Fritz Hilpert, born May 31, 1956 in Amberg

Amberg

Amberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. Population: 44,756 .- History :...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, is a member of the electro-pop group Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...

.

Background

Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymmnasium, Germany, until 1976.
He also played drums in several live bands at that time.
From 1978 he studied sound engineering at the Musikhochschule Rheinland and the FH Düsseldorf.
In 1986 he received his Diplom-Ingenieur qualification (the German equivalent of a Master of Science degree) in sound and image technology.

He worked as freelance sound engineer with several German acts as the New-Wave

Neue Deutsche Welle

Neue Deutsche Welle is a genre of German music originally derived from punk rock and New Wave music...

-band Din A Testbild before becoming associated with Kraftwerk in 1987.

In addition to studio work, he replaced Wolfgang Flür

Wolfgang Flür

Wolfgang Flür is a German musician, best known as a member of the electronic group Kraftwerk, from 1973 to 1987, playing electronic percussion...

 in concert when Kraftwerk resumed their
touring activities in 1990, and engineered the album The Mix

The Mix

The Mix is a 1991 remix album by Kraftwerk. It featured re-recorded versions of a selection of songs which had originally appeared on the albums Autobahn through Electric Café. Hütter stated in interviews that he regarded The Mix as a type of live album, as it captured the results of the band's...

, released in 1991.

He has made musical contributions to Kraftwerk's compositions since Expo 2000

Expo 2000

Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...

 in 1999.
He is credited as a co-composer on most of the tracks on the album Tour de France Soundtracks

Tour de France Soundtracks

Note: The 2003 Japanese CD release of this album also contains the video of the single "Tour de France 2003" as enhanced content.-Promotional version:...

.
Along with Henning Schmitz

Henning Schmitz

Henning Schmitz, born December 26, 1953 in Germany, is a member of the electronic/experimental pop band Kraftwerk.-Background:Henning Schmitz studied at the Musikhochschule Rheinland and the FH Düsseldorf, and in 1980 he received his Diplom-Ingenieur qualification in sound and image technology...

 he works as sound programmer and engineer at Kling Klang

Kling Klang

Kling Klang is the private music studio of the band Kraftwerk. The name is taken from the first song on the Kraftwerk 2 album...

studio and is administrator of the Kraftwerk.com and Klingklang.com websites.

While on tour with Kraftwerk in Australia, where the band were to be Global Gathering headliners, Fritz Hilpert fell ill and was believed to have suffered some sort of heart failure. This forced Kraftwerk to cancel the Melbourne show on 22 November 2008, however Hilpert was cleared to fly and continue the tour the next day.