1 Introduction: From National to Local Music Cultures and Back

In her book dedicated to the creation of national identities, Anne-Marie Thiesse (2022, pp. 223–224) underlines that music has become a “trans-European and trans-historical melting-pot” through the “interpenetration of national components”. On the other hand, she observes how “far-right nationalists too have seized the ancestral legacy”. How is it, then, that music reflects centuries-old processes of cultural change through migration whereas it has also been instrumentalised to artificially construct homogeneous pure origins? As Wiebke Sievers rightly mentions in the introduction to the present book, the migrants’ impact on cultural change depends also on the culture of the receiving societies. These societies need not only to be analysed from a (trans)national perspective but also at a regional and local level. Given that there is not one homogeneous nation but, rather, entities which are the result of a cultural and political construction process based on small (regional) home countries (Thiesse, 2022), the interaction between local and regional cultures with discourses and practices at the national level is extremely complex. The case of music and carnival cultures from Cologne and the Rhineland has its local and regional particularity – but this is, in turn, part of the broader national entity. The latter is, of course, more than the sum of its components.

Nina Glick Schiller and Ayse Çağlar have invited migration scholars to put constructively into question the transnational paradigm by “locating migration” (2011). Based on our work on the dynamics of the Cologne carnival (Ellinghaus & Salzbrunn, 2019; Salzbrunn, 2014, 2022a), this chapter assesses the impact of “migrant” and “world” music on local, regional and national cultures and cultural policies, starting from the concrete example of carnival music cultures in Cologne. Applying the “event-centred approach” (Salzbrunn, 2017, 2021) and focusing on a specific territory, we can show how these examples of conviviality have an impact on local, regional and national political discourses and institutions. Furthermore, this event-centred approach applied in a “location of change” (Kasinitz & Martiniello, 2019) is a constructive answer to the critique of “ethnic lenses” formulated by Brubaker (2006). Through “event lenses” (Salzbrunn, 2017, 2022b), we can “de-migranticise migration research” (Ryan & Dahinden, 2021) and analyse music performances as mirrors of changing cultures – an interactive change that leads into multiple directions. It is important to note that origin can be performed in specific social situations but also remain invisible. A lack of visibility can signify that diversity and multiculturalism have become so evident that they are no longer explicitly mentioned – e.g. the diverse origins of members of international dance ensembles, philharmonic orchestras or opera houses.

As a 2000-year-old city of immigration, Cologne and its festive life are marked by a wide variety of musical trends. The carnival, which claims, among other things, to be a legacy of the cult of Dionysus, is first mentioned in city documents dating from 1341 and is characterised by its mockery of the military authorities (who banned the festival during the Prussian occupation of the city) and blasphemy against the representatives of the Catholic authority (Fuchs et al., 1972; Salzbrunn, 2022a), often expressed in songs and parodies. As an emblematic institution of colonial multiculturalism, the carnival brings together a heterogeneous music scene and resonates with its history of encounters and passages. However, different origins are not always labelled as such in a city with residents of more than 100 nationalities: diversity has been considered as a fact for a long time in a place populated by numerous Germanic groups and colonised by the Romans 2000 years ago. The visibility of difference changes over time and power relations also evolve. The latter, at both a formal and an informal level, have always been crucial in a city that has long been considered as ungovernable and anarchic. Not only does carnival provide a subversive potential but civil society has, in general, also shown the power to chase away ruling figures, from Archbishop Anno II in 1074 to the present Archbishop Woelki, sanctioned by a record number of Catholics leaving the church (and no longer paying taxes) as a sign of protest.

Hence, we first put the carnival (and its music scenes) in a broader historical and societal context. Then, we show how the multicultural biotope is related to a high variety of musical expressions at a local, regional and national level. Finally, we analyse creative forms of affirming multiculturalism and valourising music from different parts of the world – as “communities” or event-based public laboratories in Cologne, with the broad demonstration for peace in Ukraine on carnival’s Rose Monday as the latest important expression. The latter indicates that changes in the Cologne carnival and music scene take place in a constant interactive bottom-up and top-down movement. Finally, we show how these local changes also have an impact on broader regional and national institutional discourses and cultural policy initiatives.

