NINA HAGEN BAND – "Unbehagen" 12" Vinyl LP Album

- Includes the original custom inner sleeve with lyrics, photos, and full production credits

Album Front Cover Photo of NINA HAGEN BAND – Unbehagen Visit: https://vinyl-records.nl/

“Unbehagen” (1979) captures the ferocious wit and theatrical punk of Nina Hagen at her most untamed. Recorded at Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studio, this album fuses reggae, new wave, and operatic chaos into one electrifying document of rebellion. Hagen’s voice soars, sneers, and spirals — a fearless statement from East Germany’s most unpredictable export, backed by her formidable band and CBS’s lavish production muscle.

Table of Contents

"Unbehagen" Album Description:

Before her solo ventures, Nina Hagen ignited the punk and new wave scene with her eponymous band. Their 1979 album "Unbehagen" ("Discomfort") was more than a collection of songs; it was a raw and urgent expression of rebellion shaped by Hagen’s East German past and the restless energy of West Berlin’s underground.

History in the Making

In the late 1970s, Nina Hagen had already made her dramatic break from East Germany, leaving behind censorship and conformity for the creative chaos of West Berlin. With her striking looks, operatic voice, and fearless attitude, she became a symbol of defiant individuality in a city divided by ideology but united by art and rebellion.

Musical Rebellion

The music itself is confrontational and genre-bending. Angular guitars, thrashing drums, and Hagen's vocal gymnastics — shifting from guttural growls to soaring melodies — create a sonic experience that defies easy categorization. "Unbehagen" incorporates punk, reggae, and experimental textures, recorded and mixed at Hansa Studio by the Wall in October and November 1979.

Impact and Legacy

Although "Unbehagen" was never officially released in East Germany, it circulated informally among fans there, becoming an underground symbol of artistic freedom. Hagen’s fearless spirit and the band’s uncompromising music resonated deeply with rebellious youth on both sides of the Berlin Wall. The album helped lay the groundwork for the wave of German punk and new wave that would define the coming decade.

Nina Hagen Band's "Unbehagen" is not just an album; it's a historical snapshot of late-1970s Berlin — capturing the tension, humor, and raw electricity of a moment when art refused to recognize borders.

Album Key Details: Genre, Label, Format & Release Info

Music Genre:

German New Wave / Punk

A fierce blend of punk attitude and new wave experimentation, the Nina Hagen Band’s sound fuses reggae influences, angular guitar riffs, and operatic vocal theatrics — an audacious collision that defined West Berlin’s late-1970s underground.

Label & Catalognr:

CBS – Cat#: 84159

Album Packaging:

This album “NINA HAGEN BAND – Unbehagen” includes the original custom inner sleeve with printed lyrics, detailed credits, and artwork/photos.

Media Format:

12" LP Vinyl, Stereo
Total Weight: 230 g

Year & Country:

1979 – Made in Holland

Production & Recording Information:

Producers:
  • Reinhold Heil – Producer
    Keyboardist and composer who later gained international acclaim for film and TV scores, including collaborations with Tom Tykwer such as Run Lola Run and Cloud Atlas.
  • Herwig Mitteregger – Producer
    Drummer, songwriter, and founding member of Spliff, known for blending rock with new wave and electronic experimentation in the early 1980s.
  • Bernhard “Potsch” Potschka – Producer
    Guitarist renowned for his sharp, angular style that defined the Nina Hagen Band and later Spliff’s distinctive sound.
  • Manne Praeker – Producer
    Bassist and producer active in the German rock scene, remembered for his work with Spliff and as a creative force behind Hagen’s early success.
  • Tom Müller – Co-Producer
    Studio engineer and musician frequently associated with productions at Hansa Studio, contributing to the refined sonic clarity of late-1970s Berlin recordings.
  • Ralph Nowy – Co-Producer
    Saxophonist, flautist, and producer best known for his solo jazz-fusion work and session contributions within the German krautrock and fusion circles.
Sound & Recording Engineers:
  • Mueller – Sound Engineer
    Resident engineer at Hansa Studio during Berlin’s golden recording era, known for his precise analog mixes and live room expertise.
  • Zimmerling – Assistant Engineer
    Assistant engineer supporting multiple Berlin-based sessions at Hansa, contributing to a number of late-1970s rock and new wave releases.
  • Sereg – Live Sound Engineer (Saarbrücken concert)
    Responsible for capturing the raw concert energy during the live recording of “Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär,” ensuring the mix retained the band’s unfiltered performance edge.
Recording Location:

