New charges have been brought against Till Lindemann, the 60-year-old singer of German industrial metal band Rammstein.
Last month, a woman went public that she had been recruited to attend a so-called “Row 0” party organized around one of Rammstein’s recent shows in Vilnius, Lithuania.
According to the allegations, the woman in question claims that band employees recruited women who attended Rammstein’s show to hang out with band and crew members at a private event. The allegations specifically point to the band’s lead singer, Lindemann, as being involved in these parties, which the wife claims she discovered centered on sexual encounters.
The woman who made the allegations claimed she was drugged at the private party and woke up with bruises of unknown origin. She claims to have called the police for this case. Rammstein commented on the situation via Twitter on May 28, denying the whole story.
The band wrote: “Regarding the accusations circulating on the Internet about Vilnius, we can exclude the possibility that the alleged facts took place in our environment. We are not aware of any official investigation into this.”
However, a new report published on June 2 by Tagesschau reports disturbing allegations from several other women. The incidents in question date all the way back to early 2020, with one woman saying she woke up in a hotel bed with Lindemann lying on top of her.
The report states the following: “According to his recollection, Lindemann was lying on top of her when she regained consciousness and asked him if he should stop – [Elle raconte :] ‘I didn’t even know what he wanted to stop doing. Lindemann left soon after. Team members [de Lindemann] then offered drugs [à la femme en question]. She refused.”
The aforementioned newspaper also claims that more than a dozen women have since spoken to reporters about the nature of these “Row 0” parties organized around Rammstein’s concerts. Tagesschau reports that the various testimonies and accounts presented to them describe women of certain age groups being checked in advance by group employees to be admitted to these parties, which allegedly involve sex, drugs and the alcohol.
One of them claims to have been informed that she could only participate if she was interested in possible sexual relations with Lindemann. The report also indicates that various chat logs and screenshots of the parties organized were presented to support the claims of these women.
In response to these allegations, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, which published Lindemann’s poetry book In Stillen Nächte (In Still Night) in 2013, ended its arrangement with him. The publisher cited recent allegations and its discovery that the book had appeared in a pornographic video in which Lindemann was involved.
A statement released by the publisher states (as reported by the German branch of Metal Hammer): “It is with shock that we have followed the public allegations against Till Lindemann over the past few days. Our sympathy and respect goes out to the women involved.”
“As part of ongoing reporting, we have become aware of a pornographic video in which Till Lindemann celebrates sexual violence against women and in which the 2013 book, In Still Night, published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch plays a role. We consider this to be a gross breach of trust and an abhorrent act of the values we stand for as a publisher.”
“We defend artistic freedom with conviction. Through Till Lindemann’s actions of humiliating women in the aforementioned porn and targeted use of our book in a pornographic context, the separation between ‘lyrical I’ and author/artist, which we have so ardently defended, is derided by the author himself.”
“From our point of view, Till Lindemann crosses impassable limits in his relationship with women. We have therefore decided to end our collaboration with Till Lindemann with immediate effect, our relationship of trust with the author being irretrievably broken.”
