Amon Düül began in 1967 as a radical political art commune of Munich based artists calling themselves, in part, after the Egyptian Sun God Amon; Düül has been cited as a character from Turkish fiction.

The commune attained underground popularity for its free form musical improvisations, performed around the happenings and demonstrations of the contemporary politicized youth movement. The commune had a liberal attitude to artistic freedom, valuing enthusiasm and attitude over artistic ability, and as a result, band membership was fluid; anyone who was part of the commune could be part of the group. A faction within the commune was more ambitious, conventional and musically structured than the commune society overall. This led to a split within the collective, which separated in 1969 into the components "Amon Düül" and "Amon Düül II".

Though not as highly regarded as their successors, Amon Düül engaged in exuberant open-ended experimentation that at times equalled their psychedelic rock equivalents in countries such as the USA or Brazil (e.g. Os Mutantes). Such a loose methodology was unavoidably hit or miss and led to frequent disruptive personnel changes. The members were close to Kommune 1 in Berlin and boasted, for a time, a prominent member in the beautiful model and activist Uschi Obermaier. Continuing for seven years, with varying degrees of success and in varying mutating guises, they wound down in 1973 after releasing four official albums (though most were recorded pre 1970 and the first three albums all came from one 1968 jam) which are these days regarded as unique, if unessential, records in the history of German rock.

Amon Düül II were formed in 1968 by the more professionally and technically inclined members of the original collective, with core members John Weinzierl, Chris Karrer, Peter Leopold, Falk Rogner, and Renate Knaup-Kroetenschwanz. They signed to the United Artists label and released a string of highly regarded albums with strong psychedelic and progressive flourishes. After 1975, the band changed labels and moved towards more accessible music, before finally disbanding in the late 70s.

At the beginning of the 1980s John Weinzierl, with original bassist Dave Anderson and various others, began releasing albums as Amon Düül again (though this band is commonly called Amon Düül (UK) to differentiate it from the original one). Between 1982 and 1989, they released five albums, but they generally failed to ignite the interest of most former fans.

When the 1990s brought new exposure and audiences to the original krautrock groups, Chris, Renate, Falk and John reunited, and continue to perform sporadically.

Amon Düül II Discography