Lasting from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) could have been a mere blip in music history. However, the New German Wave genre – which drew inspiration from British punk and new wave music – packed a punch during its short heyday, delivering much-loved tunes now ingrained in German popular culture.
While the New German Wave crashed quickly, some NDW stars achieved international success, topping charts around the world. So, what happened to Nena and her 99 Red Balloons and the three Trio guys with their gloriously bonkers Da Da Da lyrics?
Read on to discover the most successful New German Wave artists ranked by record sales and find out what they're up to today.
(This ranking is based on global record sales and includes estimates in some cases.)
All dollar amounts in US dollars
Ideal might not have been the biggest sellers, but they were one of the more sophisticated New German Wave bands, garnering critical acclaim and, in their time, sharing festival stages across Europe with international stars. Founded in 1980 by trained musician Annette Humpe and three male bandmates, their best-known song, Blaue Augen (Blue Eyes), from their debut album Ideal, only charted at number 48 in the German charts.
However, the album achieved platinum status, and the song’s chorus, "Deine blauen Augen machen mich so sentimental" ("your blue eyes make me so sentimental"), became an 1980s catchphrase. Their second album, Der Ernst des Lebens (The Gravity of Life), sold similarly well, and the US music magazine Billboard even called Ideal "Germany's most important group since Kraftwerk".
Ideal split up in 1983, but Annette Humpe, the band‘s founder and artistic driving force, became one of Germany’s most prolific and successful composers and producers, responsible for a slew of chart hits by various German artists.
She also continued to make her own music, first with her sister Inga as Humpe & Humpe between 1985 and 1987. Between 2004 and 2011, she performed as one half of the duo Ich + Ich with singer Adel Tawil, and their second album sold more than 1,125,000 copies in Germany.
In January 2024, Humpe, now in her 70s, received a special inspiration award from a German music industry body. They heralded her as a role model for generations of musicians, calling her a pioneer and trailblazer at a time when female songwriters and producers had "no lobby and were practically non-existent".
Alongside Falco (more on him later), Deutsch-Österreichisches Feingefühl (DÖF) was another notable Austrian contribution to the New German Wave. The band entered the NDW stage quite late in 1983, but their Codo … düse im Sauseschritt (Codo... Hurry Along) tune became an instant summer hit. The single charted at number one in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands and number four in Switzerland, with their album DÖF topping the charts in their native country and reaching number nine in Germany.
DÖF initially released their music under the moniker Tauchen-Prokopetz, based on the names of the two Austrian musicians and political cabaret artists, Josef Prokopetz and Manfred Tauchen, who were behind what would later be known as Deutsch-Österreichisches Feingefühl (German-Austrian sensitivity). Their eponymous album was co-written and produced by a certain Annette Humpe, who had just dissolved her band Ideal. Her sister Inga, also a musician, sang the Codo chorus.
DÖF turned out to be a one-off NDW project by a group of creative people who happily continued on their various artistic ways after. We've already heard about Annette Humpe’s success as a singer-songwriter and producer. Her two Austrian DÖF colleagues pursued careers in music, acting and writing in their native country (former DÖF member Josef Prokopetz is pictured here on stage in Vienna).
Their catchy chorus about Codo, an extraterrestrial genderless creature who's “speeding, speeding, speeding at a rapid pace" ("düse, düse, düse, düse im Sauseschritt") has survived, and you'd be hard pushed to find a best NDW songs list that doesn't feature it.
Hubert Kemmler, better known as Hubert Kah, was one of the more colourful characters among Germany’s NDW stars. The singer-songwriter, composer and producer is best known today for his 1982 hit singles Rosemarie and Sternenhimmel (Starry Sky), which he released with a band of three under the name Hubert Kah. Alongside his music, some of his TV appearances, where he dressed in nightgowns and straitjackets, caused quite a stir.
Nevertheless, the Rosemarie and Sternenhimmel singles made it to numbers three and two in the charts, respectively, selling more than 750,000 copies between them. As well as the music he performed himself, Kemmler also enjoyed success behind the scenes, co-writing the English-language song Maria Magdalena by German pop singer Sandra, which sold 500,000 records in Germany in 1985 and charted at number one across Europe.
The Hubert Kah trio continued to release music until the late 1980s. During this decade, Kemmler was diagnosed with depression and largely retreated from public life, apart from a couple of musical comeback attempts and an appearance on German Celebrity Big Brother in 2014. That same year, he told German newspaper Die Welt that his 1980s hit singles still generated an income of around 50,000 euros ($53k/£42k) each year, paid through German collecting society GEMA.
