Interestingly enough the "scene" back then for them had elements that would have influenced and/or encouraged their direction. The Federal Republic of Germany

Interestingly enough the "scene" back then for them had elements that would have influenced and/or encouraged their direction. The Federal Republic of Germany actively tried to promote a musical identity that was a contrast to the GDR's populist music policy. The culmination of this was the electronic music studios known as WDR(Westdeutscher Rundfunk) and their radio broadcasts. Hutter has acknowledged listening to those WDR broadcasts out of Cologne. Just to connect the dots Conny Plank, Kraftwerk's producer on Autobahn was an engineer at GDR. Karlheinz Stockhausen who was a Kraftwerek influence and hugely important figure in his own right ran the WDR. The WDR history and its importance to electronic music is pretty fascinating. You can read about it here: http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951/ http://120years.net/wdr-electronic-music-studio-germany-1951... and https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-photo-essay https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/08/stockhausen-ph... Dusseldorf also had the Kunstacademie which was run by Fluxus artist Joseph Beuys who regularly held "art happening." These art happenings were also some of Kraftwerk's first gigs. Beyond that the whole German prog rock scene that sprang up around Dusseldorf and Cologne at that time with bands like Can, Neu! and Faust was all about experimentation.