2 Cologne: Free City and Meeting Place

The name “Köln” (Eng./Fr. = “Cologne”, It. = “Colonia”) is revealing of the origins of this city, which, today, has more than a million inhabitants. Founded in the year 50 AD by Agrippina the Younger as a Roman colony in the North and situated on the banks of the Rhine, Cologne has been a gateway for 2000 years: it is a city of passage and encounters, first for legionaries, then for soldiers, merchants and – since the Middle Ages – pilgrims and, finally, for tourists who have sometimes left their mark here (such the Farina family who arrived as merchants in Cologne in the eighteenth century and created the “Eau de Cologne”). Most of the time it has been a free city run by its inhabitants. Since its foundation, it has only on rare occasions been under foreign rule – for example, during its occupation by Napoleon’s troops. The Catholic Church – although contested by a section of the population – has played a significant political, economic, cultural and moral role in the daily life of Cologne’s inhabitants as well as in social, cultural and political institutions. This can still be seen today in the cityscape, with the cathedral and 12 imposing Romanesque churches, as well as in the cultural landscape: the local Church, which was very critical of the Vatican, has practised a liberal “Rhineland Catholicism” and is active as an organiser and funder. When the former conservative Popes John-Paul II and Benedict XVI had successively imposed the extremely conservative Archbishops Meisner and Woelki to the Colonese diocese, a strong civic opposition movement grew from the base to counterbalance these leaders, perceived as being unable to adopt to the local liberal ideology. Whereas Archbishop Meisner saw a Femen jumping on the altar during a Christmas service in 2013 (Bls et al., 2013), the current conservative Archbishop Woelki and his policy have also been contested by large artivistic actions, namely an Extinction Rebellion lead “Die-in” performance during the Epiphany Service in 2022 (Frank, 2022) and a display of “red cards” by Catholic women against the archbishop during the post-carnival Ash-Wednesday service for artists (Mesrian, 2022). The Catholic scene in Cologne is diverse and covers a broad range of ideological tendencies and sub-groups – from a small but powerful ultra-conservative Opus Dei to the large progressive Publik-Forum that strongly supports blessings for same-sex couples. The founder of the integrative carnival music singing event “Loss m’r singe” (Let’s sing), Georg Hinze, is in fact employed by the Catholic Church in the cultural institution Dom Forum – which hosts the association “Loss m’r singe”. Meanwhile, the Freie Szene (freelance artists’ scene), a broad “free” music scene with all kinds of styles and only scant public subsidies compared to the Opera and the Philharmonic, is the beating heart of a particularly dynamic musical creation. Cologne is also a recognised centre for ancient and contemporary music as well as dance, with numerous foreign artists, directors and professors at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. The interlinkages between the carnival scenes, the different music scenes and the diverse Catholic initiatives are important in order to understand the context of the present research. As Wiebe Sievers underlines in her introduction to the present volume, the culture (and, I would add, history) of the receiving societies and its narratives need to be taken into consideration in order to understand the way in which cultures change through the arts.

Yet, history has not spared this city, which proudly promotes its multicultural originsFootnote 1: it has been flooded on several occasions, set alight during wars and almost completely destroyed by the bombings of the Second World War. The most recent disaster to date: in 2009, significant documents for the history of music were lost in the collapse of Cologne’s municipal archives, following errors in the construction of an underground railway line, compounded by corruption. This illustrates another facet of Cologne’s reputation, perceived due to its festive culture as the most Italian city north of the Alps: the “Klüngel”, a culture of mutual assistance marked by conflicts of interest.

Based on this history, Cologne is a German city embodying a strong and ancient connection between musical traditions – from Roman times to the present day – and the local musical culture, marked by dialect. The city has always been home to thousands of amateur and professional musicians of various origins who, even today, actively refer to the diverse sources of Cologne’s musical history.

3 Multiple Historical Sources and Political Statements: The Poetic Musical Genre “Krätzcher”

Musicians refer to the mythical images of musicians and instruments from the Roman period which are present in museums and churches as well as in the street – such as the famous mosaic dedicated to Dionysus in the Romano-Germanic Museum next to the cathedral.

There are also all the legendary stories of the “Veedel” people (working-class neighbourhoods, the first destinations of labour immigrants), who produced a particular kind of popular poetry, together with profound, critical and humorous songs. Kölsch, the traditional Cologne dialect and language of the people, plays an important role in this respect. It has incorporated many elements of the linguistic diversity that has enriched the city throughout the ages, firstly with the French language, passed on primarily by the elites in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, then through the 12,000 revolutionary soldiers and, later, the Napoleonic soldiers present in the city (1794–1814) (Cornelissen, 2019). Kölsch is characterised by a specific intonation, considered songful and Rhenish. It is employed as an eloquent rebellion against the authorities and as a form of resistance based on concise humour. The KrätzcheFootnote 2 is its musical embodiment.

Originally, Krätzcher (literally “to scratch”, metaphorically “to provoke”) was a form of satirical poetry in the Kölsch dialect. Rhineland minstrels turned these poems into songs at the end of the eighteenth century. Today, Krätzcher are one of the oldest forms of traditional oral music in the Rhineland. The instrumental accompaniment to the songs is simple but the lyrics, often polysemous, are philosophical in a laconic way and cause smile and reflection.

Contrary to many folk-music traditions, the Krätzcher was not instrumentalised by the Nazis: it was an expression of resistance. Krätzcher reached new heights as a critical and humorous format, expressing with limited means what the people did not dare to say openly. After the Second World War, Krätzcher almost completely disappeared. While these songs were not taboo in post-war Germany, they were considered old-fashioned, because they did not respond to the need for harmony during the years of the economic miracle (Wirtschaftswunderjahre).

It was not until the 1980s that Krätzcher experienced a renaissance, sparked by the leading Kölsch dialect rock band, Bläck Fööss, whose musicians included Krätzcher in their repertoire. Two of their most famous Krätzcher, “Mir klääve am Lääve” and “Unsere Stammbaum” illustrate well the self-narrative of Cologne as an open-minded multicultural, ecological and peaceful city – that draws strengths out of its belief in God (whatever is his name and religion).

Mir klääve am Lääve/We stick to life in Kölsch and English (excerpt)

  • Music: traditional

    Text: Bläck Fööss

    Editor: De Bläck Fööss Musikverlag GmbH, 1984

Kölsch

English

(…)

Refrain: Denn mir Kölsche, mir klääve wie d'r Düvel am Lääve,

uns Kölsche nimmp keiner – ejal wat och weed –

dä Spaß für ze laache, dä Bock jet ze maache,

Mir klääve am Lääve, uns kritt keiner klein.

