Rammstein's 10 Biggest Controversies

10. The First Album Art Controversy

The title of this entry, much like many Rammstein lyrics, has a bit of a double meaning. Not only was there controversy surrounding the artwork for the band’s first full length record, but also it was the first of several throughout Rammstein’s nearly 30 year career. We won’t get too ahead of ourselves but it’s safe to say that the release of Herzeleid really set the stage for the controversy-laden careers of the German sextet.

The artwork in question features the six men shirtless superimposed over a flower. The stark contrast of beauty in nature; masculinity and flesh, the fragility and delicate cycle of life. It was a bold image for a band forging a path, many of which were coming out of fractured relationships that lent the album its namesake “heartache”. However, that was not what some chose to see.

Press referred to the band as “herrenmenchen”, compared the image to the propaganda of Nazi Germany’s “Strength Through Joy” youth campaign and in general called the men supremacists. In North America, the cover got swapped in for a more straightforward photoshoot. The band were shocked by these claims and comparisons and simply chose to laugh it off, with guitarist Richard Kruspe reflecting on it later as “a bad photo” and “more like an ad for a gay porn video”. Hard to disagree with that take, really.