In March 2021, several German news outlets reported that Kemmler and his wife had “disappeared” and had not been seen in months. However, according to a Stuttgart newspaper, he was spotted later that month celebrating his 60th birthday.
Markus (full name Markus Johannes Mörl) might only have had one big NDW hit, but that was enough for him to leave a lasting impression on German popular culture. His song Ich Will Spaß (I Want Fun), about a man speeding on the autobahn, topped the German charts in 1982, instantly making him one of the most popular NDW artists.
Markus’ particular brand of light-hearted German New Wave was trashed by critics, but people loved it. He also duetted with NDW icon Nena, and their song Kleine Taschenlampe brenn’ (Burn Little Torch) reached number five in the German and Austrian charts in 1982. It was featured in the film Gib Gas – Ich will Spaß in which Markus and Nena also starred.
Today, Markus is one of the NDW stars who continue to fly the flag for the genre, performing at Neue Deutsche Welle and 1980s nostalgia concerts that are still a regular occurrence across Germany. His website features a long list of gigs in 2024 with dates already booked for 2025.
He released several albums throughout the decades, with his most recent dropping in 2022. None of them made it anywhere near his NDW chart placements though. He also participated in the German version of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2023.
Around 1982, riding on the wave of his hit single Der Goldene Reiter (The Golden Rider), Joachim Witt was considered one of the most famed solo artists of the New German Wave. However, the singer and actor, who was born in 1949 in Hamburg, never felt he belonged to that genre and called the NDW label his “curse”.
After releasing a few albums in the late 1970s with a rock band, Witt embarked on a solo career. His first album, 1980's Silberblick (Silver Glance) sold 300,000 copies, with the Goldener Reiter single reaching number two in the German charts in 1981 and selling more than 500,000 copies.
Witt’s initial solo success didn’t last long. His third album, 1983's Märchenblau (Fairytale Blue), flopped, and the associated tour was cancelled due to a lack of ticket sales. However, the singer didn’t give up and arguably had the last laugh; his biggest commercial success came 15 years later with a song called Die Flut (The Flood). The duet with German synth-pop singer Peter Heppner was released in 1998 and sold more than 900,000 records.
Witt, now in his mid-70s, is still not giving up and released his 20th studio album in 2023. Style-wise, he's left the unloved NDW label behind and is now a proponent of Neue Deutsche Härte (NDH), or New German Hardness, a rock subgenre associated with bands such as Rammstein.
Skandal im Sperrbezirk (Scandal in the Restricted Area), Spider Murphy Gang’s greatest hit, is one of the NDW era’s most famous songs. However, the band, founded by four friends in Munich in 1977, is really a rock band and named after a character in Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock. The song's racy lyrics led to a boycott by radio stations in Bavaria, which didn’t prevent its enormous success upon release in 1981 across Germany and beyond.
The Skandal im Sperrbezirk single from their Dolce Vita album sold around 750,000 copies and became the band’s first (and only) number-one song in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Dolce Vita sold more than 500,000 copies in Germany in 1982, more than any other record that year. More hits followed over the next couple of years, with an estimated three million global record sales overall for the four Bavarians who, incidentally, were the first West German band to tour then-separate East Germany in 1983.
As was the case for most of the bands and artists on this list, things slowed down on the sales front for the Spiders post-1983. They continued to release music and albums until 2002. However, none of them charted after 1985. This doesn’t mean the Bavarian rockers have retired, though; quite the opposite.
Gigging all over Germany since the mid-1990s, the Spider Murphy Gang website lists dates well into the second half of 2025. Not bad, considering the two remaining original band members are now in their 70s. Safe to say that their scandalous Skandal im Sperrbezirk hit still triggers raucous sing-alongs 40 years later. If you ever make it to an Oktoberfest tent in Munich, make sure to learn the lyrics beforehand.
As this list proves, the New German Wave was a very male affair, with a few notable – and very successful – exceptions. Franziska Menke, also known as Frl. Menke, was one of these.
During 1982 and 1983, her three hit singles, Hohe Berge (High Mountains), Traumboy (Dreamboy), and Tretboot in Seenot (Pedal Boat in Distress), together with her album sold more than three million copies. Hohe Berge reached number 10 in the German charts and, with over 2.5 million copies sold, is one of NDW’s most successful songs.