(…)

Un wenn ihr meint, dat et sech'rer weed, wemmer jet rüsten deit,

wenn ihr meint, wä am lauteste schreit, wör em Räch,

dann haut üch de Köpp en, domet mer üch loss sin,

denn ohne üch kumme mer vill besser zeräch.

Refrain: Denn mir Kölsche …

Un wenn irjendwer sät, für uns Äd wör et längs ze spät,

un wenn irjendwer meint, et wör alles am Eng,

dann dot üch verschanze, doch gläuvt uns, mer pflanze

noch hück e jung Bäumche met Woozele en.

(…)

Refrain: Because we Cologne people, we stick to life like the devil,

no one can take away – no matter what –

the fun of laughing, the desire to do something,

we stick to life, no one can break us.

(…)

And if you think that it’s safer to arm up,

if you think whoever shouts the loudest is in the right,

then bash your heads in so we’ll be rid of you,

because we’ll get along much better without you.

Refrain: Because we Cologne people …

And if anyone says it’s long too late for our earth,

and if anyone says it’s all at an end,

then hide yourselves away, but believe us,

we’ll plant a young tree with roots today.

Unsere Stammbaum/Our family tree in Kölsch and English

  • Music: H. Knipp, Bläck Fööss

    Text: H. Knipp, Bläck Fööss

    Editor: Manuskript, 2000

Kölsch

English

Ich wor ne stolze Römer, kom met Caesar‘s Legion,

un ich ben ne Franzus, kom mem Napoleon.

Ich ben Buur, Schreiner, Fescher, Bettler un Edelmann,

Sänger un Gaukler, su fing alles aan.

Refrain:

Su simmer all he hinjekumme,

mir sprechen hück all dieselve Sproch.

Mir han dodurch su vill jewonne.

Mir sin wie mer sin, mir Jecke am Rhing.

Dat es jet, wo mer stolz drop sin.

Ich ben us Palermo, braat Spaghettis für üch met.

Un ich wor ne Pimock, hück laach ich met üch met.

Ich ben Grieche, Türke, Jude, Moslem un Buddhist,

mir all, mir sin nur Minsche, vür‘m Herjott simmer glich

Refrain: Su simmer all …

De janze Welt, su süht et us, es bei uns he zo Besök.

Minsche us alle Länder triff m‘r he aan jeder Eck.

M‘r gläuv, m‘r es en Ankara, Tokio oder Madrid,

doch se schwade all wie mir un söke he ihr Glöck.

Refrain: Su simmer all …

Refrain: Su simmer all …

I was a proud Roman, came with Caesar’s legion,

and I am a Frenchman, came with Napoleon.

I am a farmer, a carpenter, a fisherman, a beggar and a nobleman,

singer and juggler, that’s how it all began.

Refrain:

That’s how we all got here,

we all speak the same language today.

We’ve gained so much through it.

We are as we are, we fools on the Rhine.

That’s something we’re proud of.

I’m from Palermo, frying spaghetti for you, too.

And I was a Pole, today I laugh with you.

I am Greek, Turk, Jew, Muslim and Buddhist,

we’re all, we’re only human, in front of God we’re all the same

Refrain: That’s how we all…

The whole world, it seems, is visiting us here.

You meet people from all countries on every corner.

You think you’re in Ankara, Tokyo or Madrid,

but they all speak like us and seek their happiness here.

Refrain: That's how we all.

Refrain: That’s how we all…

While the first song, “We stick to life”, puts forward an optimistic and pacifistic attitude towards life, the song “Our family tree” is a plea for enriching the city’s culture through immigration and accepting different ways of life and faith: Romans, French, Turks, Poles, Greeks, Japanese, Spanish, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists are united through the same language, Kölsch, which is considered as a vector for community-building. This self-narrative can also be found in documents published by the tourism office as well as in official speeches from the latest mayors, be they from left- or right-wing parties (see Sect. 7.7.).

Not only was the public made aware of this old style of song but it also inspired many other artists. Today, Krätzcher again forms part of the repertoire of the local music culture. Among the representatives of this tradition are Turkish, Brazilian and Nigerian rappers living in Cologne. Just consider the high number of multicultural music performances during the c/o pop, one of the biggest popular music events in Europe, which took place in Cologne from 20–24 April 2022. The rapper Albi X celebrated his multiple belongings to Congo, American Hip-Hop and Cologne through his songs “Makélélé” and “Bibamba”, switching from Lingala to French and German. After having asked the crowd in Kölsch “Seid ihr jut drupp?!” (Are you all right?), he ended his show with the popular carnival song “Wenn et Trömmelche jeht”. The widespread local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (Holler, 2022) called him “der kölsche Jung” (the guy from Cologne), referring to the famous song by Willy Millowitsch (see Sect. 7.6.).

In the “Immi-Sitzung”, a carnival show devised “from the perspective of newcomers” in the form of a political cabaret “between cultures”, the new “Krätzcher” are accompanied by a wide variety of musical trends. The “Immi-Sitzung” is produced by an ensemble of artists with 12 nationalities (Brazil, Turkey, various Eastern European and Arabic countries etc.) and gives 26 sold-out shows. Thanks to their success, the show has moved from the alternative (student) district in Southern Cologne to the splendid official Gürzenich concert hall, where the ancient carnival corps held their traditional celebrations. The latter sell far fewer tickets now than the alternative “Immi-Sitzung”, which has even been broadcasted in the national programme. This commercial success, along with recognition at a national media level, is an indicator for changing power relations in favour of multicultural carnival groups. The artists’ motto is “Jede Jeck is von woanders” (“Every fool comes from somewhere else”), a variation on the well-known phrase “Jede Jeck is anders” (“Every fool is different”) (Krohn et al., 2019). Both mottos embody the open-mindedness of the city and an awareness that all of its residents are (the children of) immigrants. The same spirit pervades the Stunksitzung, an anti-carnival variété-like show which was initiated in 1984 by student actors and is now the most successful carnival show ever, as well as Humba e.V. carnival parties and CDs, of which the first album, “Fasteloovend Roots Project” was released in 1994. Each collection unites Kölsch sounds and lyrics with references from Brazil, Greece, Turkey etc. (see Sect. 7.5).

