Witthüser & Westrupp

Witthüser & Westrupp were a German acid-folk duo who issued four albums between 1970 and 1972 on Ohr and Pilz. Blending acoustic instrumentation with surreal narration and countercultural themes, they explored cosmic mysticism on Der Jesuspilz and lysergic whimsy on Trips und Träume. Their work bridged the singer-songwriter tradition with the experimental fringe of the early 1970s Krautrock underground.

Members: Bernd Witthüser, Walter Westrupp

Background

Guitarist Bernd Witthüser (1944–2017) and multi-instrumentalist Walter Westrupp (b. 1946) met in 1967 on the Essen folk scene, where both emerged from skiffle and protest song traditions. Witthüser played earlier in the Birdhouse Skiffle Group and gained local recognition setting the political texts of journalist Thomas Rother to music, while Westrupp came from a musical family and fronted the Night Reveller Skiffle Group before turning to folk.

They crossed paths at Essen’s Podium artist cellar and soon collaborated at the Internationale Essener Songtage (1968), where Witthüser served as financial director and both absorbed the rising tide of experimental music promoted by Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser. Following the festival, they established the “1st Essen Commune” and styled themselves as performance provocateurs on the fringe of the emerging counterculture.

Under names like Bernd Witthüser Sing- und Spielgemeinschaft and W & Ws Pop-Cabaret, they developed a theatrical folk act infused with absurdist humor and cosmic themes. By 1970, they formalized as Witthüser & Westrupp and signed with Ohr for their debut album.

Lieder von Vampiren, Nonnen und Toten

Bernd Witthüser released his debut album, Lieder von Vampiren, Nonnen und Toten, in 1970 on Ohr.

Witthüser wrote all twelve songs and adapted poems by Novalis, Heinrich Heine, Thomas Rother, and Baltus Brösel, setting them to sparse, acoustic arrangements with support from multi-instrumentalist Walter Westrupp. Guitar lines by Witthüser interweave with Westrupp’s shifting accents on ukulele, trombone, and xylophone, alternating between foregrounded leads and ornamental layers. Westrupp also underpins the arrangements with light bass drum pulses, washboard textures, and flute tones that anchor and frame each vignette in measured, subdued motion.

Lieder von Vampiren, Nonnen und Toten shifts Witthüser’s focus toward pared-down arrangements and foregrounded lyricism, cycling through restrained acoustic pieces with morbidly playful text settings. “Das stille Grab” rests on minimal fingerpicked guitar and low-register vocal phrasing, its pacing slow and deliberate, with each stanza drawn out over sustained chords. “Welcher Wechsel doch im Leben” retains that somber tension, its harmonic motion anchored by static intervals and slight rhythmic sway.

“Dracula” moves with more measured pulse, set to a steady motif and light harmonic underlay that supports its lyrical absurdity. The closing piece, “Wer schwimmt dort?”, reinterprets the Flipper theme with disjointed phrasing and offhand delivery, curving the album’s tone into final detachment. Across the album, transitions remain subtle, the instrumental textures lean, and the pacing subdued, emphasizing wit and atmosphere over variation.

A1. “Dracula” (4:34)
A2. “Das stille Grab” [The Silent Grave] (2:25)
A3. “Wir möchten dieses Lied noch singen” [We Would Like to Sing This Song Once More] (3:40)
A4. “Kann die Klage deuten wer?” [Who Can Interpret the Lament?] (3:50)
A5. “Ich bin dahin” [I Am Gone] (3:18)
A6. “Welcher Wechsel doch im Leben” [What Changes There Are in Life] (2:57)

B1. “Leis ertönt die Abendglocke” [Softly the Evening Bell Resounds] (3:10)
B2. “Hinüber wall ich” [I Drift Across] (2:54)
B3. “Wenn ich ein Fröhlicher wär” [If I Were a Happier One] (2:52)
B4. “Die Beschwörung” [The Conjuration] (2:52)
B5. “Liebeslied” [Love Song] (4:10)
B6. “Die Lilie vom See” [The Lily of the Lake] (4:04)
B7. “Wer schwimmt dort?” [Who Is Swimming There?] (1:56)

Witthüser and Westrupp recorded the album in Hamburg in March 1970. Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser issued the LP as one of the first releases on his newly founded Ohr label.

