Noisy guitars, drums hitting like a machine gun, screaming instead of singing: It was dirty fun punk. Saddle Up was the name of the album and the band was called First Arsch (First ass). On the guitars: Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers. Till Lindemann was at the drums. That was in 1992. You can recognize the musical connection with Rammstein by listening to the fifth track of that album, "Crowded House": a wall of guitars and Lindemann's signature vocals, in English. It would, however, take three more years for the band Rammstein to officially be created.

Punk in East Germany

It all started in the 1970s, in the "most boring country in the world," as journalist and author Torsten Preuss described East Germany in his book, Wir wollen immer artig sein (We always want to be good), which details subculture in the GDR. The punk scene reached East Germany from the West, and for the bored youth, this anarchic music style felt like a supernova and so they started adopting it.

Punks in East Berlin in 1989

They had fun watching the reaction of state authorities to their brightly colored hair, their anarchist symbols and their studded leather wristbands. The punks had a "decadent appearance," it was claimed — and this encouraged teens to keep on celebrating their bold lifestyle.

They would meet in squats and hidden cellars, clubs and barns, playing under impossible conditions. Sometimes they had a single microphone, and an assistant had to pass the mic around when several singers were on stage. They built their amplifiers themselves from old tube radios, and played cheap instruments from Russia and the Czech Republic. The cheaper the drums sounded, the more "punk" the sound was.

Squat cellars were turned into concert halls

Illegal, decadent and influenced by Western ideology

Many of their concerts were illegal. The police and the Stasi, the secret state police, would regularly show up at the door. Punks were considered to be subversive elements, since they openly opposed the GDR regime. The Stasi wanted to set an example by arresting the musicians and imprisoning them. Three members of the band Namenlos (Nameless) were sentenced to 12 and 18 months of prison. Other punks were forced to leave the country.

People listened to punk music through Western radio; they shared their own music on cassettes since the official GDR label, Amiga, wouldn't touch anything of the genre.

The underground scene despised established bands like the Puhdys, Karat or City, who with their "conformed" GDR rock style were also allowed to play in the West, even though those bands also faced GDR censorship — which, of course, officially didn't exist. They managed to trick the censors by using metaphors that made it impossible for their songs to be forbidden.

The Eimer was an underground club in a Berlin squat on Rosenthaler Strasse from 1990 to 2001

The underground remained non-conformist and provocative across the board. The songs talked about the dreary everyday lives of people living in their Plattenbau — prefabricated concrete tower blocks — or the destruction of the environment, Stasi spies, Nazi hate. The musicians faced repression, as the state had the clear goal to dismantle this subversive scene.

The Stasi had unofficial collaborators infiltrate the scene and managed to some extent to at least partially suppress it. However, the secret state police had underestimated the power of this exciting and free subculture, which kept attracting new people to join the movement.

Punk becomes socially acceptable

Finally, in the mid-1980s, East German authorities realized that they could no longer stop the underground scene from emerging. So the state suddenly decided to let go, allowing concerts and entire festivals to take place. Underground bands were played on the radio, for example on the youth channel DT 64, and the genre received an official name: "The other bands."

A concert in a courtyard on Oderberger Strasse in 1985

Among those "other bands" was the group Feeling B, founded in 1983. Their keyboardist was the 16-year-old Christian "Flake" Lorenz, while Paul Landers, then 18, played guitar. Feeling B was one of the first underground bands to be officially sanctioned by the state as an "amateur dance music formation," allowing them to make their music and give concerts. Their lyrics weren't particularly political; they rather embodied the Fun-Punk genre that celebrated drinking and partying — which was in itself another form of opposition to the GDR establishment.

Till Lindemann's band First Arsch was also among the accepted groups. The musicians from both bands met within the scene, partying together or appearing on stage at each other's concerts. They'd share instruments and even were roommates at some point.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Music made of nightmares Knowing no taboos, Rammstein have managed to infuse their performances with humanity's darkest nightmares. It's all about violence and murderous fantasies, cannibalism and various unthinkable acts of horror. They delight in crossing the line, and their provocations are celebrated by a legion of fans. Rammstein is one-of-a-kind — and the band members are worldwide stars.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Eastern punk heritage Come from East Berlin and Schwerin, the members first performed in seminal acts within the East German underground punk scene. Guitarist Paul Landers and keyboardist Flake Lorenz played in Feeling B; singer Till Lindemann was with First Arsch, bassist Oliver Riedel with The Inchtabokatables, guitarist Richard Kruspe in Orgasm Death Gimmick, and drummer Christoph Schneider in Die Firma.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Appearances are deceiving They actually look like nice guys. This photo was taken in 1995 when the band was one year old. "Herzeleid" (Heartbreak), the first LP, had gruesome texts on issues like child abuse in "Weisses Fleisch" (White Flesh), and necrophilia in "Heirate mich" (Marry Me). All that to harsh guitar riffs, merciless percussion and an edgy electro sound. It reached No. 6 in the German album charts.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock God knows I'm no angel "Engel" (Angel) in 1997 was the breakthrough. Given much airtime on the MTV and Viva music channels, it was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's film "From Dusk Till Dawn." The second album, "Sehnsucht" (Longing), went platinum both in Germany and in the US. Rammstein's contribution to the soundtrack of David Lynch's film "Lost Highway" kickstarted their career in the US.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock A plea for tolerance in a Hawaiian shirt Aren't they sweet? The surf boys pose on the Californian beach with pretty bikini-clad girls and sing about the foreigner that is unwelcome. The happy images collide with the hard, rapid industrial beat. When "Mein Land" (My Country, 2011) comes to an end, the candy-colored beach party is over, and it's back to familiar Rammstein imagery with fire and scowling faces.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Inter-generational collaboration In a crossover phase, German folk music star Heino covered well-known rock and pop songs, including Rammstein's "Sonne" (Sun). In 2013, the group invited Heino to join them onstage at Wacken Open Air. Facing 75,000 metal fans and flanked by flames and smoke, Heino sang together with Rammstein — looking slightly startled. The periodical "Metal-Hammer" tweeted: "Did Heino know where he'd landed?"

