The concert is a project within the framework of Beethoven's anniversary BTHVN2020. "We spent a year negotiating with Kraftwerk to get them to Bonn. That wasn't easy," said Hartz. "I am incredibly happy to be able to host such a special event in my hometown". The quartet around founder Ralf Hütter was particularly impressed by the scenery, Hartz says. The fact that Kraftwerk celebrates its 50th anniversary in the year of Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday is an additional special feature.

Malte Boecker, Managing Director of the Beethoven Jubilee Society BTHVN, is also enraptured by this item on the programme. "This is a great contribution that Mr. Hartz is making to the anniversary year," said Boecker. "When we celebrate Beethoven, we celebrate the music itself. What Kraftwerk and Beethoven have in common perhaps is that they have both gone in completely new ways in music.

Their use of electronics in music has made Kraftwerk pioneers. The Kraftwerk phenomenon is characterized by the highest artistic standards. I'm very happy." Kraftwerk's performance is thus seen as an "indirect homage" to Beethoven.

As reported, BTHVN2020 has attracted the Bonn concert organizer Hartz after the unsuccessful tender for a large stage. Hartz also organizes open-air series on the KunstRasen in the Gronau, the Roncalliplatz in Cologne and on the island of Grafenwerth. Both Boecker and Hartz said that further programme items are planned for the Hofgarten. Boecker: "There's still something further to come, but we can't announce it yet."

Kraftwerk have written music history over the past five decades and are regarded as the forefathers of a wide variety of musical genres such as electro, hip-hop, synth pop, minimal and, in particular, techno. The multimedia project Kraftwerk was founded in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in the environment of the experimental art scene in Düsseldorf.

At the same time they set up their electronic sound studio, where they conceived, composed and produced all Kraftwerk albums. "Kraftwerk 3D" is an event not alone because of its incredible visual effects. When they played at the Ehrenhof in Düsseldorf two years ago on the occasion of the Tour de France, the 15,000 tickets were sold in no time.

Since their beginnings in the early 1970s, the electrical pioneers have been linked to the development of state-of-the-art technologies. With the Kraftwerk classics "The Robots" and "The Human Machine", Hütter artistically designed the phenomenon of the automation of society and was honoured in 2014 with the Grammy "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his life's work.

In the new millennium, Kraftwerk performed its 3-D multimedia performance "Der Katalog 12345678" in the world's leading art museums, concert halls and galleries. The tours of Hütter, Henning Schmitz, Fritz Hilpert and Falk Grieffenhagen are sold out all over the world. In New York they played twelve times seven years ago in front of a sold out house. Their concert on 16 May in Bonn is not only the only one in Germany, it will also be the prelude to their world tour.

Kraftwerk 3-D, Saturday, 16 May 2020, open-air concert. Place: Hofgartenwiese - Bonn, admission: 6 p.m., beginning: 9 p.m.. The tickets are on sale since 10 am today in the Bonnticket shops. There is standing room only. Price: 65 Euro including fees.

(Original text: Dylan Cem Akalin / Translation: Mareike Graepel)