Schneider was born on 7 April 1947[1] in Öhningen,[a] at the time part of the French occupation zone in southern Germany, near the Bodensee, in what would become the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952.

Schneider was Jewish on his mother's side;[3] Paul married the half-Jewish Evamaria in 1946 against the will of his father, who remained a loyal Nazi.

[7] They met in 1968 while studying at the Academy of Arts in Remscheid, then at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, playing improvisational music together in the ensemble Organisation.

Why put so much energy into travel, spending time in airports, in waiting halls, in backstage areas, being like an animal, just for two hours of a concert?

But now, with the Kling Klang studio on tour with us, we work in the afternoon, we do soundchecks, we compose, we put down new ideas and computer graphics.

[16] Reputedly, Schneider's departure followed a dispute with Hütter over a bicycle pump,[17][circular reference] a rumour which some sources describe as unfounded.

[10] Shortly after Schneider's death, the bells of the St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht rang out with the tones of the song "Das Model".