This chapter describes the influence of Krautrock on post-punk music in Britain in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and argues that this influence marks a ‘Germanophilic‘ shift in British pop music, in the wake of punk‘s ‘Germanophobia‘. While post-punk was a diasporic and stylistically fragmented genre, it is possible to identify key musical elements clearly drawn from Krautrock bands like Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Neu!, and Can in the music of seminal post-punk groups, including Public Image Ltd., Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Bauhaus. For some of these groups, David Bowie, and especially his ‘Berlin-trilogy‘ albums, provided an indirect connection to Krautrock, which in turn helped to catalyse an aesthetic shift that would lead to the development of new genres, like gothic rock; for others, like former Sex Pistol and PiL frontman John Lydon, Krautrock provided the means to escape the strictures of punk, and would lay the foundation for radically new structural and sonic possibilities in pop music.

Although Krautrock music is most often categorised geographically and historically, the increasing availability of Krautrock records offers the conditions for a broad contemporary listenership. Given this accessibility of canonical Krautrock to audiences outside of 1960s and 1970s West Germany, this chapter observes a pan-European and even intercontinental production of Krautrock today. Having briefly identified relevant musical aspects of canonical Krautrock outputs, this chapter turns to contemporary Krautrock bands operating in Germany before then addressing related musicians across continental Europe, Britain, and the Americas. The chapter also considers biographical detail and the interactions of contemporary bands with prominent early Krautrockers, who themselves endorse the ongoing production of Krautrock as a contemporary, global musical practice.