In 2018, Forbes published its annual list of the highest paid women in music. Among the familiar names of Katy Perry and Taylor Swift was Helene Fischer of Germany, coming in at number 8 and earning a cool $32 million on the back of an enormously successful tour of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Fans across Europe would surely not be surprised to see “The Queen of Schlager” appearing on the list, however English-speaking commentators were left with two questions: Who is Helene Fischer and what on earth is Schlager?

The first of those questions is the easier to answer; Helene Fischer is one of the most successful German recording artists of all time, having achieved the best-selling album in Germany five times and winning numerous awards over the last decade. Despite this success, few people in the English-speaking world know her name, mainly because Fischer’s music is in German. Aside from collaborations with Michael Bolton and Robbie Williams, Fischer has only made one English language album titled The English Ones (2010).

Explaining Schlager is more tricky and here in Germany it’s considered to be impossible to define. The genre bridges so many different styles. For instance, there is classic Schlager that sounds something like lounge music or traditional Schlager which features lots of Lederhosen and accordions. There’s the more pop orientated Schlager, often still featuring Lederhosen (usually covered in glitter) but sounding something like Euro-pop and then there is Helene Fischer, all dance synths and slick live performances. I’m sure there are plenty other varieties I’m missing out on. Schlager is not a purely German genre, as Fischer’s tour stops suggest, and as such there must be many more regional and national variants.

The fact that Schlager comes in so many different flavours is perhaps due to the longevity of the genre. The term Schlager, simply translated as “a hit”, traces its origins back to Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube Waltz of 1866. Of course, the works of modern day Schlager stars are far removed from Strauss, but if anything, this speaks to the ability of Schlager to evolve and change. Despite it being considered old fashioned in the 1960s, Schlager is still a mainstay of German music, albeit not always well respected or well loved.

Schalger rarely features on the radio, aside from those stations dedicated to it, and a casual scroll through the Spotify’s German top 50 suggests German music lovers are not spending a lot of time swaying rhythmically and clapping their hands along with such hits as “Schön ist es auf der Welt zu sein” (How beautiful it is to be in the world) or “Himbeereis zum Frühstück” (Raspberry Ice Cream for Breakfast). It seems that aside from a handful of success stories, Schlager is not necessarily the path to wealth, fame or credibility. Since the 60s, Schlager has dipped in and out of fashion, spending decades in the wilderness only to be “discovered” every so often by a new generation.

Schlager is long lived, but the most obvious question remains: is it any good? I’ve spent a long time wondering about this. It’s hard to deny how catchy it is, but catchy doesn’t mean good. In Britain, there is a general snobbishness that comes hand in hand with the enjoyment of music. People will often refer to songs, especially one hit wonders or pop music coming out of other European countries as “guilty pleasures”. They are generally accepted as low-quality music. Schlager has been popular in the UK, especially during the 1960s (See Cliff Richard) but I don’t imagine that many British DJs would improve their followings by dropping Helene Fischer into their set list. Given this background, I should be hardwired to dislike Schlager, but I can say from experience that it’s very hard not to enjoy music that has such a visceral reaction for so many people. Music that makes people happy is hard to argue with.

Germany, in contrast to the British, seems to enjoy music guilt free. Germans are not by nature sentimental types, and because of this, there is something tremendously enjoyable about the continued and varied popularity of Schlager music. German people have a fantastic ability to compartmentalise their lives, keeping borders between work, family, hobbies or even friendships. There is something of this compartmentalisation in Schlager, as if all the schmaltzy kitsch that inhabits the German psyche has been outsourced to Schlager, it’s powered by the often closed box of German sentimentality.

After spending many hours this week watching Schlager music of all forms, from fuzzy Youtube videos of the 70s Musikantenstadl to the more recent Schlager-Spaß mit Andy Borg I’ve come to the conclusion it really doesn’t matter what I think about Schlager, I’m pretty sure Schlager doesn’t care either way. Whether I love it or hate it, I’m not even the target market. With so many new Schlager artists coming out, it seems to have more than enough juice to go for another hundred years.

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