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School of Languages, Linguistics and Film

Swastika, Autobahn and Trans Europa Express – Kraftwerk in English Perspectives

18 February 2020

Time: 6:00pm
Speaker: Dr Uwe Schütte (Aston University in Birmingham)
Venue: ArtsOne Lecture Theatre

Starting with Autobahn (1974), Düsseldorf electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk forged a radically new form of pop music that proved hugely influential, particularly on English bands of the 1980s. Today in Britain, the still active Kraftwerk are revered as figureheads of German culture and an embodiment of European modernity. However, British perception of Kraftwerk was (and to a degree remains) fraught with English clichés of Germanness. My lecture will trace this development from defamation to adoration.

Uwe Schütte is Reader in German at Aston University, Birmingham. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books, his latest monograph is a cultural history of Kraftwerk appearing with Penguin.

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