These sources, including the Krätzcher, are the basis of a musical biotope and urban sound specific to the city of Cologne which are expressed in a variety of musical forms and in the carnival, an emblematic and unifying institution. The music database of the Academy of Kölsch Language contains 109 songs about immigration and 86 about Turks, out of 495 (Akademie för Kölsche Sproch, 2022). Hence, the post-migration society (Foroutan, 2019) expresses itself through music, theatre and variété, mainly in the context of carnival but also all year round.

4 Carnival: A Political Declaration in Support of Openness Towards Others

The particular value of the Cologne carnival is that it is a cathartic festival, bringing together all social groups and musical genres in its musical biotope on an annual basis and attracting more than 1 million participants and visitors each year. It represents a time in the year when the rules of life are challenged, when people get together at parties, when new things are created. In 2015, UNESCO added the Cologne carnival to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission, 2019).

During the carnival, other musical specialities from Cologne can be identified: the “Schunkeln”, brass bands, marching bands and drum ensembles. In the parades, during the nineteenth century, the festive music came mainly from (military) marches, played by brass bands and drum ensembles from the suburbs or villages around Cologne and also, in the last decades of the twentieth century, from samba and batucada bands. These groups move spontaneously from bar to bar and accompany the parades through the different neighbourhoods. In traditional balls held in halls and tents, you can hear a particular form of waltz. There is no dance floor and, since people cannot get out of their rows of seats, they have developed a dance that can be performed while sitting: the “Schunkeln”. The spectators are seated on benches around long tables and watch large orchestras perform a programme of joyful celebration. Spectators’ arms are linked to those of the people sitting to their right and left and they sway together while singing amusing songs. At these traditional balls, the origin of carnival-goers is of no importance. It is neither a matter of the assimilation nor of the active integration of migrants. The motto is “Jede Jeck es anders” (“Every Jeck is different”), which embodies the value of otherness, no matter where it comes from. The most prominent subject of jokes about foreigners are the neighbours from the (carnival) rival city of Düsseldorf. In 2008–2009, several of Cologne’s emblematic monuments were depicted as people engaged in “Schunkeln”, with interlocking arms, on the official medal of one of Cologne’s largest districts: the new Cologne Mosque, one of the biggest and most visible in Europe, was represented (10 years before its official opening!) next to the cathedral, the television tower and the local Heliosturm (industrial) monument.

In Cologne, carnival is thus a state of mind, a political declaration of openness to others, embodied by musical diversity and a form of anarchism and permanent transgression. Around this carnival, a variety of musical forms and numerous artistic statements for the value of multiculturalism, germinate and evolve, namely through the Humba e.V. parties and CD collection.

5 A Multicultural Biotope Inspiring a Variety of Musical Expressions: “World-Music”, “Humba & Family”

Cologne’s music scene, like those of other cities, includes a wide variety of musical genres, such as jazz and improvised music, rock and pop, ancient and baroque music, avant-garde contemporary music, electronics, classical music and traditional and world music. Yet, each musical genre uses the Kölsch dialect for contemporary creations. Freethinkers and rebels express themselves in dialect in their anthems against racism and xenophobia, reaching a recent peak with the “Arsch huh” movement. This movement – literally “ass up”, metaphorically “get moving” against racism and right-wing extremism – was born in 1992 after the deadly xenophobic attacks on refugees in Hoyerswerda and Solingen and has been drawing crowds for 25 years, thanks to the local and international heroes of the “Arsch huh” movement, BAP, Bläck Fööss, Brings and Höhner. United above and beyond their quarrels at a time when racism was emerging for the first time since the end of World War II in Germany, these carnival music groups and/or rock bands, singing in Kölsch, assembled 100,000 spectators on 9 November 1992 – the anniversary of the 1938 November pogrom against the Jewish population – in the city centre, to take a stand against racism. At this event, the anthem “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander” promoting living together and civil courage, was sung for the first time. The song was written in just a few days, in reaction to the attacks, by Vassilios “Nick” Nikitakis, a guitarist-songwriter of Greek origin living in Cologne and by Wolfgang Niedecken, a singer in the world-famous band BAP. Jean Jülich, a resistance fighter and member of the “Edelweisspiraten” also took part in the event. This symbolic and personal link between carnival protagonists, World War II resistance fighters and musicians from migrant backgrounds is a recurring theme, as shown by the examples of “Humba” and the “Zigeunerfestival”. The “Arsch huh” birthday concert in 2022 was moderated by the Cologne artist Shery Reeves (of Kenyan and Tanzanian descent). After a speech by writer Navid Kermani (who lives in Cologne), Iranian singer Sogand and 18,000 guests in the Lanxess Arena concert hall sung “Baraye”, claiming liberty and showing numerous flags and slogans in various languages, mixing German and Persian references.

