Palais Schaumburg – Palais Schaumburg – LP (Coloured)

Bureau B

In 1980, two students met at the Hamburg Art Academy: Thomas Fehlmann, who appreciated art and music and wanted to connect them, and the musician Holger Hiller, who had escaped the fractious Hamburg alternative scene, preferring the art school’s Conservatory of Music.

A printed English translation of the lyrics perhaps contributed to album’s high profile abroad, as certainly did the appearance of the band: with shaved-up necks, side partings and traditional German jackets, Palais Schaumburg took a stance against the clothing habits of the punks on the one hand, and the peace movement on the other, toying provocatively with supposedly Ur-Germanic symbols and meanings. The intention was not merely to be acoustically “different.”