Don't let the name fool you: The band 17 Hippies has only 13 members. And these are not the hippies you remember from "Hair."

"In Berlin," says the group's accordionist, Kiki Sauer, "you'd call a person trying to do something in a nice way -- but only half succeeding -- a hippie. So with their tongue in their cheek, people were referring to us as the five hippies, 24 hippies, or whatever amount of musicians that happened to be on stage."

The band is a group of German musicians from diverse backgrounds, who came together to have a bit of fun experimenting with forgotten folk styles and with instruments they were only beginning to discover.

The impetus, group member Christopher Blenkinsop said, was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. "It was like a dam opening." Suddenly, West Berliners like Blekinsop discovered "a new town that was just a block away." And in that new town were musicians trained in unfamiliar folk styles.

"We were just a group of people," said Blenkinsop, "not a band. We started to play these things for fun -- any kind of melody." A loosely networked group of people would show up to play together. "Whoever came, came."

Sauer, who had been trained in classical piano, took up the accordion; Blenkinsop, who had played bass in a rock band, took up the ukulele; Dirk Trageser, a heavy metal drummer, began to play the guitar.

The group has released several albums in Europe, but now has released its first album to be distributed in the United States, "Heimlich."

The album not only jumps among genres, but combines them with an insouciant sense of fun. "We throw things around and see if it works into something," said Blenkinsop, adding that when someone gets an idea, "You have to spread it like a wave in the band." The members call their songwriting process "the hippie mill."

On "The Moving Song," for example, one member began to play around on accordion with a Cajun rhythm someone had passed to him on a cassette. Another used a Jew's harp to put an electronica-sounding rhythm on top of that. Blenkinsop had just come from another gig playing the Indian tampora, and added in that string instrument.

While the group culls from a variety of international styles, one tradition they do not pull from much is Germany's. Blenkinsop said that after the Nazi regime, Germans turned their back on nationalism and, to some extent, their own heritage.

"The German word 'volk' in 'volksmusik' echoed the Nazi 'chosen people' ideology," Blenkinsop said, adding that anyone born in the 1960s or later would probably never have heard it played, except some pockets of regional music.

Instead, he said, "We're taking an urban tour through other styles and cultures," indirectly exploring their own heritage through ancient connections from the traditions of lands that surround Germany.

The band routinely meets with raised eyebrows since it is so unique, particularly in Germany, where folk music is largely forgotten. Outside of Germany, Blenkinsop said, he's been told: "You can't be German -- you guys are happy." While on tour in southern France, he said, someone pointed and said, "Those three bullet holes were from the last time the Germans were here."

The group plays dozens of gigs each year, Blenkinsop said, and live shows are where the group really comes into its own. "The most important thing is just going out and playing," he said, "finding out how this night will work."

On Wednesday, Germany's 17 Hippies are joined at the Knitting Factory in Manhattan by the New York-based Luminescent Orchestrii. These talented young musicians play an amalgamated style, borrowing largely from Eastern Europe. Tickets are $15; visit www.knittingfactory.com or call (212) 219-3132