Since the early 1990s, the main idea of the “Humba” platform (Krauthäuser, n.d.) has been to assert the musical diversity at the heart of Cologne’s popular, collective, vibrant and sonorous tradition. This multiculturality is expressed in the relationship between so-called “world music/Weltmusik” and the local musical traditions of the city of Cologne, of which the carnival tradition is the most powerful.

The initial impetus for “Humba & Family” activists came from a trip to Ivory Coast in 1992 for the purposes of musical research. The activists found that the locals showed little interest in their traditional music, which was – and still is – the key to many musicians’ activities in Cologne and West Africa. The Humba activists asked themselves: Is it acceptable to ask Africans to better nurture their musical traditions when, in Germany, a large part of the population is unaware of the local musical traditions in most regions?

Preliminary research was carried out on the music of the Cologne carnival and in particular the traditional music played in the city. The aim was to gain a better understanding of the roots of certain musical movements – exciting new trends beyond folklore and FakeFolk – as well as to grasp the effects of the diversity of music resulting from migration both on the transnational circulation of music and on local creation.

The research was supported by the public regional broadcast service WDR Radio. It led to a live presentation during the 1994 carnival, under the title “Humba Party”, and the first CD compilation. Since then, the “Humba & Family” movement has created a fertile environment for musical experimentation. Musicians of diverse origins are fully recognised as actors of urban musical expression and as interpreters of carnival music, enabling audiences to dance, sing or laugh. Certain musicians from abroad met their partner in Cologne and stayed – e.g. the Cuban musician Juan de Dios (y sus Muchachos) whose song “Carnaval en Köln” (meaning “Carnival in Cologne” or “At the Cologne carnival”) features on the CD Humba 3 “The power of jeckness” (1998). According to the lyrics, the group enjoys carnival through dancing, singing and “Con mucha cerveza Kölsch” (“With a lot of Kölsch beer”).Footnote 3

How did this musical fusion in Cologne become a lively and well-established popular tradition? This was easy for artists coming from carnival cultures, such as Brazil, Cuba, etc.; other musicians transformed their traditional style, either musically or by working with the Kölsch dialect. They have produced and created rap, reggae, samba or oriental songs in Kölsch and Krätzcher in other languages. Instead of turning to genres such as rock or English-speaking pop, the Humba movement embodies the soul of Cologne. Its mission goes far beyond carnival, as it seeks to liberate German local musical traditions from the negative associations with the Nazi era that still existed in the 1990s and 2000s and to transgress class differences. Despite the large symbolic and rhetorical recognition of global music as an integral part of the local landscape, there is no permanent institutional support. Producers, organisers and musicians need to be constantly creative to get public funding (Gambino, 2020), which is small compared to the subsidies for classical music (see Sect. 7.8). Several actors of multiple origins from the global local music scene funded the association “Globale Musik e.V.” in 2020 to lobby for their cause (Sodemann et al., 2022). Although carnival generates about 5000 permanent jobs and has a turnover of 460 million euros (Boston Consulting Group, 2009), only a few music groups can live off their carnival concerts and CDs. Precarity is a general problem which classical musicians without a permanent position in philharmonic ensembles – as well as the majority of pop musicians – have to face, whatever their origins.

Today, large grassroots events such as “Loss’ m’r singe” (“Let’s sing”) fill Cologne’s biggest stadium, where 40,000 people gather to sing Christmas carols, played by carnival groups among others. These events follow the same principle as the “Singender Holunder” concerts, organised by one of the main actors of Globale Musik and Humba, Jan Ü. Krauthäuser: a leaflet with lyrics is distributed to all participants so that they can sing together with the artists. As language is a crucial integrative factor, the learning of German and the local language Kölsch through music contributes to the joint feeling of belonging to the city. Until 2019, more than 20,000 people participated every year in “Loss m’r singe” parties in local pubs (but also in “Rhinelanders exile spots” like Berlin, Munich and the Spanish island of Mallorca) and donated to local and international refugee support initiatives like Sea Watch (Loss mer singe e.V., 2015). Yet, not only does carnival last the whole year but it also represents a state of mind that allows people to break rules all year round. Following the initial success of the carnival festivities organised by Humba, fans of the music contributed their knowledge on other occasions, inspired by the carnival season. In 2001, fans and activists launched small grassroots summer festivals in suburban gardens, the “Humba-Schrebergarten-Tour”, each featuring at least one group in the local Cologne style and an ensemble of music from elsewhere – traditional African, Persian classical, Indonesian gamelan, etc. – all based in the city or the region.

Subsequently, activities were extended to other aspects of local urban life, such as the music of the Edelweißpiraten, a youth resistance movement under the Nazi dictatorship. A major musical movement in Cologne inspired Humba activists to organise a festival with former Edelweißpiraten and other music groups to pay tribute to the anti-Nazi struggle. Since then, the Edelweißpiraten Festival has become a major expression of Cologne’s intangible urban heritage and cultural diversity (Edelweißpiratenfestival e.V., 2022).

6 Valorising the Multiplicity of Sounds from (Trans)Local Communities

Another facet of this local urban life at the crossroads of local and migratory traditions that Humba has explored concerns the collaboration with the Sinti community in Cologne to preserve and promote the various aspects of their culture. Today, upending a long-standing stigma, they proudly call themselves “Zigeuner” (gypsies) and have given this name to the “Rheinisches Zigeunerfestival” (Zigeunerfestkomittee et al., 2017). The festival features concerts based on the historic horse-drawn carriages and chariots which the Nazis stole from the family of Markus Reinhardt, a gypsy family based in Cologne. The festival also brings together trans-local gypsy communities from many countries, showing both diversity and unity.

