East Germany’s little-known musical history and the ongoing fight for recognition
Breakdancing, rapping, DJing and graffiti may not be the first things that come to mind when one thinks of Communist East Germany in the 1980s. But it was in fact home to one of the Eastern Bloc’s most lively underground hip-hop scenes, writes Benedikt Kendler in Berliner Zeitung.
The German Democratic Republic (GDR)’s “B-Boys” – as the breakdancers called themselves – first gathered around stereos in the mid 1980s in cities like Dessau, renowned for the revolutionary Bauhaus design school in previous decades. They would perform outside on the street, spinning across the pavement on their heads and hands to bewildered passersby.
But how did hip-hop make its way from its 1970s origins in the Bronx of New York City to East Germany? According to the article, it was first seen on West German television in 1983, when Thomas Gottschalk hosted a breakdance competition on his show Na sowas!. Initially, the imitation of a youth culture from the capitalist West was met with repression from authorities. B-Boys were arrested and police officers attempted to infiltrate the groups.
“Once I came to school with a Marlboro bag. After 10 minutes, I had to hand it over to a teacher. Simply because it was from the ‘enemy,’” recalls Mike Buchmayer-Zacke (also known as Magic Mayer).
The tide turned when the American hip-hop film Beat Street (1984) was approved for cinema release in the GDR. It was seen as an unfiltered portrayal of how Black youth were exploited and oppressed in poor neighbourhoods in the United States. Producer Harry Belafonte was admired in East Germany for his role as a peace activist and Black civil rights leader.
Breakdancing was soon co-opted as a tool of Communist propaganda, and it became a lucrative business after it received official support and cultural funding from the authorities. Buchmayer-Zacke said that at one point he was earning as much as a doctor.
But while music travelled through the airwaves, other materials like spray cans and tracksuits were harder to come by. “We made our own clothes or managed to get them from West Germans,” recalls Weimar rapper Frank Happich. His prized possession was a Walkman, acquired through Mozambican factory workers who, unlike most East Germans, were permitted to travel to West Berlin.
Little remained of GDR hip-hop after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989: “What we had back then is gone. After the reunification of East and West Germany (the Wende – “the change”), a lot of the hip-hop culture faded away,” Buchmayer-Zacke says. State funding for cultural activities including breakdancing was cut, and many B-Boys moved to the West where they quickly became disillusioned by the commercialisation of a subculture once rooted in resistance.
Today, people like Joerg Schnurre from the Dessau-based Newkid association are campaigning for official cultural recognition of the art form in East Germany – as has happened in western German cities like Heidelberg.
“Recognition as cultural heritage would give many a new sense of self-confidence and show that the specifically East German hip-hop culture is being seen and appreciated,” he said.
The original article ‘HipHop als immaterielles Kulturerbe? Eine Dessauer Initiative arbeitet daran’ by Benedikt Kendler was first published in German by Berliner Zeitung on April 2, 2026.
It is available here
Berliner Zeitung is a German daily newspaper based in Berlin. It was founded in 1945 in East Berlin and became an important newspaper in the GDR.
Summary by IJ