The name of the group was taken from the 1927 novel Steppenwolf by German Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse.
The group was the result of a collaboration between lead singer Eik Skaløe [da], who had traveled in the Orient in the early 1960s and wrote the Bob Dylan-inspired, highly symbolic and almost surreal lyrics, and Stig Møller [da] (guitar, vocal), who wrote the drawling, psychedelic, folk-influenced music.
A tour in October 1967 came to a chaotic end when a concert was cut short by the police and the group members were arrested for cannabis use.
Shortly after being released, Eik Skaløe went on a journey to Afghanistan/Nepal (on the so-called "hippie trail") and was found dead outside the city of Ferozepore near the Indian/Pakistani border in October 1968, apparently after a drug-induced suicide.
Back in Denmark the rest of the group attempted to carry on, but, lacking the characteristic Skaløe as a front figure, quickly dissolved.