Floh de Cologne

Floh de Cologne (a wordplay on Eau de Cologne, 'floh' meaning 'flea') were a German band, active from 1966 to 1983, regarded as a pioneer of krautrock and Political Satire Music. After some success at the beginning of the 70s, the band separated finally in 1983.

The group was formed in 1966 by a group of radical theatre students from the University of Cologne. The band originated from the Cologne APO (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition) around the SDS (Socialist German Student Union), and their political orientation shifted over the years towards a dialectical-Marxist position.

Independently of one another, the band members joined the DKP (German Communist Party) between 1970 and 1973. Their first album, Vietnam, released in 1968, is a fierce criticism of the war in Vietnam. The profits made from this album was donated to a Vietnamese charity. They satirised consumer society and sought to take their message to young workers and apprentices. Impressed by their music and especially their lyrics, Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser decided to produce their next two albums: Rockoper Profitgeier (1971) and Lucky Streik (1972).

On September 6, 1970, the group performed at the Fehmarn Festival, following Jimi Hendrix. In 1973, Floh de Cologne performed as part of a West German delegation at the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in East Berlin. After Gerd Wollschon's departure (1976), the group increasingly collaborated with the lyricist Peter Maiwald, who contributed important songs for their stage shows and LPs. From 1980 onwards, members of the band (Vridolin Enxing as chairman) were active in Rock gegen Rechts; in the same year, the group received the German Cabaret Prize together with Gerhard Polt.

After more than 3,000 concerts in Germany and Europe, Floh de Cologne disbanded in May 1983 following a farewell tour. The farewell concert at the Cologne Sports Hall had 6,000 spectators and lasted 14 hours, featuring numerous musicians such as Hannes Wader, Dieter Süverkrüp, Franz-Josef Degenhardt, Hanns-Dieter Hüsch, Die 3 Tornados, Wolfgang Niedecken (BAP), and Ina Deter. In 2023, the band received the Holger Czukay Honorary Award from the City of Cologne for their lifetime artistic achievements.

Their musical style is considered to be krautrock.

After the originally conventional cabaret group Floh de Cologne experienced underground bands like the Mothers of Invention, the Fugs, and the Edgar Broughton Band at the Essen Song Days in 1968 – where the group itself performed two special programs – they stylistically reoriented themselves with their 7. Programm, combining agitational texts with beat music and a stage show to create so-called "agitation revues" and developing into one of the leading political rock bands.

In 1970, Floh de Cologne signed an exclusive record deal with the label Ohr/Metronome for the production Fließbandbabys-Beatshow and other releases. Metronome producer Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser was instrumental in the development of the so-called Krautrock scene of those years. In 1971, Floh de Cologne created Profitgeier, the first German-language rock opera. In the three-movement Geyer Symphony of 1973, the band incorporated original excerpts from political speeches given at the funeral of the German industrialist Friedrich Flick into their music.