Friedrich "Fritz" Hilpert (born 31 May 1956) is a German musician who is best known for his work as a member of the

electropop Electropop is a popular music fusion genre combining elements of the electronic and pop styles. It has been described as a variant of synth-pop with emphasis on a hard electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...

group

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

Background

Fritz Hilpert studied trumpet and percussion at the Musisches Max-Reger-Gymnasium, 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-band Din A Testbild before becoming associated with Kraftwerk in 1989. In addition to studio work, he replaced

Wolfgang Flür Wolfgang Flür (born 17 July 1947) is a German musician, best known for playing percussion in the electronic group Kraftwerk from 1973 to 1987. Flür claims that he invented the electric drums the group used throughout the 1970s. However, pat ...

in concert when Kraftwerk resumed their touring activities in 1990, and engineered the album '' The Mix'', released in 1991. He has made musical contributions to Kraftwerk's compositions since "

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially, some 40 million people were ...

" in 1999. He is credited as a co-composer on most of the tracks on the album '' Tour de France Soundtracks''. Along with Henning Schmitz, he works as sound programmer and engineer at Kling Klang 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, but Hilpert was cleared to fly and continue the tour the next day. It is thought that Hilpert's last appearance on stage with Kraftwerk was at the Cala Mijas music festival, in Malaga, Spain, on 2 September 2022. Hilpert did not appear onstage with Kraftwerk for its 2023 concert series, fueling fan speculation of his departure from the band. His status as a current or ex-band member has not yet been officially disclosed.

References

Kraftwerk members Living people 1956 births People from Amberg {{Germany-musician-stub