The articulated lorries have been driving in and out of the Olympic Stadium since last Thursday, again and again and always new ones. Their freight is unloaded with forklifts – the accessories for the four performances of the band Rammstein this week, on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Even before the musicians gave two concerts in the Danish city of Odense last weekend, the first workers in Munich started to prepare the stage for the next performances. The set-up for the elaborate show takes just under a week, so it’s no wonder that the entourage isn’t traveling with just one set of equipment on this year’s European tour. Three days after the fourth and last concert in Munich, things are already moving on at Trenčín Airport in Slovakia.
A total of 30 performances in 16 cities are on the program. The tour started in Lithuania on May 22nd and will end in Brussels on August 5th. The concerts in Munich were sold out in a short time. The rush is generally great, which can be seen from the scheduled additional dates and from the fact that, according to the band, there are only tickets left for five performances: for Lisbon (June 26), Budapest (July 11 and 12) and Vienna (July 26 and 27). The guest performances in Munich were planned as a highlight: In no other city do Rammstein make four guest appearances. In Germany, the band can only be seen in Berlin – in July, three times.
From the band’s environment it is said that a crew of about 250 people is on the road with 150 articulated lorries; 250 local emergency services would be added at the respective venues. They then lay the floor panels on the lawn, screw together the steel skeleton for the stage, wire the speakers and install flamethrowers on the stage and in the auditorium. They set up metal masts and stretched wire ropes between them, on which fire-breathing devices whizzed over the heads of the visitors during the show. “There’s a bang everywhere,” reports someone who has already been there at such a spectacle.
The roadies will also set up various barriers in Munich, including one for a section between the stage and the audience, the so-called Row Zero. There are at all major concerts, in connection with Rammstein, of course, it has recently gained inglorious fame: young women have apparently been smuggled there, who are said to have been taken later to the singer Till Lindemann, allegedly to satisfy his sexual needs before, during and after the show to satisfy. Since the Irish singer Shelby L. went public with her experiences after the start of the tour in Vilnius, allegations of sexual assault and abuse of power have accompanied the band, especially the singer Lindemann.
It was only on Monday evening that a producer of web videos named Kayla S. published a 37-minute post on YouTube, in which she describes in detail strange experiences at the after-show party after a Rammstein concert in Berlin in 2022. In less than 24 hours, the video was clicked more than 1.5 million times; more than 15 000 viewers commented on it. “Descriptions of this kind are increasing,” says Anne Hübner, the SPD parliamentary group leader in Munich’s city council. “Obviously there is a system behind it that exploits women.”
In Munich, the reports led to the fact that the city council factions of the Greens/Pink List, Left and ÖDP applied on Monday, among other things, to ban the establishment of Row Zero. The responsible district administration department (KVR) has now explicitly pointed out to the organizer that no concert visitors are allowed to stay there, only people who are entrusted with security tasks.
In this context, people close to the band said that there would also be a Row Zero in Munich, it would just look different than usual. For safety reasons, there had to be a separate area directly in front of the stage because of the pyro and fire show. Of course, between row zero and the general auditorium there is a so-called fire zone, for which special, more expensive tickets were sold. There are indications circulating on social media that the groupies are now being taken to this section marked out close to the fire. Because this area is regularly approved by the authorities for several thousand visitors, the KVR did not issue any additional requirements after the information became known. Only the basic compliance with the safety regulations is checked.
According to the KVR, the organizer Propeller Music has been “extremely cooperative” so far. He even announced, as requested by the three parliamentary groups, that a permanent contact point would be set up for women who feel harassed. The use of so-called awareness teams is also planned, as contact persons in situations that are perceived as unpleasant. A corresponding concept should be sent to the event office of the KVR “soon”, it said on Tuesday evening.
So far, Propeller Music has not commented publicly on the city’s requirements and has not responded to SZ inquiries. “At the moment I see the organizer’s duty to find a way of dealing with the allegations that doesn’t consist exclusively of silence,” criticizes SPD city councilor Hübner. Her party did not take part in Monday’s cross-party motion. “I am still of the opinion that such systems cannot be adequately counteracted by social work at the event location,” explained Hübner on Tuesday: “Prevention of violence must start much earlier in schools, because girls and women experience violence much more frequently and more likely in other contexts.” In the case of Rammstein, law enforcement agencies should clarify the extent to which criminal offenses exist.