After 1984, Frl. Menke left the stage to start a family. Throughout the 1990s and noughties, she wrote music for other artists, starred in an NDW musical named after Hubert Kah’s Sternenhimmel hit, and toured in Germany with fellow Neue Deutsche Welle artists. She also appeared in the German version of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here in 2017.
Today, Franziska Menke lives very much out of the public eye. In October 2023, she told Germany’s biggest newspaper Bild that she had emigrated to Spain and lives on the coast in Andalusia.
Münchener Freiheit was formed in 1980 during the New German Wave frenzy by keyboardist and singer Stefan Zauner and guitarist Aron Strobel, along with two other members. Their first notable album successes in 1982 and 1983 were influenced by the genre. However, their later music, including their breakthrough single, Ohne dich (Without You), released in 1986, was closer to the light pop and sentimental ballad mood of German Schlager music. Ohne dich charted at number two in Germany and number one in Austria and Switzerland, selling more than 600,000 records.
In the hope of achieving international success, the band started recording in English and topped the charts in several in several European countries. Keeping the Dream Alive, the English version of their 1987 single So lang' man Träume noch leben kann, another number two in Germany, became the band’s only hit in the UK, reaching number 14 in 1988.
Today, Münchener Freiheit, who named themselves after a Munich café despite not being from Munich, are still around, albeit without the chart hits and international appeal. Since singer Stefan Zauner left in 2011, guitarist Aron Strobel is the only remaining original member.
The band's last album was released in 2016 and they're still touring. In fact, some concert dates listed on their website are joint shows with their Bavarian NDW colleagues Spider Murphy Gang.
Geier Sturzflug, literally ‘vulture nosedive’ (don’t ask), hail from Bochum, a city in Germany’s former coal-mining region, where the band of four was formed around singer and guitarist Friedel Geratsch in 1979. Their biggest hit, Bruttosozialprodukt (Gross National Product), was released in 1982, showcasing a mix of rock, pop and ska. The song shot to number one in the single sales charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and sold more than 600,000 records.
A year later, Besuchen Sie Europa (solange es noch steht) (Visit Europe as long as it’s still standing) became another New German Wave banger. More hits and successful albums followed, and, for a few years, the band was on a high. Based on interviews and media reports, they sold more than five million records, mainly in Germany.
The band broke up in 1986. Singer Friedel Geratsch later said he hadn't even noticed the end of the German New Wave, as he must have been drunk again. His drinking days are over now, though, and he’s been sober since the late 1990s.
Having revived Geier Sturzflug without his old bandmates, Geratsch is now mainly touring in German-speaking countries on the 1980s nostalgia circuit. But hits like Bruttosozialprodukt are a thing of the past – the last Geier Sturzflug album, released in January 2024, ranks at number 1,640 in the 'Rock from Germany' category on amazon.de.
The German New Wave was already on its way out when Peter Schilling’s Major Tom (völlig losgelöst) shot to number one in Germany at the start of 1983. With more than one million singles sold in the country, it became the best-selling NDW song from a domestic perspective and was also hugely successful in Europe. The English version, Major Tom (Coming Home), brought international fame to the Stuttgart-born singer-songwriter, with Major Tom reaching the top 20 in the USA and number one in Canada. Schilling's global sales figures are reportedly between five and six million.
While Schilling told The Guardian in a recent interview that David Bowie’s Major Tom was “without a doubt” on his mind when he wrote the song, the real inspiration was Stanley Kubrick’s film Space Odyssey. Its catchy chorus continues to live in popular culture and has featured in Breaking Bad, the German TV drama Deutschland 83 and 2017’s Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron.
Schilling sustained his music career after his breakout success until 1990, when he disappeared until the early noughties.
Over the past two decades, the 68-year-old has released music and toured steadily. His 41-year-old Major Tom track was even given an unexpected second wind when the German Football Association (DFB) chose the NDW hit as the German team’s goal celebration tune for Euro 2024. Major Tom became Germany’s unofficial football summer hymn, catapulting it back into the top 10 for the first time in over 40 years. Schilling’s net worth is unknown, but it's safe to assume this latest resurgence has had a positive impact on his bank balance.
