City (band)
German rock group
City is a German rock band, formed in East Berlin in 1972, best known for the song "Am Fenster" ("At/By The Window") from its 1978 debut album.
The band was founded as the City Band Berlin by Fritz Puppel (guitar), Klaus Selmke (drums), Ingo Doering (bass guitar), Klaus Witte (keyboards), Frank Pfeiffer (vocals) and Andreas Pieper (flute). The lineup changed frequently in the band's early years, but stabilized by 1976, with Puppel and Selmke joined by Bulgarian violinist and bassist Georgi Gogow and vocalist-guitarist Toni Krahl. They changed their name to City Rock Band and eventually to simply City.
City toured extensively in East Germany, and was given the opportunity to record an album in 1978. The eponymous City showcased the band's guitar-driven rock; several songs are parables, such as "Der King vom Prenzlauer Berg" (The King of Prenzlauer Berg), about a young man who gets into too many fights; and "Meister aller Klassen" (Masters of All Classes"), about cocky motorcyclists whose desire for speed ends in tragedy.
The band's greatest commercial success, however, was the atypical folk rock-influenced "Am Fenster" (At the Window), which arose from a jam session in the studio when Gogow began to play on his violin. It eventually coalesced into a three-part, 17-minute piece (as well as a four-minute version for radio play). An immediate hit in East Germany, it also became successful in West Germany and was a success in countries such as Greece. Following the song's success, City sold half a million copies.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319753. VIAF identifies the subject as 168808731. The Library of Congress control number is n00065662. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1978 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “City (band)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.