Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann has been given the boot by his publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch, as more allegations surface following an incident during the band’s show at Vilnius, Lithuania. The move was announced in a social media post from the publishing house, which has since been translated.
Originally reported by the German arm of Metal Hammer, the publisher announced that Lindemann was immediately dropped as a client not only after the alleged incident at a recent show, but also after they learned that a book he published through them was allegedly featured prominently in a pornographic video filmed by the frontman.
“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.
“In the course of current reporting, we became aware of a porn 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 rate this as gross breach of trust and as a ruthless act in relation to the values we represent as a publisher.
“We defend the freedom of art with full conviction. Through Till Lindemann’s actions that humiliate women in the aforementioned porn 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, is mocked by the author himself.
“From our point of view, Till Lindemann exceeds immovable limits in dealing with women. 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.”
This news also comes out after new allegations of sexual misconduct and impropriety have been reported by German news outlet Tagesschau. According to their reporting, several women have allegedly come forth with stories of their own experiences with the singer, with at least two of those women claiming they were subjected to non-consensual sex acts.
In one report, the incident took place in February 2020 when a then 22-year-old woman referred to as Cynthia A. was backstage at a show when Lindemann asked her to come to him in a secluded room, where he allegedly forced her to have sex.
“At that moment I just thought: Oh my God, that hurts, hopefully it will be over soon,” says Cynthia A. She describes that she was in pretty bad pain and cramped. Lindemann “must have noticed that it wasn’t easy to sleep with me. I bled afterwards and it lasted maybe ten minutes.”
Everything was “pretty fast and pretty violent”. “But I didn’t want to say that it hurts either, because it was Till Lindemann.” The woman did not specifically say no, but felt extremely uncomfortable.
Tagesschau reports that they were able to corroborate those claims after speaking with several of the woman’s friends, who were told of the incident that Cynthia A. now describes as “assault and abuse of power.”
Reporters also interviewed another woman, referred to as Kaya R., who was 21 when she had an incident following an after-show party. According to her recollection, she awoke in a hotel room to find Lindemann lying on her as she came to, at which point he allegedly asked her if she wanted him to stop.
“I didn’t even know what he wanted to stop doing.”
She alleged further that his team of handlers later offered her drugs, which she refused. The following morning, she allegedly woke up in another room and attempted to find Lindemann to ask if he’d been wearing a condom during the encounter, which she could not recall.
Reporters with Tagesschau say they’ve personally conducted interviews with these women, corroborated parts of their testimony with other individuals, and have reportedly even seen chat logs that fall in line with their claims. They also said their findings revealed a systematic approach at getting women for Lindemann’s alleged sexual exploits.
“In conversations with the reporters, more than a dozen women reported how they had been specifically approached by several people from Lindemann’s environment, often via Instagram or on the concerts themselves in order to come to after-show parties specially organized for Lindemann. This is what happened in different cities across Europe, always with a very similar process.The women should have sent photos of themselves in advance, or photos and videos were taken on site. The women were asked beforehand to dress attractively, to dress up in a certain way.
“A woman reports that she was clearly informed that access to the concert and after-show party is only available if there is an interest in sexual intercourse with Lindemann – and that Lindemann, who is now 60, only wants very young women to attend. Some of the women were not asked their age, although they were offered free alcohol and illegal drugs at the parties.Several of these women have sworn their stories. In addition, numerous screenshots from WhatsApp and Instagram chats as well as photos document the women’s statements. In response to specific questions from NDR and SZ, neither Lindemann nor the management of Rammstein commented on the allegations. People who initiated the contacts with the women did not respond when asked.”
All of this follows the allegations from last week where an Irish woman named Shelby Lynn made allegations that she was drugged at the Rammstein show in Vilnius, Lithuania. She’d said she denied Lindemann’s advances, but still wound up at her hotel with bruises she didn’t remember having prior to allegedly being drugged.
Rammstein’s camp denied the allegations, saying in a tweet that they could “rule out the possibility that what is being claimed took place in our environment.”
Ever since Lynn’s allegations were made public, multiple women have come forward with accusations of their own, as well as a detailed outline as to how women are allegedly chosen for the pre- and post-show parties.
Let the record show that while these allegations aren’t to be taken lightly, the allegations leveled by these women are still just allegations at the moment, as no charges have formally been filed.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit RAINN.org for more resources.