Lindemann withdraws injunction against petition

According to the Berlin district court, the recruitment system around Lindemann can probably be described as “sexual abuse”.

According to information from NDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, Till Lindemann’s lawyer Simon Bergmann has withdrawn an application for an injunction against Campact, with which he wanted to have certain formulations in a petition on the campaign platform banned by a court.

Before the three Rammstein concerts in Berlin in mid-July, the petition entitled “No stage for Rammstein” had been signed by almost 78,000 people. The petition called for the concerts to be cancelled. Berlin should not become a place for sexual abuse. “The Rammstein singer Till Lindemann is said to have sexually abused young women at concerts in rows and systematically,” says the short text.

Lindemann wanted to have the wording banned

Lindemann wanted the platform to ban these and similar formulations in the text of the petition. However, Campact did not sign the requested cease-and-desist declaration because the organization “does not want to be prohibited from using clear words”. In a preliminary note during the course of the proceedings, the Berlin Regional Court was open to the opposing party’s arguments.

The term “sexual abuse” should be considered a permissible expression of opinion against the background of the “undisputed sexual contacts of the applicant in connection with his concerts,” according to the letter from the court dated July 27, which is available to NDR and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. .

The press chamber also wrote in its note: “Sexual abuse” does not correspond to any specific criminal offense. “The designation as a ‘perpetrator’ of sexual abuse is not to be equated with the claim that the applicant has been criminally convicted or even only has to defend himself against criminal allegations.”

“No longer relevant”

As a result, Lindemann’s lawyer Simon Bergmann withdrew the application on August 10th. Since the concerts were “long ago”, the ban sought was no longer relevant, he wrote to the court as a justification.

Campact interprets Lindemann’s withdrawal as an admission of defeat. It was “an important signal” for everyone who had publicly commented on the incidents at Rammstein concerts, said Felix Kolb, CEO of Campact. “And hopefully it will also encourage people in other cases to go public with their experiences.” Lindemann’s strategy of silencing all critics ultimately failed, said Kolb.

The Hamburg Regional Court had previously determined in another case that there was a system around Lindemann in which women were recruited for after-show parties with plenty of alcohol and sex. “The fact that a band maintains such a system is an event of high public interest that is particularly noteworthy,” the court said.

According to research by NDR and SZ, around half a dozen people have been involved in this system in recent years, including Lindemann’s manager and former bodyguard.

According to the district court in Hamburg, Lindemann’s privacy was not violated

The district court in Hamburg had also ruled that Lindemann’s privacy would not be violated by the reporting. After all, he had made parts of his sex life public himself, according to the reasoning. The court referred to a video that was shown at his solo concerts. In it you can see how the singer has sex with visitors to a concert in a device specially installed under the stage.

In the past few weeks, several women had reported to NDR and SZ about situations that they felt were offensive. Lindemann and other members of Rammstein are taking legal action against parts of the reporting by NDR and SZ.

On August 15, 2023, the Hamburg Regional Court provisionally prohibited NDR from reproducing the description of a woman who came into contact with Rammstein members after a concert in Gera in 1996. On August 10, the district court temporarily prohibited the NDR from writing about sexual acts that the women had not consented to in relation to descriptions by young women from the past few years. The NDR is currently examining whether to appeal against the decisions.