Palais Schaumburg was a new wave band from Hamburg, Germany. The style was classified as Neue Deutsche Welle, and strongly characterized by their avant garde music and dadaistic attitude. The band was originally formed in 1980, featuring Timo Blunck, Holger Hiller, Thomas Fehlmann, and percussionist F.M. Einheit. The group's name stands for Das Palais Schaumburg in Bonn, the Cold War era residence of the German chancellor. Einheit left the group, eventually to join Einstürzende Neubauten and was replaced by Ralf Hertwig prior to Palais Schaumburg's first full-length album Palais Schaumburg which was produced by David Cunningham and released in 1981. Shortly after it was released, Hiller left the band and started his solo career. He was replaced with Moritz von Oswald and vocalist Walther Thielsch. The group made several singles and albums throughout early 1980s, when their avant garde sounds were heavily influenced by funk, especially in albums Lupa and Parlez-Vous Schaumburg. They eventually split up in 1984. All the members have been working on their solo careers. On Thursday 21 November 2013 Palais Schaumburg appeared at the Saint Ghetto Festival in Bern, Switzerland.
Peel supported many of the Neue Deutsche Welle's artists in the early 80's, including giving airplay to Palais Schaumburg. He even gave the group to do a session for his show, which they did in 1982. After the group split, he took interest in some of the member's solo material, especially Holger Hiller, who did a session for show in 1987.
