Rammstein MeToo Scandal: Fans Unfazed as Abuse Claims Rock the Band’s Reputation

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  Walter Black

  correspondent Germany

Part of Germany may be shocked by the MeToo scandal surrounding the singer of rock band Rammstein, but the fans don’t seem to be. 60,000 spectators were served a show as usual in Munich last night. Although, not quite: “Where did the penis gun go?!”

Two weeks ago, Northern Ireland’s Shelby Lynn was the first to go public on social media. Photos showed her body, full of bruises, which she said she had received during a Rammstein concert in Vilnius.

Lynn is said to have been invited in during the performance Row Zero, an exclusive zone, next to and below the stage, where mostly young women have access to the artists. There would be plenty of alcohol and drugs used, after which women, sometimes unconscious, are led into dark rooms to have sex with Lindemann.

Lynn was still alone at the end of May, but she is now receiving support from several women with similar experiences. A testimonial by Youtuber Kayla Shyx was viewed three and a half million times in two days. In it she talks in detail about a system of recruitment, in which employees of Lindemann deliberately select female fans from the audience.

These ‘Till’s Girls’ would be pampered at after-parties, then sequestered, and prepped with booze and drugs for a meeting with the singer. Shyx describes the fear and pressure she felt not to say no: “I realized I was only being brought here in case Till Lindemann wanted to have sex with me. A terrible feeling.”

Since the revelations about the abuse of power and the subsequent media storm, some 2000 fans have sold their tickets for the Rammstein concerts. That is less than 1 percent of the total number of tickets sold. Last night’s concert was the first of a total of four performances in Munich, attracting a total of nearly a quarter of a million fans. In July the band will also give two concerts in Groningen.

“Of course I was shocked,” says Lena (57) in line at the Olympiastadion, “but these kinds of accusations have been around for decades, haven’t they? The Rolling Stones, Elvis, that’s how you can keep going.” Her husband, with whom she has often visited Rammstein concerts, also does not understand the fuss: “I think someone is innocent as long as nothing has been proven. So we’ll see. Let’s enjoy the show first.”

And they get that show. For more than two hours, fans are treated to the well-known bombastic Rammstein shock rock. During the number Puppet (Pop), a baby carriage goes up in flames and during my part cannibalistic cook Lindemann cooks keyboardist Christian Lorenz in a pot over fire. Still, compared to previous concerts, the brakes seem to be tightened somewhat.

Most striking is the absence of Lindemann’s famous penis cannon, a mechanical tube with which he shoots sperm-like foam into the audience. Also there is none Row Zero to see. The municipality of Munich had emphatically insisted on this.

“You can’t ban performances, we have freedom of expression in Germany,” says city councilor David Süss, who has been a concert organizer for many years. “But such a system of abuse of power is unacceptable in this city.”

He advocates a permanent ban on separate fan zones, better security measures on the concert grounds and the arrival of so-called awareness teams that monitor potentially undesirable behavior and are a point of contact for people who feel unsafe.

Rammstein himself left all the fuss undiscussed last night. During the number I want singer Lindemann chuckled at the lyrics “I want you to understand me”. He did hit the song Pussy (“Beauty Fräulein, want more, blitzkrieg with the meat gun”) deze keer over.

The public hardly noticed. That enjoyed an evening full of greatest hits. Disappointment was really only about one thing, when leaving the stadium: “Where was that penis cannon!?”