der Herr im Lande" ("New Wave time? No no no! / Do you want more? No no no!", "Fuck Alfred and the band, punk rock is the master in the land") and played a prototype of German hardcore.

In the 1980s, lots of new punk bands became popular in the scene and developed the so-called "Deutschpunk" style, which is not a generic term for German punk rock, but an own style of punk music that included quite primitive songwriting, very fast rhythms and politically radical left-wing lyrics, mostly influenced by the Cold War. Probably the most important Deutschpunk band was Slime from Hamburg, who were the first band whose LP was banned because of political topics. Their songs "Deutschland", "Bullenschweine", and "Polizei SA/SS" were banned, some of them are still banned today, because they propagated the use of violence against the police or compared the police to the SA and SS of Nazi Germany. While they still had some English lyrics on their first, self-titled LP, they have concentrated on German lyrics since their second LP "Yankees raus" ("Yankees out", named after the anti-imperialist title track). Other popular bands of this phase include Razzia from Hamburg, Toxoplasma from Neuwied, Canalterror from Bonn, and Normahl from Stuttgart. All of these bands released their records on one of the leading punk labels in West Germany: Weird System Recordings from Hamburg, Aggressive Rockproduktionen (AGR) from West Berlin, and Mülleimer Records ("Garbage Can Records") from Stuttgart.

During this period, many bands have been influenced by U.S. hardcore punk with bands like Black Flag or The Adolescents. Those bands were also known for their extremely left-wing attitude and their aggression carried in their songs. Some of the most important German hardcore punk bands, who are also often labeled "Deutschpunk", included Vorkriegsjugend from West Berlin, Chaos Z from Stuttgart, Inferno from Augsburg and Blut + Eisen from Hanover. Some bands tried a slower, more elaborate style, inspired by bands like The Wipers, the most popular ones being Torpedo Moskau from Hamburg and a number of singer Jens Rachut's bands.