"Ratinger Strasse was the absolute hot spot"

The artist and graphic designer Emil Schult has designed legendary record covers - such as the motifs for Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" and "Computerwelt". On the occasion of the exhibition "Electro. From Kraftwerk to Techno" exhibition at the Kunstpalast, we spoke to him about his long-standing, special relationship with Düsseldorf.

Mr. Schult, as an art student you experienced Düsseldorf in the wild sixties and seventies. What were important places for you back then? The Creamcheese, the Ratinger Hof?

I have special memories of the "Retematäng" in Ratinger Straße. As students, we used to meet there with our professors, for example Joseph Beuys and Dieter Roth. The funny name of the pub probably goes back to the time of the French occupation at the beginning of the 19th century. Back then, a French soldier may have referred to Ratinger as "Rue du matin", the "street of the morning". Rue du matin" then became the wonderfully Rhenish slang term "Retematäng". So even in the 19th century, Ratinger was an exciting street where not only French soldiers liked to stop off. The "Ratinger Hof", but also "Zur Uel" or "Das goldene Einhorn" were or are the pubs for art students: they only had to go around the corner and could eat and drink there. Beuys was often seen in the "Ohme Jupp", where his whole class would gather and have hot discussions over Altbier or coffee. And the "Creamcheese" nearby was then expanded by artists, with a 20-metre-long bar, a mirror and slat wall by Heinz Mack, two dozen running televisions and a painting by Gerhard Richter in the anteroom - it was practically an art project. Ratinger Strasse was the absolute hot spot in the sixties and seventies.

The Creemcheese was named after a Zappa song. And Frank Zappa is even said to have been there once ...

Yes, exactly: "Son of Suzy Creamcheese" ...

You studied under Dieter Roth, Gerhard Richter and Joseph Beuys. Which of the three influenced you the most?

Dieter Roth was actually the closest to me. He was an illustrator and poet, and I loved that about him. His feeling for language, for lyrics, impressed me. I have written around 1000 song lyrics in my life, some of which have become better known.

"Das Model" by Kraftwerk, for example, is based on a text by you ...

That's right. And Dieter Roth let his students get close to him and also supported them socially and economically. Beuys was a free spirit - also very open, very approachable - who also laughed a lot. Gerhard Richter was rather taciturn.

How did it come about that Düsseldorf became a mecca for music, especially electronic music?

In general, the radio stations - American Forces Radio and the British BFBS - played a big role in post-war Germany. These were strong influences that were in our heads. In the late sixties and early seventies, several centers for avant-garde music developed in Germany. In Cologne there was "Can", in Hamburg the band "Frumpy" and in Düsseldorf, of course, "Kraftwerk". The special situation in the art city of Düsseldorf was that new music was often played live at exhibition openings in galleries. The ground was there for sound experiments - and also the corresponding audience, which was open. Then there is also the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf, which has a great tradition. And of course there were also groups at the art academy that made experimental music. For an opening by Dieter Roth, a friend and I scanned the floor and walls of a gallery with electrically amplified violins. Of course that was terrible to listen to. (laughs) But we had a completely new, experimental music in mind, in combination with a new, liberated art.

After your studies, you lived in various places around the world. But in the nineties you returned to Düsseldorf. Why?

I lived in the Bahamas for a few years - it's beautiful and invigorating, of course, but life there is also exhausting. You're in the middle of the sea, the wind and the sea salt break a lot of things. Car doors get rusty and fall off, as does the doorbell on the front door. My music studio was once completely flooded during a hurricane and the rain went through the roof and onto the synthesizers. At some point I just wanted to live in Düsseldorf again - with the motto: let's see what's going on there.

And today you live half an hour away from the Rhine. What are your favorite places in Düsseldorf?

I still like coming back to my old studio, opposite Schloss Jägerhof in the Pempelfort district. I passed it on to a graduate of the academy, the painter Alexander Ernst Voigt. We have a small gallery there and sometimes put on small, exquisite exhibitions and support students ... and my second port of call in Düsseldorf is the Robert Schumann University, where I designed the crypt. You can visit it by appointment and sometimes I take groups there and talk about the thoughts that guided me in designing it. I was particularly pleased that the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen created a small composition especially for this room.  

And as part of the newly founded artist collective "Transhuman Art Critics", you have just released and designed a record, as well as a number of animated graphics. How did that come about?

It developed gradually, first between me and the artist Emma Nilsson, and now Lothar Manteuffel and Max Dax are also involved. We've just given our first concert in Munich to mark the release of the record "Update the future". More will hopefully follow soon ...

You can find out more here.

Our author

Gerrit Terstiege was editor-in-chief of the magazine "form" for many years and has published three design books. He writes regularly for Mint, Art, Monopol and Rolling Stone, among others, and has conducted numerous interviews with Diedrich Diederichsen, Bazon Brock, Klaus Theweleit, Richard Hamilton, Donald Fagen, Klaus Voormann and Leonard Cohen.

Photos:
Cover: Stefan Schumacher
First gallery: Image 1 & 2: Photo archive Atelier Emil Schult, Image 3: Stefan Schumacher
Second gallery: Photo archive Atelier Emil Schult
Portrait: Wolfgang Armbruster