A Cave of Wonders: Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten on the Record Shop that Made Him

Alexander Hacke, guitarist and later bassist of seminal industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten, recounts his formative years frequenting Zensor, a legendary Berlin record shop located in Schöneberg’s bohemian neighborhood during the late 1970s. Through an exclusive extract from his memoir ‘Blast: Distorted Memories’ (published March 2026), Hacke describes the shop’s proprietor Burkhardt and its role as sanctuary for avant-garde and punk aesthetics, contrasting it with the dismissive treatment he received at mainstream record stores in Neukölln. The narrative captures post-punk Berlin’s underground culture, documenting how underground institutions shaped artistic development and community formation during the emergence of new wave and experimental music movements in Germany.

Original article published on The Quietus — AI-generated summary.