Bernd Witthüser – guitar, vocals, harmonica
Walter Westrupp – trombone, trumpet, drums, cymbal, ukelele, xylophone, flute, washboard, harmonica

Though both musicians co-created the work, only Witthüser received front-cover credit. Jacques Schumacher took the photographs and Reinhard Hippen handled the cover design. To promote the album, the duo appeared onstage carried in coffins, performing under alternating red and green lights to distinguish between songs of love and death.

Trips und Träume

Witthüser & Westrupp released their first duo album, Trips und Träume, in June 1971 on Ohr.

Witthüser wrote all seven tracks and expanded his arrangements with electric guitar and mandolin, while Westrupp added zither, bongos, and recorder-style flutes to the acoustic palette. Guitarist Witthüser and flutist Renée Zucker move in loosely parallel lines across the album’s longer pieces, counterbalanced by Westrupp’s color-shifting passages on trumpet and trombone. Bernd Roland anchors the material with a steady, rounded bass presence that grounds the duo’s drifting motifs in softly pulsing patterns.

Trips und Träume unfolds with a sequence of extended acoustic meditations that shift between whispered narration, fluid instrumental layering, and suspended percussive accents. “Laßt uns auf die Reise gehn” opens with dual acoustic guitars and bowed zither under softly phrased vocals, setting a pace both deliberate and unforced. “Trippo Nova” stretches from low murmurs into sudden peaks, marked by spoken verses and short-lived outbursts where mandolin and hand percussion surge, then retreat. “Orienta” pivots around sustained flute phrases and strummed guitar that together build a swaying cadence, layered with chanting vocal patterns and faint female refrains.

The instrumental “Illusion I” drifts on interwoven 6- and 12-string figures, reinforced by back organ tones and distant bass, sustaining its pulse through patient harmonic shifts. “Karlchen” proceeds as a two-part suite: first a hushed spoken narrative floats above restrained guitar and cymbal textures; midway, the track expands into a waltz-tempo passage with sharp trumpet inflections and intermittent flute lines before returning to the opening stasis. “Englischer Walzer” lingers as a brief piano vignette. Trips closes with “Nimm doch einen Joint, mein Freund,” which breaks the frame with English lyrics and stomping acoustic strum, sung in mock-hymnal style with shared vocal lines and low-register choral accents. The pacing throughout remains mid to slow, grounded in repetition, but often ruptured by sudden instrumental detours or overlapping voices.

A1. “Lasst uns auf die Reise gehn” [Let Us Go on the Journey] (3:50)
A2. “Trippo Nova” [Trippo Nova] (9:04)
A3. “Orienta” [Orienta] (7:43)

B1. “Illusion I” [Illusion I] (4:46)
B2. “Karlchen” [Little Karl] (9:15)
B3. “Englischer Walzer” [English Waltz] (1:39)
B4. “Nimm doch einen Joint, mein Freund” [Just Take a Joint, My Friend] (3:38)

They recorded the album in March 1971 at Dierks Studios in Stommeln with Dieter Dierks as engineer. Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and Gille Lettmann co-produced the sessions for Ohr. Gil Funcius illustrated the album’s psychedelic cover, which mirrored the duo’s stage show of surreal tales, improvisational vignettes, and loosely narrated dream-journeys.

Der Jesuspilz – Musik vom Evangelium

Witthüser & Westrupp released their second album, Der Jesuspilz – Musik vom Evangelium, in December 1971 on Pilz.

Witthüser wrote all six tracks and structured the album as a reinterpretive folk-psych oratorio, drawing on select gospel passages and mythic-spiritual imagery. He alternates between acoustic, electric, and 12-string guitars while layering banjo and kazoo motifs in tandem with Westrupp’s harmonium swells, hand percussion, and psaltery embellishments. Dierks reinforces the duo with bass and Mellotron, providing a slow-moving anchor beneath the multi-textured arrangements. Vocal interjections and ensemble humming drift through each movement, with auxiliary input from Gille Lettmann and Hans Joachim Markus.

Der Jesuspilz – Musik vom Evangelium pivots between stripped acoustic passages, trance-like recitations, and erratic bursts of theatrical folk psych. “Schöpfung” unfolds with cyclical acoustic patterns and subdued narration, slowly overtaken by saturated wah guitar and background electric pulses as percussion builds in slow increments. “Erleuchtung und Berufung” anchors its form in Mellotron cascades and fluted textures, offset by choral interjections from a children’s ensemble, the parts stacked and syncopated across verses with clipped phrasing.

