Rammstein

Rammstein
© Bryan Adams
Origin:	Berlin, Germany
Active:	1994 - Present
Genre:	Neue Deutsche Härte
Website:	www.rammstein.de
Members:
Till Lindemann: Vocals
Richard Kruspe: Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Paul Landers: Rhythm Guitar
Christian Lorenz: Keyboard
Christoph Schneider: Drums
Oliver Riedel: Bass

For other uses, see Rammstein (disambiguation).

Rammstein is a band from Germany, founded in 1994. Since then the band has sold over 10,000,000 albums worldwide and is Germany's most successful music export ever.

Lineup

• Till Lindemann: Vocals
• Richard Kruspe: Lead guitar, back vocals
• Paul Landers: Rhythm guitar
• Dr. Christian "Flake" Lorenz: Keyboard
• Christoph "Doom" Schneider: Drums
• Oliver Riedel: Bass

Live replacements

• Daron Malakian: Rhythm guitar, as a replacement for Paul in 2001.
• Alf Ator: Keyboard, as a replacement for Flake in 2009.

Beginnings

Full article: Rammstein Biography

Rammstein was founded in Berlin in 1994 by Richard Kruspe on lead guitar and Christoph Schneider on drums. Other members joined the band later. In the same year, the band started working with their first manager, Falco Richter. However, he was later fired in favor of their second, long-time manager, Emanuel Fialik. They split in 2010.

Name

At first, the band used the name Feeling B, from Flake and Paul's old band of the same name.
Before agreeing on the band's name, Rammstein had other different names in mind. Some of these were:

• Tempelprayers
• Mutter
• Milch
• Erde

After considering several options, the band settled on Rammstein as their name. It was inspired by a tragic incident that occurred on 28 August 1988, at the US air base near Ramstein, Germany. During an air show, three planes collided, causing one to crash into a crowd of spectators and killing around 70 people while injuring nearly 1,000 others. The band chose to spell the name with two "M's" based on their assumption that the air base was spelled that way, although many news outlets had misspelled it.

The first version of the name was "Rammstein-Flugschau". Paul, Flake, and Schneider already had that name written inside their Robur Lo during their time in Feeling B. They accidentally wrote Rammstein with two "M"s instead of one. At first, Rammstein denied the connection between their name and the accident, afraid of being associated with its gravity. In early interviews, the band claimed to be influenced by the name "Rolling Stone."

Controversy

• 1995: Herzeleid album cover: The cover shows all six members of the band and their sweaty bodies. The press said, that the band would show themselves off as "Herrenmenschen". Till later described it as a "Broilerfoto" and Richard says, that the accusations of the press are totally stupid, because "it is just a photo".

• 1998: Stripped video: The video for Stripped is a montage of the film "Fest der Völker" by Leni Riefenstahl. Even Hitler worked with her on that film. And for those reasons, Rammstein were accused of being Nazis. The band just chose the video, because it showed perfect sports and synchronized movements. Even Till's daughter came up to him and asked if he played in a Nazi band.

• 2001: Mutter album cover: The cover for the third album Mutter shows a conserved baby, which already died 200 years ago. The church found that cover "disgusting".

• 2019: Deutschland video: The music video for Rammstein's song Deutschland features scenes involving the Holocaust; some band members portrayed Nazis and others members of affected minorities from the time period. There was a significant amount of backlash from this, including, most notably, a public online rant by Oomph!'s lead singer, Dero Goi.

Discography

Full article: Rammstein Discography

Up to now Rammstein have released eight studio albums:

• 1995: Herzeleid
• 1997: Sehnsucht
• 2001: Mutter
• 2004: Reise, Reise
• 2005: Rosenrot
• 2009: Liebe ist für alle da
• 2019: Rammstein
• 2022: Zeit

Logos

Over the years, Rammstein have adopted many logos alongside their most famous one designed by Dirk Rudolph.
A full gallery of the band's former logos can be found here.

Merchandise

Self-Made

1994 T-Shirt
Shortsleeve shirt
Sold at:	Club Tour shows
Released:	1994

1994 Sticker
Sticker
Released:	1994

1994 Poster
Concert poster
Sold at:	Club Tour shows
Released:	1994

See Also

• Band Apparel
• List of Rammstein performances
• List of unreleased projects