Hamburger Pankoken Kapelle

Until the 1950s, Pankokenkapelle was a type of bands that roamed the streets of Hamburg (Germany) and made music to solicit money from passers-by and residents. As a rule, they were quartets, sometimes also trios, which mainly played wind instruments. Most of the time the musicians wore black bowler hats, more rarely also top hats. Their fixed routes through certain parts of the city had to be officially approved. It is said that they mainly had well-known Hamburg songs in their repertoire and that some days they made people dance on the streets. The name goes back to Leberecht Pankoken, son of a clarinet player from Krempe, who came to the city around 1850 and founded (instead of a brass orchestra) the first Pankokenkapelle.