Klaus Doldinger, Composer of ‘Das Boot’ and ‘The NeverEnding Story,’ Dies at 89

Klaus Doldinger, the German saxophonist and composer who created the soundtracks to Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot and The NeverEnding Story, had died. He was 89.

Doldinger died on Oct. 16, his family confirmed to German press agency dpa.

Born May 12, 1936, in Berlin, Doldinger studied piano and clarinet but was drawn to the jazz music brought to Germany by American GIs after the war. Having lived through the Nazi dictatorship, Doldinger later wrote in his 2022 autobiography, “Made in Germany. Mein Leben für die Musik,” he decided to make music “that you couldn’t march in step or click your heels together [to].” The fascination with those free rhythms never left Doldinger. In 1971, he formed Passport, a long-running jazz-fusion outfit that toured internationally and released dozens of albums over five decades.

Doldinger’s breakthrough in film came with his sparse, electronic-tinged soundtrack to Petersen’s Petersen’s submarine drama Das Boot (1981). Against the backdrop of a minimal orchestral ensemble,…