Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider started the Organisation zur Verwirklichung gemeinsamer Musikkonzepte (Organization for the realisation of common music concepts) in 1970 in Düsseldorf. They had their first gig at a festival in Aachen that same year. The name Kraftwerk came later, followed by a string of successful minimalistic synth albums.
They are usually credited for being the European origin of synth-pop, but they had their own roots as well. Hütter and Schneider were classically schooled at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, where Stockhausen’s music was everywhere.
Kraftwerk is almost like a European answer to the dominant blues/rock invasion from both the Brits and the Ami’s. It is a deliberate attempt at creating a new aesthetic, based on machines instead of humans. The band would celebrate this further on other albums, and it would gain an enormous following. I don’t know if I agree with the story that we are usually presented with, where the heroes of Kraftwerk single handed created the European dance scene. Early as they were, they were not the first.