The band Kraftwerk is Germany's most iconic cultural export; its founder, Ralf Hütter, was instrumental in the birth of techno and hip-hop. A tribute on his 80th birthday.
Even at 80, Ralf Hütter hasn't stopped working, hasn't stopped his art. When asked why Kraftwerk still performs live, he says: "But that's my life." And he adds that music is an art form that is constantly evolving. "You can't hang it on the wall. A track isn't a finished work like a sculpture. Music is never finished."
The band Kraftwerk is Germany's most iconic cultural export; its founder, Ralf Hütter, was instrumental in the birth of techno and hip-hop. A tribute on his 80th birthday.
By Christoph Amend
Updated on August 20, 2026, at 2:51 PM
Once in Düsseldorf, during a meeting at his favorite café on the Rhine, Ralf Hütter asked if I wrote my lyrics by hand. When I said no, he explained that he still wrote by hand, including all the Kraftwerk lyrics, such as " Die Roboter" and "Computer Liebe ." "When I have something in mind," he said, "I jot it down, always on a piece of paper, sometimes even next to the bed, anywhere." This hadn't changed over the decades, he added, "I write better by hand." And this from the musician who had transformed himself into a robot.
Today, Ralf Hütter, one of the two founders of Kraftwerk, the most internationally influential band from Germany, turned 80. The two most important musical genres of the past decades, hip-hop and techno , were invented with the sounds of Kraftwerk. A fan once called them "the Beatles of electronic music." And Kraftwerk continue to live up to their name; this spring they were on a major Asian tour, followed by performances all over Europe, and next week they will be playing at the Bauhaus in Dessau —a subtle democratic gesture in these turbulent times.
A few months ago, when Kraftwerk gave concerts in Berlin, I last interviewed Ralf Hütter for Die Zeit, which is the same age as him, born in 1946. He was as fit as ever; cycling – the song " Tour de France" was released in 1983 as a tribute to this sport – is his passion.
Ralf Hütter grew up in Krefeld in the post-war period. "As children, we collected cigarette butts in the gutter for the white St. Martin's pipes that came with the Weckmänner, the pastries handed out to children. When we had enough tobacco, we smoked it in the St. Martin's pipes until we felt sick," he said, laughing. Indeed, one must imagine Ralf Hütter, who leads a secluded life outside of his concerts, as a person with a quiet, mischievous sense of humor. About a now-deceased friend, the artist Sigmar Polke, he says: "He had this transcendental wit, which I liked, not overt, rather subtle." Perhaps only by not taking oneself too seriously can one come up with the idea of replacing oneself on stage with robots. Or, as in the advertisement published today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , which shows Ralf Hütter's robot reading on a smartphone.
In Krefeld, Ralf Hütter attended the Waldorf school and took piano lessons, "but the music that really interested me," he says, "I couldn't learn there. It was only available on the radio or on records. Pop, rock 'n' roll, jazz, rhythm and blues. We lived in the British sector and could therefore listen to BFBS, the radio station of the British troops. I wrote down the lyrics of the songs from the radio as best I could. That's how I got into that world."
While studying architecture, Ralf Hütter met Florian Schneider. They made music together, performed in galleries and jazz clubs, and from 1970 onward, they called themselves Kraftwerk. Their international breakthrough came in 1974 with their song "Autobahn ," which American college radio stations played endlessly: "The road is a gray ribbon / White stripes, green edge / Now we turn on the radio / From the speaker it sounds / Driving, driving, driving on the Autobahn." Is it true that many Americans thought Kraftwerk were singing "Fun, fun, fun on the Autobahn"? "Conceivable," Ralf Hütter said in response to the question, smiling. "Our line isn't a direct Beach Boys quote, more of a phonetic jingle-clang poetry, a ring-around-the-rosy. But to American ears, it certainly sounds similar."
In 1977, Kraftwerk released the album Trans-Europe Express and traveled to New York. “One evening, Florian and I were at Studio 54. Afterwards, an employee from our record company took us to an after-hours club in the Bronx. Florian and I were on the dance floor, and suddenly we heard the DJ playing Trans-Europe Express and Metall auf Metall . It went on for 15 to 20 minutes, much longer than on our record. He was mixing and scratching with two records on two turntables. The DJ was Afrika Bambaataa .” Five years later, Bambaataa’s hip-hop classic Planet Rock was released , based on sounds and melodies from Kraftwerk.
In 2017, Kraftwerk performed in Detroit , the city where techno was invented in the 1980s , and their music plays a central role there as well. Detroit radio DJ Charles Johnson discovered Kraftwerk on his station, Autobahn , in the late 1970s. He was so captivated that he began playing the electronic music from Europe regularly. Among his regular listeners were three teenagers who would make music history a few years later: high school friends Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, and Juan Atkins, the originators of Detroit techno. "Before I heard Kraftwerk 's The Robots ," Juan Atkins once said, "my music sounded handmade. It was they who inspired me to develop our harder sound."
After the concert in Detroit, there was an after-show party at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, organized by Juan Atkins. All the Detroit techno DJs were there, including Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. And right in the middle of them was Ralf Hütter, relaxed and in good spirits, posing for photos with them and with fans. I was there too, and suddenly he was standing next to me. "Come with me," he said, "we're going to the DJ booth now, Kevin's playing." The dance floor was packed, the young crowd, mostly between 20 and 30, was partying to Kevin Saunderson's mix, which included some Kraftwerk tracks. As soon as Hütter and Saunderson greeted each other at the DJ booth, word spread across the dance floor: eyes turned to them, shouts erupted, and cell phones were pulled out. And then Kevin Saunderson, born in 1964, played the 1988 classic " Big Fun" by his house music band Inner City.
I'll never forget that scene: Saunderson and Hütter standing arm in arm, celebrating their music with the next generation. When Ralf Hütter recalled that moment a year and a half later during our meeting in his favorite café on the Rhine, he told me he was still speechless. And that night in Detroit, he couldn't fall asleep for a long time in his hotel room.
In 1981, Kraftwerk released an album that made cultural history beyond their music. With Computer World , they predicted the digital future we live in today; the English version, Computerworld, describes it as "Crime, Travel, Communication, Entertainment." For their tour that same year, they bought their first Atari.
After Florian Schneider's surprising departure in 2009, which also surprised Ralf Hütter, and a long period of silence between the two, they eventually reconciled. "Shortly before his death," says Ralf Hütter. "That was important. He wrote to me, and his daughter called. I drove straight to him, and we made up." The two didn't say much at that moment, "we created Kraftwerk together from nothing; there's no need for grand pronouncements." Florian Schneider died in 2020.
Is there a political legacy, besides the musical one, that Kraftwerk represents? They have always considered themselves Europeans, says Hütter. "Of course, we knew about the exciting 1920s, and we also knew what had been destroyed in the years that followed," Ralf Hütter recalls, thinking back to the years before his birth. "Florian and I grew up as Europeans; in the 1950s, we spent our summer holidays on student exchanges with host families in France and England. As a twelve-year-old, I could initially only speak French. Later, I also wrote poetry in French, ' Les Mannequins' and all the lyrics on the Tour de France album. I also sang 'Taschenrechner' in English, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Japanese. As teenagers, Florian and I learned to make a statement for international understanding. That seems to be forgotten sometimes these days."
Even at 80, Ralf Hütter hasn't stopped working, hasn't stopped his art. When asked why Kraftwerk still performs live, he says: "But that's my life." And he adds that music is an art form that is constantly evolving. "You can't hang it on the wall. A track isn't a finished work like a sculpture. Music is never finished."