To this day, Trio, made up of vocalist Stephan Remmler, guitarist Kralle Krawinkel, and drummer Peter Behrens, are NDW figureheads in Germany. However, the band has always rejected this category, preferring the label ‘Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit’ (new German cheerfulness). Based on absurd humour and a generous dose of self-irony, their songs, including their greatest hit, Da Da Da, often consisted of nothing more than a repetitive string of words or syllables. In the case of Da Da Da, released in 1982, the lyrics consist of the word "Da" 84 times and "Aha" 18 times in just under three-and-a-half minutes.
Their minimalist approach certainly paid off. The Da Da Da single sold around 13 million copies worldwide, accounting for the lion’s share of Trio’s overall record sales, and charted in more than 30 countries, including number one in Austria, Switzerland, New Zealand and South Africa, and number two in Germany and the UK, where they appeared on Top of the Pops.
Even though the band went on to land two more hits in Germany, they broke up in 1985, shortly after their third album had flopped. However, for vocalist Remmler and guitarist Krawinkel, who had written the Da Da Da lyrics and music respectively, the song turned out to be enough to pay the rent for the rest of their lives – not least because of countless cover versions, remixes and frequent use of the song in commercials.
Drummer Behrens was left out of the royalty game. A long-time drug addict, he ended up impoverished and died in 2016, two years after his former bandmate Kralle Krawinkel. Meanwhile, Stephan Remmler, the only one of the three to have had a relatively successful solo career after the band’s break-up, now lives in Spain.
In 1982, a young woman in a red miniskirt performed a song called Nur geträumt (Just a Dream) on Hitparade, Germany’s equivalent of Top of the Pops – and for millions of German girls in particular, everything changed. Nena, singer of the eponymous band formed one year earlier, was cheeky, a bit wild and a breath of fresh air at a time when bands with female lead singers were rare. Nur geträumt marked the band’s breakthrough in Germany, reaching number two in the charts and the start of a very successful ride on the New German Wave – with Nena essentially becoming the face of the genre.
With 99 Luftballons, international success followed. The song topped the charts across Europe and reached number two on the American Billboard Hot 100. The later-released English version, 99 Red Balloons, made it to number one in the UK, Canada and Ireland. Up until 1987, a string of hits followed, although on a smaller scale and mainly in German-speaking countries. But all good things must come to an end, and the band fizzled out shortly afterwards. While the band’s record sales stand at an estimated 4.1 million, Nena’s name is associated with the much higher figure of 25 million thanks to a successful solo career.
The cheeky girl in the red miniskirt turned out to be the most resilient member of the German New Wave era. After the band split, Nena went solo and released her first album to considerable success in 1989. Following a dry period in the 1990s, things picked up again from 2002 onwards with a string of albums, all of them charting well in German-speaking countries. The latest was released in 2024.
She's toured extensively, with her most recent tour in autumn 2024 covering dates in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherland, and France. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Nena's fortune stands at an impressive $15 million (£12m), making her the most financially successful NDW star.
Charming, difficult, iconic – Vienna-born Falco (real name Johann Hölzel) was one of a kind and sold more records globally than any other NDW star. He started his music career in a band in the late 1970s before going solo in 1981. His breakthrough hit followed in 1982 when his song about a superintendent, or Der Kommissar in German, became a number-one hit across Europe. The combination of rap and singing, in Falco’s inimitable style, achieved sales of an estimated 7.5 million records worldwide, reaching a respectable number 72 in the US charts. A 1983 English cover by the UK rock band After the Fire made it to number five on the Billboard Hot 100.
However, in 1986, once the German New Wave had dried up, Falco proved that he could conquer the US alone. With Rock Me Amadeus, he became the only person ever to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with a German-language song. The song also hit number one in the UK. Rock Me Amadeus has sold 10 million copies globally, with Falco selling 60 million records in total.
Falco enjoyed a few years of success after Rock Me Amadeus with several European hits. But he never repeated the international success of his early career. His addiction issues were welcome fodder for the tabloids in his native Austria. In 1997, he retreated to the Dominican Republic to work on a comeback album. In 1998, a few days before turning 41, he died in a car accident, with an autopsy revealing alcohol and traces of cocaine in his blood. By this point, his musical career had made him five million euros ($5.3m/£4.2m), according to the German website VermögenMagazin.
His last album, Out of the Dark (Into the Light), released a few weeks after his death, charted at number one in Austria. Thousands of mourners attended his funeral in Vienna, and to this day, fans visit his grave in Vienna Central Cemetery. Anyone fancying a dose of this 1980s enfant terrible should try the Falco musical featuring his greatest hits, which premiered in October 2023 in a Vienna theatre.
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