Hansa Studio by the Wall – Berlin, West Germany
Recorded October–November 1979

Hansa Studio was a creative hub for European rock and experimental artists, famous for sessions by David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and later Depeche Mode — a breeding ground for the Berlin sound.
Mixing Studio & Location:

Mixed at Hansa Studio by the Wall – Berlin

The studio’s acoustics and historic Meistersaal room offered a unique atmosphere that shaped countless iconic recordings of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Album Cover Design & Artwork:
  • Ruiz & Carlier – Graphic Design & Artwork
    A French design duo active in the European music scene, known for bold, photo-driven layouts that mirrored the visual edge of late 1970s new wave culture.
Photography:
  • Alain Bizos – Photographer (Actuel magazine)
    French photographer celebrated for his striking portraits of countercultural icons; his work for Actuel magazine captured the flamboyant essence of the late 1970s avant-garde.

Collector’s Note: Nina Hagen’s Leap from East Berlin to CBS

When Nina Hagen arrived in West Berlin in 1976, she wasn’t some unknown punk rebel — she was already a trained, TV-famous singer from East Germany with an operatic voice and a flair for the theatrical. The West German press saw her as a living headline: the defector with a wild streak. That intrigue alone was enough to get record labels circling.

She quickly connected with the musicians from Lokomotive Kreuzberg — Manne Praeker, Reinhold Heil, Potsch Potschka, and Herwig Mitteregger — a seasoned group who knew studios, production, and the West Berlin scene inside out. Together, they built a band that had both credibility and chaos in perfect balance: the Nina Hagen Band.

CBS Germany signed them because they saw potential far beyond Berlin’s clubs. Hagen’s voice could move from opera to growl in seconds, and her stage persona was explosive enough to market worldwide. With the legendary Hansa Studio at their disposal — the same space where Bowie and Iggy Pop had just recorded — CBS poured in resources and surrounded the band with trusted producers and engineers to polish the fire without extinguishing it.

In the end, Hagen’s CBS deal wasn’t luck — it was inevitability. She had the myth, the musicians, and the madness that labels dream of. “Unbehagen” became the proof that even a major corporation could gamble on an artist who seemed gloriously uncontrollable — and win.

Band Members / Musicians:

Band Line-up (Part 1):
  • Nina Hagen – Vocals
    A trailblazing German singer whose operatic voice and punk-infused theatrical style earned her the title “Godmother of Punk.” Her fusion of avant-garde performance and satire helped bring Neue Deutsche Welle to global attention.
  • Bernhard “Potsch” Potschka – Guitar
    Known for his sharp, rhythmic playing, Potschka was a founding member of both the Nina Hagen Band and Spliff, shaping the sound of German new wave with his energetic, riff-driven approach.
  • Manne Praeker – Bass
    A multi-instrumentalist and producer whose steady, melodic basslines anchored the band’s eclectic sound. After the Hagen era, he co-founded Spliff, achieving major chart success in early 1980s Germany.
Band Line-up (Part 2):
  • Reinhold Heil – Keyboards
    Keyboardist and composer celebrated for his later international film work with director Tom Tykwer, including Run Lola Run and Cloud Atlas. His atmospheric synth textures were central to the Hagen Band’s sound.
  • Herwig Mitteregger – Drums
    The rhythmic backbone of the group, Mitteregger combined rock energy with jazz precision. He later became a prominent figure in Spliff, contributing songwriting and vocals to several charting albums.

Complete Track-listing:

Tracklisting Side One:
  1. African Reggae
  2. Alptraum
  3. Wir Leben Immer Noch
  4. Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär
Video: Nina Hagen - 1980 African Reggae (FR tv livish)
Tracklisting Side Two:
  1. Herrmann Hieb Er
  2. Auf’m Rummel
  3. Wau Wau
  4. Fall In Love Mit Mir
  5. No Way
Video: Nina Hagen Band - Herrmann Hiess Er (1979)

Disclaimer: Track durations are approximate and may vary slightly between pressings or reissues.

Collector’s Note: Herrmann Hieb Er – The Herman Brood Connection

The song “Herrmann Hieb Er” from Unbehagen is widely believed to be Nina Hagen’s fiery response to her tumultuous relationship with Dutch rock legend Herman Brood. Their brief affair in the late 1970s was a volatile mix of passion, excess, and artistic chaos — the kind of story that seemed destined to end up immortalized on vinyl.

