Important - Aktivität is an unofficial fanzine and therefore has no connection with Kraftwerk and their current members.

About Aktivität

Aktivität was an unofficial Kraftwerk fanzine published during the 1990s. There were 10 regular issues (issue 1 appeared in January 1992, issue 10 was the final issue to appear, in April 1998) and a small number of one-off special issues at irregular intervals. The Aktivitaet History pages provide further details, including cover scans, from the paper-based fanzines. Following the end of the fanzine's paper-based format these online web pages appeared and featured a selection of some of the articles and images from most issues, as well as additional material that was not included in the fanzines. The online articles were also been updated to accomodate additional information and to correct inaccuarcies and mistakes which were present in the original formats. There have been several breaks in the availability of the online site, but as of May 2010 these pages are back in order to act as an archive. The web site will not be acting as an outlet for current news on Kraftwerk's activities, it is merely here as a resource for those who are interested in Kraftwerk for historical reasons.

Returning to the paper-based era... For the earlier issues, the fanzine was very much aimed at the 'record collecting' audience, with articles going into detail about record releases from all over the world as well as the UK. With more and more contributions from fellow fans of Kraftwerk, the scope of the fanzine broadened and more general articles were increasingly included in later issues, such as live reviews, video reviews, appraisals of past LPs etc. Many of these articles are to be found on these pages.

So, Aktivität started life before the era of the world wide web - it would be difficult to convey to anyone who has come to Kraftwerk in recent years and who have grown up with the web as 'always being there' quite how difficult it used to be to find out any kind of information about the band and its activities. Before they launched their own web site (and even that took some while before it contained anything other than extremely minimal information), Kraftwerk were unlike almost any other band and had no kind of fan club/information service and were only rarel featured in the mainstream media, normally only when a record release was due - which were few and far between in the '80s/'90s! Therefore, it had always been difficult to know what the bands activities were. With the release of 'The Mix' in 1991 and Kraftwerk's UK and European tours in 1991, Aktivität came into being. I had the idea for the fanzine from the summer of 1991 having seen a few of the dates on the UK tour. Plans crystalised and there was a definite date of launch to aim for when a fan convention held in Blackpool in January 1992 was announced. Only the one issue was planned, but the reception was positive and there was suddenly connections made and lots of ideas for more to cover. Kraftwerk themselves helped keep the interest going with their series of low-key shows in the UK in 1992.

So, the fanzine continued onwards. However, with the impact of the world wide web, news on Kraftwerk and their activities became much easier to find, with web sites appearing - the immediacy of web publishing made it clear that the need for a paper-based fanzine was far less essential than in the earlier years of the fanzine's existence, hence one of the reasons to curtail production.

It is important to note however that Aktivität was not an official Kraftwerk product and should not be mistaken as such; instead, see it is a fanzine written by fans for fans. Therefore, there was no direct contact with Kraftwerk at all. Similarly, these pages have no connection with Kraftwerk and any of their current members. Nevertheless, the information strives to be as accurate as possible given these circumstances. Corrections are always welcome.

The original Aktivität web site intended to be a modestly sized but informative series of pages and to be updated from time to time. However, they are not the same as the fanzine, with the emphasis on archiving past articles as opposed to writing new ones. The fanzine was a hobby for me, not a social service.

Aktivität - it's in the air, for you and me...

Ian Calder, May 2010 | Contact: aktivitaet@compuserve.com