Listen To This Playlist Full Of German Synth-Punk Classics From The ‘80s

Over 40 bonafide Neue Deutsche Welle and synth-pop classics to discover.

The ’80s were a particularly influential era in the German underground. A stream of musical forces—such as krautrock, punk, Italo and post-punk—converged on German cities like Düsseldorf, Berlin and Hamburg. This dynamic conjuncture of genres brought to light an idiosyncratic musical movement called Neue Deutsche Welle, which fused the brashness and humor of punk with the catchiness of synth-led tracks and pop constructions.

To get a sense of the sounds that caught fire in the underground at the time, we highly recommend you spend some time going through the playlist above. Featuring classic tracks from Boytronic, Kraftwerk, Östro 430 and more, it’s a perfect launch pad into some serious online crate digging. And once you’re done there, you might want to check out this mix of NDW obscurities by TEB-editor-slash-DJ-extraordinaire Michael Aniser from a recent MegaBlank party at Berlin club ://about blank.

Read more: Watch a video about the rise of Germany’s ’80s underground sound