Hagen’s lyrics and vocal delivery turn the breakup into a surreal theatre of revenge. The title itself — roughly translating to “Hermann Hit Her” — blurs fact and satire, painting Brood as both muse and menace. It’s part confessional, part punk cartoon, and entirely Hagen in tone: outrageous, confrontational, and self-aware.

Brood, ever the showman, didn’t deny it. He joked about the song in interviews, treating it as proof that their chaotic romance had achieved pop-culture immortality. For collectors, “Herrmann Hieb Er” isn’t just another track — it’s a sonic snapshot of a real-life affair between two of Europe’s most eccentric icons.

Publishing & Rights Information:

All titles edition: Spliff/April Music except Rondor Music London / Oval Music Ltd; Budde Music.

Arrangements by Heil, Mitteregger, Potschka, and Praeker.

“Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär” recorded live April 6 1979 at Congress Hall, Saarbrücken.

Album Front Cover Photo
Front cover of the 1979 Nina Hagen Band album 'Unbehagen', showing a vivid, high-contrast portrait of Nina Hagen illustrated in pop-art style. Her bright red hair flares against a dark urban backdrop, her wide, expressive eyes frozen in a mix of defiance and theatrical surprise. The album title 'unbehagen' appears in lowercase yellow letters on the top right, while the jagged stencil logo 'NINA HAGEN BAND' dominates the upper left. The gritty nightscape behind her evokes Berlin’s divided skyline, bathed in eerie light, underscoring the raw punk energy and unsettling mood that define the record’s spirit.

The front cover of Unbehagen captures Nina Hagen in a visual explosion of punk attitude and theatrical menace. Rendered in stark contrast and pop-art hues, her shock-red hair bursts like fire from the darkness, her gaze direct and unflinching, pupils dilated as though staring down the entire Berlin underground. Her face, bleached in ghostly tones, is framed by heavy black makeup and a fur-like collar, suggesting both glamor and rebellion.

The album title appears in small, uneven yellow type with the word unbehagen highlighted in red — a visual play on the German word for discomfort and the band’s name. To the left, the logo “NINA HAGEN BAND” is scrawled across a jagged yellow banner, evoking the cut-and-paste aesthetic of 1970s punk zines. The shadowy cityscape behind her fades into black and gray silhouettes of buildings, hinting at a nocturnal Berlin where art, politics, and chaos coexisted.

This sleeve design is as confrontational as the music it encloses — a perfect synthesis of visual rebellion and sonic experimentation. It represents the collision of Hagen’s operatic voice, punk provocation, and postmodern irony, immortalized in one unforgettable image that defined Germany’s new wave era.

Album Back Cover Photo
Back cover of the 1979 Nina Hagen Band album 'Unbehagen', designed with a dark, moody cityscape silhouette that fades into gray tones. A vertical yellow strip resembling torn paper lists the album’s track titles, band members, and production credits in black type. Side One includes 'African Reggae' and 'Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär', while Side Two features 'Herrmann Hieb Er' and 'No Way'. At the bottom, CBS logos and catalog number 84 159 appear alongside German copyright details and 'Printed in Holland'—marking this as a European pressing produced at Hansa Studio, Berlin.

The back cover of Unbehagen presents a minimalist yet striking design built on texture and contrast. Against a shadowy cityscape rendered in gradient shades of black and silver-gray, a torn yellow strip stands out boldly at center — a visual echo of Berlin’s walls and artistic fragmentation in 1979.

Printed on this yellow panel are the full track listings for both album sides, along with musician and production credits. The songs “African Reggae” and “Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär” anchor Side One, while “Herrmann Hieb Er” and “No Way” headline Side Two. Below the titles, the credits read like a who’s who of West Berlin’s late-1970s creative circle: producers Reinhold Heil, Herwig Mitteregger, Manne Praeker, Potsch Potschka, Tom Müller, and Ralph Nowy; recorded and mixed at Hansa Studio by the Wall.

The bottom edge carries the CBS logo, catalog number 84 159, and fine print indicating its release by CBS Schallplatten GmbH Germany, with manufacturing in Holland. Designed by Ruiz & Carlier and photographed by Alain Bizos, this back sleeve bridges punk rawness and graphic precision — a fitting companion to the album’s explosive sound.

First Photo of Custom Inner Sleeve
Black-and-white inner sleeve photo from the 1979 Nina Hagen Band album 'Unbehagen'. The image shows Nina Hagen standing in a barren field with dry grass, one knee slightly bent and a bold stance. She wears a dark bodysuit and short haircut, gazing directly at the camera with an expression both fierce and distant. Behind her, a leafless tree looms to the left and a blurred moving train cuts through the horizon, adding a surreal, cinematic tension between motion and stillness. The stark contrast and empty landscape reinforce the album’s themes of alienation and avant-garde defiance.

