Elektro Müllers sign, © Andreas Schiko

The Pop Trail Düs­sel­dorf


The pop spots at a glance

Have you lost your music thread during all that cheer and you stray through the streets dancing? That’s great. What’s also great is to follow the pop trail in Düsseldorf. The trail leads you to 21 carefully chosen spots from the Ratinger Street to the Salon des Amateurs, which you can head for one by one during an extended walk around the city. Our tip: Allow for about two and a half to three hours for a relaxed pop music stroll. You may want to use public transportation to bridge one distance or another.

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Platform 17 at Düsseldorf main station, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Main Sta­tion Track 17


The last Trans-Europa-Ex­press has long de­par­ted but track 17 is still the place, where the jour­ney through the his­tory of Düss­sel­dorf pop with Kraft­werk and an icon­ic pic­ture be­gins.

A performance of artists Klein and Kuball, © Markus Luigs

Min­trop­straße 16


The "Elektro Müller"- sign and a con­spicu­ous pylon still com­mem­or­ate a place, where chequered mu­sic his­tory has been cre­ated un­til 2009.

View of the Tonhalle at the rhine embankment, © Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH

Rhein­halle (Ton­halle)


Long be­fore the Ton­halle turned in­to a front room for Düs­sel­dorf sym­phon­ies, this used to be the place to go for in­ter­na­tion­al rock le­gends.

Entrance with flair: The Museum Kunstpalast, © Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH

Ehren­hof


Just like the Beatles in Liv­er­pool: 15,000 fans cel­eb­rated a best of con­cert by Kraft­werk with 3D glasses on their noses in light of the Tour de France and even eli­cited something like a sense of home from the Mensch-Maschine.

Performance of artist Gigi Masin in 2016, © Markus Luigs

Kunstakademie


The art and mu­sic scene form a syn­ergy in Düs­sel­dorf like no oth­er pop city in the world. The Art Academy foun­ded bands and clubs and pro­claimed re­volu­tions - and called them off again.

The bar at Kreuzherreneck, © Markus Luigs

Kreuzher­re­neck


While the Kreuzher­re­neck used to be the heart of the jazz-scene of Düs­sel­dorf in the 1950s, it is today still a place quite dif­fer­ent than the nearby Bolk­er­straße.

The Ratinger Hof, © Markus Luigs

Stone im Rat­inger Hof


The Stone today is poph­is­tor­ic­ally su­per­im­posed by a con­tro­ver­sial le­gend: Punks and artists cre­ated an ex­plos­ive mix­ture in the Rat­inger Hof, that went off in blatant sounds.

A historic photograph of Cream Cheese, © Creamcheese e.V. Sammlung Achim Reinert

EX-Cream­cheese


What hap­pens when an ob­ject artist (Gün­ther Ueck­er), a film­maker (Lutz Mom­martz), a de­sign­er (Danilo Sil­vestrin) and an all­round-artist (Ferdin­and Kri­wet) con­cep­tu­al­ize a bar? The (former) Cream­cheese is the an­swer.

The Salon des Amarteurs, © Markus Luigs

Salon des Am­a­teurs


A place where the art academy's own sub­cul­ture not only evolves but is ac­tu­ally even dance­able.

The facade of the Engelchen, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

En­gelchen (in­cl. Schaukel­stühlchen & EX-Q-Stall)


Düs­sel­dor­fer cel­eb­rate here lit­er­ally in the nar­row circle:in a re­l­at­ively small space with Alt­beer and rock mu­sic in the middle of the old town.

The Em Pöötzke in Düsseldorf, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Em Pöötzke


A jazz club since about half a cen­tury and a live-mu­sic line-up that does not omit any top di­vi­sion of hand­made mu­sic.

The location Cube, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Cube (EX-Down­town)


Fam­ous Jazz­men made the "Down­town" in the Mer­tens­gasse world-renowned in the 60s and 70s. The own­er Pütz pub­lished his memor­ies and an­ec­dotes in a book in 2013 that even re­ceived praise from Ger­many's most fam­ous jazz­man Klaus Doldinger.

The former Unique Club, © Andreas Schiko

EX-Unique Club


From a dis­cotheque to his own (former strip-) club, Henry Storch ma­ter­i­al­ized his dream of the Unique Club in gold, red and white.

The Flinger Straße in Düsseldorfs Old Town, © Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH

Wolfgang Riech­mann/Tatort Flinger Str.


Two weeks be­fore his al­bum "Wun­derbar" hit the stores, the mu­si­cian Wolfgang Riech­mann was stabbed on the Carlsplatz.

The shop window of Pure Freude, © Tourismus NRW e.V.

Pure Freude


The en­chant­ing back­yard café of the city is a trib­ute to the former re­cord store of the same name: Pure Freude.

The famous Königsalle in Düsseldorf, © Düsseldorf Tourismus GmbH

König­sallee / "Ber­gis­cher Löwe"


Cre­ated by the sculptor Phil­ipp Harth and meet­ing point for the mod-scene of the city in the 80s.