The extended three-part suite “Versammlung – Bekenntnis – Die Aussendung” shifts unevenly through tonal extremes: kazoo-driven satire framed by sparse banjo figures and jaw harp, into a harmonium-centered middle section that stretches the pacing into a droning narrative sequence. “Nehmet hin esset” returns to solemnity, shaped by static acoustic motifs and minimal organ overlays. “Besuch aus dem Kosmos” closes with nine minutes of layered acoustic strums, filtered voice fragments, and background oscillations that ripple across an underlying Spanish-inflected motif, its structure flexing between loose stasis and swirling lift.

A1. “Liturgie” [Liturgy] (2:00)
A2. “Schöpfung” [Creation] (8:25)
A3. “Erleuchtung und Berufung” [Enlightenment and Calling] (4:50)

— Lukas 3 – Vers 21 & 22, Lukas 6 Vers 16
B1. “Versammlung – Bekenntnis – Die Aussendung” [Assembly – Confession – The Sending Forth] (10:21)
— Lukas 9 – Vers 12 -17, Markus 4 – Vers 26 – 32, Markus – Vers 15
B2. “Nehmet hin esset” [Take and Eat] (3:33)
B3. “Besuch aus dem Kosmos” [Visit from the Cosmos] (9:45)

They recorded the album in August 1971 at Studio Dierks in Stommeln with Dieter Dierks producing, mixing, and contributing multiple instrumental parts. Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and Gille Lettmann co-produced the sessions for Pilz, the newly launched sublabel of Ohr.

Bernd Witthüser – vocals, humming, acoustic guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tenor banjo, banjo, kazoo, triangle, tambourine
Walter Westrupp – vocals, humming, organ, harmonium, flute, ukulele, Jew’s harp, congas, finger cymbals, bells, cowbells, cymbal, triangle, rumba shakers, psaltery, chorusmaster, castanets, wood block, electronic effects

The album premiered as a live “Jesus Opera” at the Apostelkirche in Essen and sparked wide attention, leading to more than 100 performances in churches across West Germany and multiple appearances on television.

Bauer Plath

Witthüser & Westrupp released their third album, Bauer Plath, in October 1972 on Pilz.

Witthüser wrote all six tracks and shaped the album as a pastoral suite drawn from folk tales, dream imagery, and metaphysical texts. He alternates between acoustic guitar and mandolin in closely meshed interplay with Westrupp’s flute, harmonium, and tuned percussion. Guest keyboardist Jürgen Dollase threads Mellotron and synthesizer textures through the arrangements, while bassist Jerry Berkers and drummer Tommy Engel underpin the set with a warm, steady backbeat that supports the duo’s layered acoustic instrumentation without displacing its intimacy.

Bauer Plath trades the esoteric haze of Witthüser & Westrupp’s earlier work for a denser, earthbound atmosphere shaped by layered acoustic arrangements and mournful harmonic undertones. “Vision 1” centers on a slow-paced ballad form, built from overlapping banjo figures, sustained organ tones, and spoken narration that stretches across the verses with detached pacing. “Der Rat der Motten” sustains a subdued pastoral mood, its textures soft-edged and suspended, unfolding without sharp transitions. The title track departs into light rhythmic bounce, anchored by harmonica and intermittent synth flourishes that punctuate an otherwise sparse, childlike structure.

“Die Schlüsselblume” draws the album’s most immersive passage: filtered vocal overlays and shimmering instrumentation arranged into cyclical fragments, the pace unhurried but insistent, circling around a central drone with layered accents and widened spatial detail. Most of the album sustains a wistful tone with controlled pacing and unadorned phrasing, tapering its intensity into flattened arcs and brief flickers of harmonic complexity.

They recorded Bauer Plath in June and July 1972 at Studio Dierks in Stommeln with Dieter Dierks producing and engineering alongside Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and Gille Lettmann. Dierks and multiple guests from Wallenstein—Dollase, Berkers, and percussionist Harald Grosskopf—contributed instrumental parts throughout the sessions. Gille Lettmann and Antje Dahlhaus added backing vocals, wind chimes, and atmospheric embellishments. Marcel Fugère supplied the cover photography. The album title honors the duo’s landlord in Dill, the secluded Hunsrück village where they composed the material.

Discography:

• Der Jesuspilz – Musik vom Evangelium (1971)
• Trips und Träume (1971)
• Bauer Plath (1972)

Sources:

• Discogs: Witthüser & Westrupp
• ProgArchives: Witthüser & Westrupp
• RYM: Witthüser & Westrupp