All these activities carried out by Humba & Family are forms of “public laboratories” experimenting with traditional and new sounds and interacting with local musicians and their friends from all over the world.Footnote 4

In 2021, AlbaKultur and Birgit Ellinghaus set up the Migrant Music Manifesto in Cologne. Dozens of workshop labs, concerts and experts brought together a huge international crowd of music practitioners, lovers and academics. Monika Salzbrunn followed the interactive workshop concert “Krätzjer und Kölsche Leeder mit Schängs Schmölzje & Humba e.V.”, co-organised by Singender Holunder. As was usual for Singender Holunder concerts, first, a leaflet with lyrics was distributed to the participants, so that everybody could sing along. The three musicians performed several “Krätzjer” in the Colonese dialect and the bassist Johannes Esser presented each song with an historical explanation of its origin and sense, namely the anti-nationalist message in certain lyrics written and performed with courage during the 1930s. After a while, the keyboard player Jan Weigelt took over with a surprise, presenting himself as an immigrant from North Germany and imitating self-ironically the Northern dialect. A couple of songs later, the guitarist Rudi Rumstajn outed himself as a “Kölscher Zigeuner” (a Colonese gypsy). He said that he had beseeched his friend Robert to write a non-politically correct song about gypsies but Robert was hesitant. Rudi insisted and kept refusing the lyrics as being too politically correct. The result is an excellent example of the playful, de-essentialising way of performing multiple belonging.

Der kölsche Zijeunerjung/The Colonese gypsy boy in Kölsch and English

  • Text and Music: Rudi & Robert

Kölsch

English

Ich han jeklaut ich jev et zo,

mer brote Jeld von irjendwo.

Mir hatte nix ze fresse,

han in de bösch jedresse.

Mir hatten keine dixiklo,

kei plätzje för uns irgendwo.

Su sin zijeuner wed jesat,

die han at immer Dris jemaat.

Refrain: Ich ben ne kölsche Jung,

han kölsche Tön em blot

un die kölsche Sproch

kann ich at janz jot.

Av un zo mach ich enz dress

halt bloß ding Breftäsch fess!

Oder jläuvs du ich wör ihrlich,

leeven Jung, ich ben jefährlich.

Zijeuner sin nitt kleinzekrije,

da muss wohl am Charakter lije.

Wet widder op uns dropjeklopp,

Stonn mir bal och widder op.

Un singe danze musiziere,

die Minsche künne von uns liere.

Mir künne lache wie die Kölsche,

echte Fründe, he fings de welche.

Refrain: Ich ben ne kölsche Jung, …

I have stolen I admit it,

we needed money from somewhere.

we did not have anything to guzzle,

have shit in the bushes.

we did not have a dixi-closet,

no room for us anywhere.

Gipsies are like that they said,

they have always screwed up.

Refrain: I am a guy from Cologne,

have Colonese sounds in my blood

and the Colonese language

I master quite good.

From time to time I make shit

hold on your paperwallet!

Or do you think I was honest,

dear guy, I am dangerous.

You cannot break down gipsies,

this must be due to the character.

If we get beaten,

we soon stand up again.

And sing, dance, make music.

People can learn from us.

We can laugh like the Colonese,

true friends, you find some here.

Refrain: I am a guy from Cologne,…

In a global societal context where diversity can also be contested (Dilger & Warstat, 2021), this joyful and proud performative appropriation and détournement of stereotypes is a constructive answer to well-intentioned but downgrading and essentialising diversity politics. All negative images referring to education, delinquency or hygiene are presented in a crude and direct manner, until the joyful Colonese way of life is mentioned as a common point of both cultures. The artists reload the widely known popular historical local song “Ich bin ne kölsche Jung” written by the actor Willy Millowitsch about himself as a “good guy” with a self-ironic description of a “guy from Cologne” who speaks well the local language but “does shit” and is “dangerous”. This example shows a self-confident play with identities: instead of starting from his origins, Rudi Rumstajn first performed Cologne language and musical heritage, before demonstrating other biographical elements in a self-ironic way.

Besides the carnival itself, there are also soundscapes of the so-called “Immis”, migrant and refugee newcomers who make up almost 40 per cent of the population. In Cologne, rather than one majority migrant group, there are many communities – who do, however, not necessarily refer to their origins at first sight: the descendants of Germans who grew up in Poland, Russia or the Ukraine, exiles from Iran and Afghanistan since the 1990s and migrant workers from Italy and Greece since the 1960s. Armenians, Kurds and Turks represent other major cultural groups, as well as Asians, Latinos and, since 2015, Syrians, Yezidis from Iraq and migrants from West and North Africa. The city is one of the symbols of tolerant multiculturalism, both from a self-discourse and an electoral point of view.Footnote 5 Some of these new artists conserve their traditional music in their new place of residence on the Rhine and preserve the traditional and/or ritual dimension of their music, mainly (but not exclusively) played for their own communities. As the percentage of intellectuals and amateurs of classic music is very high among Iranian immigrants, concerts of Iranian music take place at the prestigious Philharmonie of Cologne (and can quickly be sold out). Others embark on the search for a new musical home and participate in intercultural groups and “Brauchtum” (“customs”) projects: a cultural practice that is locally rooted but is also cosmopolitan and progressive.

