SOURCE: www.nme.com By Liberty Dunworth
Rammstein have issued a statement following the accusations raised against frontman Till Lindemann, who was dropped from his book publisher after being accused of drink spiking and sexual misconduct.
The allegations against the German singer-songwriter first arose last month, when a fan took to social media claiming to have been spiked at a pre-show party.
As reported by Loudwire, the accusations came from a Reddit user going by the name of Shelby69666, who uploaded a now-deleted post titled “Fuck Rammstein” that showed a photo of a large bruise with the caption “Spiked, no idea when this happened.”
According to the report, she had attended the band’s concert in Vilnius the day before and was invited to a pre-party by a crew member. After numerous threads related to the initial update were deleted from Reddit due to them being considered hearsay, an account with a Shelby69666 username appeared on Twitter, elaborating on the allegations.
Here the user explained that she had contacted a crew member who allegedly recruits women to stand in the front row at Rammstein concerts, and was later escorted with a group of women to “Row 0” — a pre-party where she was allegedly spiked and shouted at by the frontman when she said she didn’t want to have sex with him.
After returning to “Row 0”, she claimed to have vague memories of attending an afterparty, vomiting in a bathroom and returning to her hotel room. She has made it clear in her posts that she is not accusing Lindemann of rape, stating: “Till did NOT touch me. He accepted I did not want to have sex with him”. Following the accusations, the band denied any wrongdoing.
Elsewhere, last Friday (June 2) German Publication Tagesschau published a report that contained new charges from other women, all of which accused the frontman of sexual assault.
Now, Lindemann has been dropped by his book publisher, Kiepenheuer & Witsch following the allegations, and the band have issued a second statement online.
Announcing the news on Twitter, the publishing house — which also goes by the acronym KiWi — wrote (translated from German): “It is with shock that we have followed public allegations against Till Lindemann in the last few days. Our sympathy and respect goes to the women affected.”
It also proceeded to reference a recently-earthed “porn video in which Till Lindemann celebrates sexual violence against women” as contributing to the decision to part ways with the singer, as well as citing Lindemann’s book of poetry On Quiet Nights, which was published by the company and contained sections of erotica. The latter, it described as a “gross breach of trust” and “a ruthless act in relation to the values we represent as a publisher.”
“From our point of view, Till Lindemann exceeds immovable limits in dealing with women,” it read. “We have therefore decided to end our collaboration with Till Lindemann with immediate effect, as our relationship of trust with the author has been irretrievably broken.”
Responding to both the comments from the publishing house and the accusations raised by Tagesschau, the band have once again denied all allegations on social media, and urged fans to withhold from joining in the “public prejudice” against the members and those coming forward with accusations.
“The publications of the last few days have caused irritation and questions among the public and especially among our fans. The allegations hit us all very hard, and we take them extremely seriously,” the statement wrote. “We say to our fans: It is important to us that you feel comfortable and safe at our shows – in front of and behind the stage.”
“We condemn any kind of transgression and ask you: Do not engage in public prejudice of any kind against those who have made allegations,” it continued. “You have a right to your point of view. But we, the band, also have a right – namely not to be prejudiced either.”
At time of writing, Lindemann’s upcoming shows — which include a solo show at London’s Wembley Arena — are still set to take place as scheduled.
NME has reached out to a spokesperson for Lindemann and Rammstein for further comment.