Is there still a Rammstein case? Across the Rhine, the question has been debated since the Berlin prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday August 29 that it had ended the proceedings against Till Lindemann, the singer of the famous German metal band, suspected of having drugged and sexually assaulted young women. came to attend his concerts.
“There is no evidence that the accused had sexual intercourse with women against their will, that he administered substances likely to alter their will or that he took advantage of sexual intercourse forcibly with minors to induce them to have sexual relations”justified the prosecution, which had opened an investigation against Till Lindemann, in mid-June, following the publication of several testimonies on social networks and in the German press.
The reaction of the singer was not long in coming. “I thank all those who awaited the end of the investigation with impartiality”he wrote on Instagram, after the announcement of the prosecution. In a press release posted on X (formerly Twitter), his lawyers were more forthcoming and above all more threatening: “With the closure of the criminal investigation, it appears that the serious accusations made against our client on social networks and in the media were not based on anything. On this basis, we will take civil action if the latter is again the subject of unfounded suspicion. »
Sold out concerts
For Till Lindemann, this decision is obviously a victory, three months after the start of an affair that shook him without alienating his audience. Admittedly, the 60-year-old singer was let go in June by his publishing house, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, with whom he published three collections of poems. True, Universal Music has stopped promoting Rammstein’s records. Despite this, sales of albums by the group, founded in 1994, literally soared in June and July.
His European tour, which began on May 20 in Vilnius, Lithuania, just five days before the first charges against the singer, was an undeniable success: from Bern to Brussels via Lisbon, Madrid, Vienna, Budapest or Saint- Denis, near Paris, the concerts were sold out. In Berlin, where three dates were scheduled, in mid-July, the 60,000 seats of the Olympic stadium were also taken by storm. In the end, everything went as planned – apart from the presence in certain cities of demonstrators opposed to the arrival of the group, such as in Berlin and Vienna, where there were several hundred.
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