Thus, all these musical protagonists, with their own seeds of sound, contribute to turning the city of Cologne into a veritable Tower of Babel, in particular when social movements such as the Edelweißpiraten Festival, in memory of Cologne’s resistance during the Nazi dictatorship, the Rheinisches Zigeunerfestival of the local Sinti and Roma or the Newroz Festival, the “Spring of Cultures” of the Kurdish and Iranian-Kölsch scene, are set in motion. In each of these events, a multi-lingual communication can be observed, mixing references of the local dialect Kölsch with other languages.

7 MAKE FasteLOVEnd, Not War

A recent event has shown the extent to which the self-narrative as an open-minded multicultural city transcends all political borders except the extreme right, the common enemy. When the Russian war against Ukraine broke out on Weiberfastnacht (Women’s carnival) 2022, the opening day of the street carnival, officials, musicians and individual Jecke (fools) wondered if, despite their longing for feasting after 2 years without street carnival, it was appropriate to celebrate it. The official carnival committee, together with a broad range of associations (LGBTQIA+ groups, anti-fascist groups like the above mentioned “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander”, alternative multicultural carnival organisers like “Deine Sitzung”, the Ukrainian group Blaugelbes Kreuz etc.), officials (the Green group in the local parliament, the Mayor Henriette Reker who had no political affiliation but was supported by the Greens, who had a majority in the city council and the Christian Democrats, the conservative Minister President of the region North-Rhine Westfalia, Henrik Wüst) and engaged left-wing musicians (namely Wolfgang Niedecken from BAP and Brings) decided to transform the usually huge Rosenmontagszug (Rose Monday parade) into a giant demonstration for peace.

Some 30,000 people were expected; a quarter of a million filled the streets of the city in blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine, on this 28 February 2022. Once-alternative groups like Brings were in the forefront, whose singer, Peter Brings, said, “There are those who claimed that the carnival was not political – I never believed that, and I am so glad that you are all here. This is the most important Rosenmontag I have ever seen”. The 70-year-old singer of the BAP rockers, Wolfgang Niedecken, said with emotion: “The people of Cologne know how to party but they also know how to take a stand”. The Mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, addressed the population in an emotional speech, calling for peaceful resistance without arms (while the Social Democrat Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, decided, with the approval of the Greens, to send arms to the war zone for the first time in 77 years). To thunderous applause, Reker expressed her admiration for those Russians who risked going out to demonstrate their opposition to this war and reiterated her position in favour of welcoming all refugees in need of protection in this city open to the world. Reker was formerly responsible for the reception of refugees in the city administration and for this reason became a victim of an extreme right-wing attack. Hence, she is a credible speaker. The communion with the authorities knows no bounds on this sunny morning, as BAP rocker Wolfgang Niedecken says: “The good Lord is of course also a Kölner; he made the weather so that everything works”. The chairman of the festival committee, Christoph Kuckelkorn, who is also the head of an undertaker’s business, celebrates the communion of the festive community: “Wir zeigen uns hier als jecke Gemeinschaft; bunt wie der Lappenclown. Ein jeckes Mosaik, Junge un Mädcher, Alt und Jung” (“We show ourselves as a fool community; multicolour like the clown made of cloths. A fool mosaic, boys and girls, elderly and youngsters”). Many groups sing spontaneously composed songs, ridiculing Putin to the beat of drums. The Singender Holunder team has prepared a booklet of peace songs, carnival classics celebrating life, love, cosmopolitanism and diversity in order to defy the fear of war through song. The booklet included “Mer klääve am Lääve”, “Unsere Stammbaum” (see Sect. 7.3.), “Liebe gewinnt” (Love wins – recently sung in churches to demand the blessing of homosexual couples) by Brings, “We shall overcome”, “Hevenu Shalom alechem” and classics of the German peace movement such as Wolf Biermann’s “Ermutigung” (encouragement) and Hannes Wader’s “Es ist an der Zeit” (It is time). The initiative “Arsch huh, Zäng ussenander” (Get your ass up, open your mouth) is reminiscent of the gigantic anti-racism demonstration of 1992, which brought together 100,000 people on this very square (see Sect. 7.5.).

Indeed, it was impossible to forbid this truly popular event, even though its form changed. Therefore, it was particularly interesting to observe which new forms of celebration, music and dance practices emerged under these conditions: a long-lasting pandemic and the spectre of a new war in Europe. This huge demonstration on carnival, uniting the traditional male carnival groups, conservative and green politicians, LGBTQIA+ groups, Ukranian residents, ancient rocker and contemporary engaged carnival musicians, shows the extent to which the self-narrative of Cologne as a multicultural, welcoming, refugee-friendly city is the result of a renewal of carnival from its margins, as I have shown elsewhere (Salzbrunn, 2022a). Although Cologne has a long record of anti-fascist initiatives, the political claims for welcoming refugees have never been so clear and unanimous.

Nevertheless, this discourse in favour of diversity does not necessarily lead to financial support for a diverse music scene.