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Heroes onscreen The film of the Rammstein concert in New York's Madison Square Garden, and the documentary "Rammstein in Amerika," premiered in movie theaters on September 24, 2015. The DVD climbed to No. 1 in the DVD charts in 13 countries. Rammstein has conquered four of the world's five biggest music markets: the US, Great Britain, France and Germany.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock Cultivated pyromaniac Rammstein lead singer Till Lindemann likes to shock with his outre makeup. But under the wild man exterior, Till's a sensitive, contemplative soul who published a collection of poetry titled "Messer" (Knife) in 2002. Meanwhile, the 56-year-old got his buff physique from high-performance swimming. And what about his love of fire? Lindemann took a course in pyrotechnics in 1996.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock 10 years of waiting Rammstein's 7th studio album (untitled) was released on May 17, 2019. It was an eagerly awaited release, coming 10 years after the previous one. It garnered plenty of media attention ahead of its release, in part due to the music video for the single "Deutschland," which portrayed concentration camp prisoners. It became Germany's best-selling album of 2019.

Rammstein, the dark gods of hard rock A duo As of February 4, 2020, Rammstein's frontman, Till Lindemann, has been on a European tour — without the rest of the band. He is accompanied by Swedish metal guitarist Peter Tagtgren, whom he has been working with for the past five years. The duo's second album, "F&M," includes Lindemann singing in German — a change from the pair's previous English-only production. Author: Silke Wünsch (rf)



When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the underground scene appeared to have lost its purpose. Feeling B disbanded. "Everything died in the years following Reunification. Through the system change, we no longer had an enemy; we were disorientated. We noticed that if we'd keep going with our funny little thing, no one in the West would be interested," Flake once told Spiegel magazine online.

At that time, Till Lindemann happened to win a band competition with his new project, called Tempelprayers. The band included drummer Christoph Schneider and guitarist Richard Kruspe. They got the Feeling B members to join them and tried to find a way to "really make trouble," as Flake told Spiegel — something decidedly more brazen than their funny punk from the GDR days. That turned out to be Rammstein.

No pyrotechnics yet: One of the first Rammstein concerts in Görkwitz in 1994

In 1995, their first album, Herzeleid, came out and was an explosive hit. Already the name of the band felt hard: Rammstein was a reference to the to US Air Force base, infamous for its air show disaster in 1988, during which 70 people were killed. Lindemann's lyrics in the song "Rammstein – ein Mensch brennt" (Rammstein – a man is burning) were provocative. In the chorus of "Heirate mich" (Marry me), instead of "Hei! Hei! Hei!" people heard "Heil" — known as the Hitler salute.

Flames, fire, death, inbreeding, violence, sex, necrophilia, perversion — these were all part of Lindemann's lyrics. He himself played the role of the child molester, the murderer or the psychopath. To top it off, the band had a militaristic style and Lindemann's singing made the German language sound more "German" than it actually is. Rammstein was quickly brandished as a far-right band. The band members regularly had to position themselves against the political right-wing to clarify that they did not associate with it.

There's always room for interpretation in Rammstein songs. The musicians learned that skill from their experience in the East German punk scene. "If you look at the lyrics of GDR bands, you notice how good some of them are, when they manage to address a topic indirectly. We're still strongly connected to this past," Christoph Schneider told Stern magazine in 2001.

The cover of their latest album, "Rammstein"

Rammstein has now been touring the world for nearly 25 years, staying true to their style and still managing to stir controversy. The most recent scandal came with their video "Deutschland," with a scene referring to the darkest chapter of German history, depicting a concentration camp execution scene with the band members dressed as inmates wearing the Yellow Star. The video includes other scenes referencing practically the entire history of the country. And while the word "Deutschland" is roared throughout the song, the following line is definitely not one for Nazis: "Deutschland: I cannot give you my love."

Rammstein remain as ambivalent as they've always been, with one difference: In unified Germany, they won't get arrested for criticizing the system.