The Wirtschaftswunder was a German band consisting of musicians Angelo Galizia (vocals, Italy), Tom Dokoupil (guitar, Czechoslovakia), Mark Pfurtschneller (keyboards, Canada) and Jürgen Beuth (drums, Germany). They were part of the so-called Neue Deutsche Welle

Neue Deutsche Welle

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

 that emerged as part of the English New Wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

/ post punk movement in the early 1980s and included bands such as D.A.F

Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft

Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft or D.A.F. is an influential German electropunk/NDW band from Düsseldorf, formed in 1978 featuring Gabriel "Gabi" Delgado-López , Robert Görl , Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke , Michael Kemner and Wolfgang Spelmans...

, Malaria!, or ZK (predecessor of Die Toten Hosen

Die Toten Hosen

Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...

).

They entered the national arena with their single Der Kommissar (based on the theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 of the German criminal TV series Der Kommissar from the 1960s) and released their first album (Salmobray) in 1981. Their most characteristic feature was Angelo Galizia's singing with a heavy Italian accent. After signing with label Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

, they released their 2nd album (The Wirtschaftswunder), which was not as experimental as the first. After their 4th album Pop Adenauer in the same year and their final single in 1984 they dissolved.

Band name

The term Wirtschaftswunder

Wirtschaftswunder

The term describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II . The expression was used by The Times in 1950...

 (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 for "economic miracle") describes the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies

Economy

An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

 of West Germany

West Germany

West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Discography

Singles

• "Allein" (1980)
• "Television" (1980)
• "Der Große Mafioso" (1982)
• "E´succeso in Kabul" (1982)
• "Pizza" (1984)

Albums:

• Salmobray (1981)
• The Wirtschaftswunder (1982)
• Tscherwonez (1982)
• Pop Adenauer (1984)
• Die Gute Wahl (Das Beste) (1991)