Rammstein is on the verge of breaking up due to the frontman’s behavior at sex parties after concerts

Rammstein is on tour, which began after the release of their untitled 2019 album and continues after the release of Zeit (2022). Everything goes to the fact that at the end of the current tour, the team will end its existence. The reason is the aggressive behavior of frontman Till Lindemann at sex parties after concerts, which was announced by the victims of the star. The situation was assessed Igor Gavrilov.

At the end of May, Rammstein fan Shelby Lynn spoke on social networks about how she went through a special online casting for girls who want to be in the front row of the dance partner and chat with the band’s frontman during her stay in Vilnius. Before the concert, she was escorted backstage, where she was treated to alcohol and offered to meet with Till Lindemann right during the show. During the concert, Shelby Lynn, according to her assumption, came into a state of drug intoxication. During the concert, she was taken to the room where Lindemann entered, but she refused to be close to the singer, which infuriated him. She also attended the afterparty. There was no sexual violence, but the girl posted on the network traces of beatings, the origin of which remained unclear to herself – she does not remember the details. In the Lithuanian police, Shelby Lynn was offered to take a drug test, which turned out to be negative. But at home, in Ireland, she was nevertheless interrogated.

In a study by the newspaper Die Welt, dedicated to Till Lindemann’s relationship with fans, journalists cite similar cases that took place earlier in the Dutch city of Nijmegen (there, a German woman whom the newspaper calls “Sarah J.” fell under Lindemann’s hot hand) and in British Cardiff (a witness to the events was “Catarina F.”). And a certain Linda K. told reporters about how she was subjected to direct sexual violence in Lindemann’s hotel room. After Shelby Lynn’s tweets, several other girls spoke about similar episodes. The Shelby Lynn case is so far the only one that the police have officially paid attention to.

In all journalistic texts devoted to the special entertainments of Till Lindemann, they mention the “casting director” of the Rammstein group Alena Makeeva. It was she who entered into correspondence with girls who wanted to get to know the singer better and decorate his “room with black sofas and a refrigerator” with her presence. Shelby Lynn spoke directly to her. Die Welt cites a fragment of an interview with Alena Makeeva, which says that she comes from a small Russian village and that she has dreamed of close communication with the stars all her life. In her Instagram account (the social network is banned in the Russian Federation), she really refers to herself as a “casting director”, indicates her status as “on tour with @till_lindemann_official” and posts a photo with the singer. But now, after the scandals of recent weeks, in response to even the most innocent photos, she receives comments like “you ruined a lot of lives.”

The Rammstein group made several statements, from which it follows that the scandal is overblown, there is no official investigation, and Lindemann is a real gentleman. The same point of view is shared by his ex-girlfriend Sofia Thomalla. In an interview with Bild, she called Lindemann a man who always stands up for women, and even questioned the veracity of Shelby Lynn’s statements.

However, no one denies the very fact of sex parties. “Kommersant” wrote about the specifics of Till Lindemann’s leisure time on May 7, 2021, and a year earlier, revelations of a girl who got to the singer’s private party in Yekaterinburg appeared on the website justmedia.ru. Just then, the video of Lindemann’s solo project Na Chui “Till The End” appeared, after which the participants in the filming were forced to close their accounts. “Till is a vulnerable, sensitive person, but a ferocious beast lives in him,” Eduard Ratnikov (TCI), a permanent organizer of Rammstein tours in Russia, said in an interview with Kommersant. “But first of all, we should not forget that he is an artist, a jester.”

Berlin-based law firm Schertz Bergmann said recently that all the allegations against its client Till Lindemann are untrue, and “legal action” will be taken against women who have accused the frontman of harassment. Nevertheless, now there is a black stripe in the biography of Rammstein, it cannot be blacker. Concerts are on schedule, but the first bells of “cancellation” are already being heard. While the band is touring its native Germany, in a survey organized by the market and social research institute INSA, 45% of respondents were in favor of stopping the tour “until all circumstances are clarified.” It is unlikely that anyone will cancel the concerts, it is too difficult to stop this car. However, the publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, which published two books by the singer, has already announced the termination of cooperation with Lindemann.

According to Kommersant’s sources close to the group, Lindemann’s behavior has not aroused sympathy among colleagues for a long time. Rammstein may have broken up a few years ago, and yet 2019’s album was a huge success around the world, and “Zeit”, coined during the pandemic, struck the audience with dark prophecies and actual poetic insights. Tickets for current shows are sold out completely. Rammstein are not only a huge stadium band – they remain one of the most cohesive and productive writing teams in modern music. Rammstein sing about time in a way that people all over the world really want to hear, even though they sing exclusively in German. It would be a pity if the band disbanded after the current tour. However, Till Lindeman will not be left without work. Tickets for his autumn-winter solo tour are on sale, some concerts are already sold out. It remains to be seen how far the “cancellation” of the artist will go.