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Dortmund transit at the Westfalenhallen
Festivals & Live Culture

Rockpalast Dortmund 1978–1980: The Westfalenhalle Sessions

While Essen’s Grugahalle hosted the famous all-night Rocknächte, WDR also turned Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle into a live-television laboratory for German progressive rock, punk, Dutch rock and international hard rock at the end of the decade.

1978–1980DortmundLive television concert and archive guide
User:ReferenceBK · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.

Edition timeline

  1. Grobschnitt performs in Dortmund

    Long-form German progressive rock enters the Westfalenhalle broadcast archive.

  2. Nina Hagen Band is recorded

    Punk and new wave alter the visual and musical language of Rockpalast.

  3. Herman Brood & His Wild Romance follow

    Dutch rock adds another transnational route to the sessions.

  4. Rockpalast continues using Dortmund

    The venue remains part of WDR’s expanding live-production network.

Why this event matters

The Dortmund sessions show that Rockpalast’s late-decade innovation was a network of venues and broadcasts, not only the famous all-night Essen series. WDR used different halls and programme lengths to test how live rock could work on television. Dortmund supplied concentrated concerts rather than simply duplicating an Essen Rocknacht. Dortmund’s arena offered a large indoor audience, controlled lighting and space for mobile television production. Its architecture shaped both the live sound and the camera plan. Grobschnitt performed on 8 December, followed on 9 December by Nina Hagen Band and Herman Brood & His Wild Romance in surviving WDR chronology.

The Westfalenhallen site in Dortmund
A modern view of the Westfalenhallen site. The 1978–1980 broadcast stages used a different temporary production layout. Joehawkins · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.

Progressive rock meets punk

Grobschnitt’s long-form German rock sat beside Nina Hagen’s confrontational new wave and Herman Brood’s compact Dutch rock, making stylistic change visible within one broadcast context. The arena audience followed television pacing, camera sightlines and production pauses as well as music. A broadcast concert was both a public show and a studio session at scale. Lighting had to serve the hall and the television sensor; sound had to satisfy the PA, broadcast mix and recording archive. Those demands did not always point toward the same decision. Rockpalast returned to Dortmund and other German venues, while the Westfalenhalle remained a major touring stop. The December run became one part of a much larger WDR archive.

Nina Hagen Band in 1979
Nina Hagen Band in 1979, close-period context for the group’s December 1978 Dortmund performance. Wolfgang Autenrieth · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.

Films, recordings and surviving documents

Official event pages, WDR holdings and later licensed releases provide stronger anchors than fan-uploaded dates. Each performance is identified independently. Dortmund reveals the Westfalenhalle as a temporary broadcast machine. Audience, stage and control room all contributed to a single live document. The sessions preserve a moment when progressive rock, punk and hard rock overlapped in West German television instead of being separated into later genre histories.

Herman Brood and His Wild Romance in 1979
Herman Brood and His Wild Romance in 1979, close-period artist context for the Dortmund sessions. Suyk, Koen / Anefo · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 · Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Herman Brood performing in 1979
Herman Brood in 1979, one year after the documented Westfalenhalle broadcast. Koen Suyk / Anefo · Wikimedia Commons · CC0 · Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Continue exploring

Follow the festival beyond the field

Timeline

1978 in the Rock Music History Timeline →

Related genres

Related band guides

More routes will be connected as the archive grows.

Explore by sound

Related festivalRock Against Racism Carnival 1978 Related festivalTexxas Jam 1978–1984

Essential listening

Rockpalast Nights 1977–1984The better-known Essen all-night formatProgressive RockThe route represented by GrobschnittArt RockA route toward Nina Hagen’s theatrical new wave

Sources and further reading

  1. Rockpalast official programmeWDR · accessed 23 July 2026
  2. Rockpalast event archiveWDR · accessed 23 July 2026
  3. Dortmund venue historyWestfalenhallen · accessed 23 July 2026
  4. Licensed venue and performer imagesWikimedia Commons · accessed 23 July 2026
Image credits5 licensed images
U-Bahnhof Westfalenhallen der Stadtbahn Dortmund
A later view at the Westfalenhallen transit stop, documenting access to the broadcast venue rather than a 1978 concert — User:ReferenceBK — Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source record · CC BY-SA 3.0
Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Parkplätze vor der Westfalenhalle 3a.
A modern view of the Westfalenhallen site. The 1978–1980 broadcast stages used a different temporary production layout — Joehawkins — Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source record · CC BY-SA 4.0
Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Performance by the Nina Hagen Band on April 1st, 1979 in Tübingen. Nina Hagen and guitarist Bernhard Potschka
Nina Hagen Band in 1979, close-period context for the group’s December 1978 Dortmund performance — Wolfgang Autenrieth — Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source record · CC BY-SA 4.0
Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Uitreiking zilveren harpen aan (...) Herman Brood and his Wild Romance. Bezetting: Ani Meerman (drums), Freddie Cavalli (bas) en Dany Lademacher (gitarist).
Herman Brood and His Wild Romance in 1979, close-period artist context for the Dortmund sessions — Suyk, Koen / Anefo — Wikimedia Commons — CC0 · source record · CC0
Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.
Uitreiking zilveren harpen aan de groepen Flairck, Massada en Herman Brood and his Wild Romance 19 maart 1979
Herman Brood in 1979, one year after the documented Westfalenhalle broadcast — Koen Suyk / Anefo — Wikimedia Commons — CC0 · source record · CC0
Converted to WebP and resized; no generative or compositional alterations.

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