After women reported being drugged or sexually assaulted at Rammstein concerts and after-parties, the German rock band has spoken out.
So far, several women have come forward with allegations of drugging or abuse, per The Hollywood Reporter.
In an official statement on Monday, Rammstein said it takes the allegations “extremely seriously” but maintained the group has a right not to be “pre-judged.”
On May 25, a 24-year-old fan from Northern Ireland wrote in social media posts that she had been contacted by an Instagram user offering access to “row zero,” the row immediately in front of the stage, for Rammstein’s May 23 concert in Vilnius, Lithuania, according to The Guardian.
The fan said that on the night of the Vilnius concert, she was taken to a changing room under the stage where Till Lindemann, Rammstein’s lead singer, joined her and reacted angrily when she said she wouldn’t have sex with him.
After drinking two alcoholic drinks at a pre-concert party, the fan started acting erratically and experiencing memory gaps, she recounted. She said she worried that her drink had been spiked and took a urine test, but the test did not detect drugs in her system.
She later wrote on social media that Lindemann “did not touch” her and “accepted” that she didn’t want to have sex. “I never claimed he raped me,” she added.
The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, however, reported the experience of another woman who said that she passed out after drinking alcohol at a Rammstein after-show party in Vienna in 2019 and woke up to find Lindemann on top of her, as The Guardian reports.
Amid the allegations — which the band has denied — the publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch cut ties with Lindemann after previously releasing collections of his poetry, and the drugstore chain Rossmann has pulled its Rammstein-branded perfume, per THR.
Authorities in Lithuania have contacted the fan from Northern Ireland but have not decided whether to open a criminal investigation, The Guardian reports.
Meanwhile, Rammstein has made adjustments to their concert tour ahead of their upcoming shows in Munich. The band has shored up security, canceled afterparty events and removed the “row zero” experience, THR adds.