Continuing our survey of the international development of Christian music, Christoph Buskies reports from Germany.

Beate Ling-Zappel

The long held belief that Germans lack a sense of humour is exposed as a myth with Nimmzwei (Take Two). Their act is a firework show of gags, music, disguises, slapstick and cabaret. The duo describe their style as "rockinfokbaret", a mixture of rock elements, folk music and cabaret-style. Both acoustic guitarists confront their audience during their marathon programme of sitcoms, clever songs and ambiguous phrases with funny, thought-provoking, personal asides about the world and God. However, the two comic bards also have a serious message. Their lively lyrics, mainly in German and with harmonies, reveal that Jakob Friedrichs and Volker Schmidt-Baumler want, above all, to make their belief and the Christian message accessible to all. That they believe joy to be a core ingredient of evangelism is made clear in the course of their concerts. Pila produced both their CDs.

Although their names don't sound German, Don And Susie Newby, who are graduates of a North Georgian music college, are closely connected with the German musical scene. Besides 30 to 40 annual concerts, Don And Susie are also in demand for innumerable workshops and seminars. They are among the busiest artists in the German Christian music scene. Their latest CD was released by Hanssler and is called 'Found Free'.

One of the most creative musicians in the German-speaking world Siegfried Fietz offers, due to the size of his repertoire, totally varying concert programmes. Together with Gerhard Barth he produces "special days" for children and young families, concerts for the handicapped, for parishes and concertgoers and seminars for child-raisers and teachers. Concerts have differing emphases, like "Water For The World", "Journeys In Trust" or this year, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a musical portrait from the productions "Wonderfully Protected" and "Stormy Times". His many CDs and co-productions have all appeared under the label ABAKUS.

Every weekend numerous concerts take place throughout Germany, in parish halls, municipal recreation centres, schools and sometimes in 'secular' clubs. There are many variables that determine whether a typical Christian concert is well attended or not: does the artist have a current album out there and has the album received exposure in the Christian media; does the concert attract evangelistically-minded Christians who bring along friends; is the concert in an area of Germany where there is little interest in spiritual matters? These days' even concerts by top American CCM artists cannot guarantee to fill an auditorium. On the other hand, a growing number of Christian coffee houses have sprung up in Germany and these venues, though having the smallest of performance areas, give many musicians an opportunity to play acoustically. Consequently, today many heavily amplified artists have two performance personas, one with the full PA and speakers and another in stripped-down 'unplugged' mode.

As in Britain, the pivotal means of exposure for Christian music in Germany are the festivals and annual assemblies of different church groups. The majority of these events are the Calden Festival located near Kassel, Sommerfestival (Summer Festival) in Altenkirchen, Nacht Der Lieder (Night Of Songs) in Siegen, Owener Rochnacht (Owen/Southern Germany Rock Night), Christmas Rock Night in Ennepetai and the Promikon Musick Messe (Promikon Music Fair) in Dormagen/Koln.

Uwe Lal

Another key element in building a viable infrastructure for Germany's Christian music scene has been the magazines. There is a monthly Christian music magazine 'Exakt', a general Christian magazine 'Drun' which devotes several pages to music while Pila Records publish an advertorial 'Pila Magazine' similar in approach to Nelson Word's 'Premier'.

Of the record companies, the largest is Pila Records, located in Dettenhausen near Stuttgart. Releasing the bulk of the American catalogues of CCM it has built a powerbase within Germany's church sub-culture. The other record companies in Germany are Hanssler in Neuhausen, Schulte & Gerth in Asslar and ABAKUS in Greifenstein.

German Christian music has been in existence a long time now and in many ways is in its healthiest ever state. But possibly the greatest indicater of that health is not the occasional UK release for a Schulze or a Judy Bailey but a growing number of prayer groups springing up to pray for the effectiveness of Christian music ministry. Now that is healthy.