8 From Discourse to Action? The Challenges and Limits of Cultural Change

In the cultural scene of Cologne, diversification processes have been intended from top-down (Sievers, 2017) and bottom-up levels (grassroots initiatives), leading to durable changes concerning the use of musical references and the visibility of new cultural actors. An example for the top-down (institutional and political) perspective is the “Kulturentwicklungsplan” “cultural development plan” developed by the city government in a two-year process of round-table discussions with actors from the cultural scene in the town. The plan intends to include both independent artists and institutionalised organisations so they can “participate” under certain conditions in the broader cultural life. However, the process did not include “migrant” culture organisations. This may be due to the paradox of essentialising cultures, which is a risk if they are subject to specific funding programmes (see Chap. 5 in this volume). Actors with a migration background are present in many institutions – including on the city council – but are not necessarily labelled as migrants or chosen as such. They occupy other functions or represent a political party.

The “Sofortprogramm – Auf geht’s” (immediate programme – here we go) from the regional government of North-Rhine Westphalia, offering 15,000 grants in 2020 (and 15,000 more in 2021!) to balance the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on independent culture, was closer to a bottom-up perspective since the bureaucratic and artistic levels were extremely low and the success rate exceptionally high. This funding coincided with the legal cancelation of the carnival season 2020/2021 due to the pandemic and the temporary impossibility to practice the usual multicultural expressions and events. Both programmes are partly due to long-term political initiatives and lobby work that put pressure on local and regional governments. So what do these local initiatives tell us about the short- and long-term impacts of the cultural scene on local, regional and national politics? At a local and regional level, there are initiatives to support a broad range of cultural production – namely music – but not necessarily labelled as “world music” or music from a specific ethnic group. The advantage of these cultural politics is a non-essentialist view on cultural production. The disadvantage is that, except for the easily accessible Sofortprogramm, general access to funding is related to a very formalised view of cultural careers and a hierarchy of cultural modes of expression. Classical music receives tremendous institutional and financial support in Germany, so that talents can be promoted regardless of their origins. The “Freie Szene” however, only gets a small part of public funding and needs to survive on its own resources. Therefore, many musicians live under precarious conditions and associations like Humba e.V. and festivals like the Zigeunerfestival need to seek funding and support from various sources and to constantly develop new initiatives so that they can reply to calls for funding. The Edelweißpiratenfestival, the Zigeunerfestival, the Humba Leichtmatrosentour and the Brasilonia (Brasil + Colonia) music events have all been sponsored by the City of Cologne. The public regional cultural federation Landesverband Rheinland (LVR) has also sponsored the Zigeunerfestival. These are material indications of a continuous political support for multicultural music events, which is in line with the political discourse increasingly promoting a welcome culture, as analysed above. As part of the numerous home-countries (Thiesse, 2022) that make Germany, the City of Cologne and the Rhineland region contribute a great deal to promoting an open-minded discourse (which goes along with the lowest percentage of far-right voters in that region of Germany), but this cannot be generalised, since other regions suffer from a more xenophobic environment. To a certain extent, this aspect reflects the strong heterogeneity which has always existed in Germany regarding the attitude towards foreigners (with a quite low percentage of extreme-right voters in the Rhineland and a relatively high percentage in certain parts of Saxonia and Swabia).

What about perceptions of alterity, othering processes and multiple belonging? Starting from a local case study, we have given examples of regional dynamics and put these in a broader national and supranational context. The UNESCO-Charta for diversity intends to promote a broad range of culture but can lead to paradoxical effects, such as reducing actors to one dimension of their multiple belonging. The event approach (Salzbrunn, 2017, 2021), applied in the context of the history, contemporary cultural policy and culture of the receiving society, allowed us to analyse the way in which politics of (multiple) belonging (Yuval-Davis et al., 2006) are situated in time and space. This is a constructive answer to the inherent paradox in migration studies and allows us to overcome an essentialist point of departure.

We have shown that Cologne’s (cultural) history has always been shaped by migration, even though the enrichment of the music and carnival scene, thanks to migrants, has been openly recognised and celebrated only for a couple of decades. However, this is already a long time, compared to other carnival capitals, which tend to essentialise musical heritage, costumes and masks, partly to get the UNESCO label of immaterial heritage. The way in which the Cologne carnival is performed and lyrics are written (and learned through numerous local singing events) indicates that multiculturalism has become the new mainstream norm. The “Immi-Sitzung” sells more tickets than the conservative carnival balls and the rapper Albi X melts references to carnival, hip-hop and various migration areas during the popular music event c/o pop. Nevertheless, that very open-minded discourse, recently underlined during the giant demonstration against the war in Ukraine on carnival’s Rose Monday, does not guarantee an absence of discrimination or an unconditional institutional support for all types of musical creation.

We can also observe a parallel tendency concerning the importance of the local language. On the one hand, there are increasing hybridisation processes in lyrics (e.g. Juan de Dios) and interaction with the public (Albi X). On the other, collective singing events in Kölsch attract an exponentially growing public. Both tendencies show that local references are important to the multicultural music scene in Cologne and have an inclusive effect.

Hence, one can ask: What are the short-term and long-lasting effects and impact of these cultural and institutional changes on the creation, performance and reception of music in general and on broader (carnival and other) celebration habits? We can definitely hear the plurality of music (Bachir-Loopuyt & Damon-Guillot, 2019) during festivals, carnival and regular cultural events like the Zigeunerfestival and the different Humba parties. The very latest events related to the war in Ukraine have proven that the creativity and openness of the cultural scene have an impact on political decision-making – at least, the broad support for 30,000 musicians during the pandemic at a regional level and the continuous welcoming of refugees at a local, regional and national level – in particular, in Cologne. Does it widen the political consciousness for a need to re-think broader institutional logics at each level? This question can only be answered in the next decade.