How Munich’s Bravo magazine built Germany’s pop stars

Germany’s youth culture once had a single name: Bravo. The magazine used stars, celebrity features and sex to reach up to six million young people, becoming a powerful marketing force that was also accused of exploiting its influence, BR reported.

The first issue of Bravo appeared in Munich on August 26, 1956, with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. Its subtitle was “The magazine for film and television.” Over time, the editorial team recognised that pop music had a far stronger appeal to young readers, especially when attractive young performers became figures onto whom readers could project their dreams and romantic hopes.

Bravo sometimes prioritised striking headlines over reality. Singer Angelo Kelly said the magazine altered parts of an interview. He had dedicated his hit “I Can’t Help Myself” to a girl he liked, but Bravo presented it as a song for his father so female fans could continue to hope that he was available.

By the 1980s, Bravo had become Germany’s leading youth magazine, selling about 1.8 million copies a week. Its readership was even larger because the magazine was passed from one person to another. Jasmin Wagner, known as Blümchen, said only one girl in her class bought each issue, after which all her friends read it in turn. Former Bravo editor in chief Alex Gernandt therefore estimated that the magazine reached six million readers each week.

That reach made Bravo an indispensable partner for the music industry. It served as a marketing machine that rapidly promoted acts, intensified fan interest and had to be supplied with new material at almost any cost. Since 1968, the magazine had belonged to Hamburg-based Bauer Verlag, while its editorial office remained on Augustenstraße in Munich.

Bravo could elevate performers and later tear them down. The band Tic Tac Toe, for example, was first heavily promoted and then harshly criticised by the magazine.

Wagner believes she would not have become successful as Blümchen without the magazine’s close relationship with its stars. At 14, she was an ideal figure for Bravo’s very young readership. Before social media, she said, the magazine was her link to her fans.

That relationship also came at the cost of a form of sexualisation that appears intrusive by today’s standards. A Bravo editor reportedly considered it acceptable to ask the underage Wagner whether she had had her “first time”.

The magazine popularised sex education among young people who were uncertain about their sexuality. Jutta Stiehler, the editor behind the fictional sex adviser Dr Sommer, said she had addressed readers on an equal footing. But the advice also reflected an era in which heterosexuality was treated as the unquestioned norm.

In one letter, a 13 year old boy wrote to Bravo: “My problem is that I am gay.” The reply suggested that his attraction to naked boys did not necessarily mean he was gay and that experiences with girls might change his view.

Bravo also expected its celebrated stars to remain fully available for the fantasies of their fans. Homosexuality was considered unsuitable for boy bands because it was supposedly a problem for their female audience. Eloy de Jong of Caught in the Act said the group’s manager did not want a gay boy in the band.