This inner sleeve photograph from Unbehagen transforms Nina Hagen into a figure of stark contrast and restless energy. Set in an empty, windswept field, she stands defiantly in a tight, dark bodysuit — the visual embodiment of rebellion against conformity. Her expression is intense yet unreadable, oscillating between vulnerability and command.

A skeletal tree frames her from the left, while a speeding train blurs across the horizon behind her — a haunting visual metaphor for modernity racing past isolation. The black-and-white palette heightens the surreal atmosphere, balancing raw physicality with artistic distance. The image’s simplicity belies its complexity: part fashion portrait, part punk manifesto.

Captured with documentary precision yet composed like a cinematic tableau, this photograph mirrors the album’s sound — elegant chaos delivered with perfect control. It stands as one of the most memorable visual moments in Nina Hagen’s iconography, merging performance art, rebellion, and photographic poetry into a single frozen instant.

Second Photo of Custom Inner Sleeve
Black-and-white concert photograph from the 1979 Nina Hagen Band album 'Unbehagen' inner sleeve. The image captures Nina Hagen mid-performance on stage, singing fiercely into the microphone while raising one knee in a dramatic pose. Stage lights blaze from the right, illuminating her in a halo of energy, while the band plays behind her — drummer, guitarist, and bassist partially visible in the shadows. A glass sits near the stage edge in the foreground, grounding the raw immediacy of the live scene. The composition radiates punk power, theatrical energy, and absolute command of the moment.

The second inner sleeve photo from Unbehagen freezes Nina Hagen in her element — on stage, electric, unpredictable, and completely in control. Captured mid-performance, she grips the microphone stand as her knee lifts, the motion both elegant and explosive. Every muscle seems charged with the album’s punk ferocity.

Behind her, the band emerges from the dimly lit background — a tangle of cables, drums, and amplifiers rendered in high-contrast monochrome. The stage lights slice across the frame from the right, haloing Hagen’s figure and catching the sheen of her dark outfit, while a solitary glass at the front of the stage hints at the grounded chaos of live performance.

This image captures the essence of Nina Hagen’s live persona: a collision of raw emotion and total theatrical control. It is both an authentic concert moment and a piece of visual mythmaking — proof that the energy of Unbehagen was not confined to the studio, but roared to life before an audience.

Close-up of Record Label
Close-up of Side One record label from the 1979 Nina Hagen Band album 'Unbehagen', pressed by CBS in Holland. The label displays CBS’s classic orange-to-yellow gradient with bold white logo centered at the top. The text 'UNBEHAGEN NINA HAGEN BAND' appears in black uppercase, followed by track listings for Side One including 'African Reggae,' 'Alptraum,' 'Wir Leben Immer Noch,' and 'Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär (Live-Version)'. Technical details such as stereo speed 33⅓ RPM, catalog number CBS 84159, BIEM/STEMRA rights notice, and production credits for Heil, Mitteregger, Müller, Nowy, Potschka, and Praeker are printed below. The design exemplifies the clean, professional CBS style typical of late-1970s European vinyl releases.

This close-up of Side One from Unbehagen showcases CBS’s iconic late-1970s label design — a radiant orange and yellow gradient radiating outward from the spindle hole, crowned by the bold white CBS logo. The clean typography and symmetrical layout are hallmarks of the label’s European pressings of the era.

The label lists four tracks: “African Reggae,” “Alptraum,” “Wir Leben Immer Noch,” and the live version of “Wenn Ich ein Junge Wär.” Each song’s writing and publishing credits are carefully detailed, noting collaborations between Reinhold Heil, Potschka, Mitteregger, and Hagen herself. The track durations and publishers, including Rondor Music London and Budde, appear in fine print beneath the titles.

Along the rim, CBS’s standard copyright text encircles the label, reading “CBS Schallplatten GmbH, Germany,” with “Made in Holland” confirming the pressing origin. The precision of the printing, coupled with the warm color gradient, reflects CBS’s emphasis on technical quality — a visual counterpart to the polished but fierce sound contained within the grooves.

Note: The images on this page are photographs of the actual vinyl record and sleeve. Slight variations in color may appear due to lighting and camera conditions.

Index of NINA HAGEN Vinyl Album Discography and Album Cover Gallery

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