Rammstein singer
Kiepenheuer & Witsch separates from Till Lindemann
Till Lindemann during a concert. photo
© Malte Krudewig/dpa
With his texts and his appearance, Lindemann repeatedly caused heated discussions. Now the publisher is ending the collaboration with the Rammstein frontman – and is also addressing his dealings with women.
The publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch is ending its collaboration with Rammstein singer Till Lindemann with immediate effect. The Cologne-based publishing house, which published the volumes “In silent nights” and “100 poems” with some of Lindemann’s highly controversial poems, announced its decision today.
“We have been shocked to see allegations against Till Lindemann that have become public in the past few days,” wrote publisher Kerstin Gleba. “Our sympathy and respect goes to the women affected.” The reports are about criticism of the way the 60-year-old deals with women.
“In the course of the current reporting, we became aware of a porn video in which Till Lindemann celebrates sexual violence against women and in which the book “In still night” published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2013 plays a role,” it says in the publisher’s reasoning.
Pornographic scenes with young women
In a video for the Lindemann song “Till The End” that has been circulating online for three years, the singer can be seen in numerous pornographic scenes with young women. In some sequences, a book of poetry is used and a poem is quoted.
The publisher was initially unable to find out how long this video has been known to the responsible authorities. The volume “100 Poems”, also published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, was under discussion in 2020 because of rape fantasies in the poem “When you sleep”. The publisher had protected Lindemann at the time: “The moral outrage over the text of this poem is based on a confusion between the fictional speaker, the so-called “lyrical I” and the author Till Lindemann,” it said in a statement.
Now the publisher is moving away from the singer. “We see this as a gross breach of trust and as a ruthless act against the values we represent as a publisher,” wrote publisher Gleba. “We defend the freedom of art with full conviction. Through Till Lindemann’s actions that humiliate women in the porn in question and the targeted use of our book in a pornographic context, the separation between the “lyrical I” and the author/artist, which we so staunchly defended, becomes weaker mocked by the author himself.”
Publisher: “Lindemann crosses borders in dealing with women”
From the publisher’s point of view, “Till Lindemann exceeds immovable limits for us when dealing with women”. The collaboration will end “since our relationship of trust with the author has been irretrievably broken”.
No statement was received from Till Lindemann or the band. The band tweeted on May 28: “Regarding the allegations about Vilnius circulating online, we can rule out that what is being claimed happened in our area. We are not aware of any official investigations into this.”