From Reise, Reise · 2004 · Track 6
Amerika
«America»
More from the album · Reise, Reise
In context
A song about Americanization written half in German and half in English, so that its form does exactly what its lyrics denounce.
- Americanization
- Consumerism
- Denglisch
- Origin
- Single released on 6 September 2004, from “Reise, Reise”. The video shows the band in spacesuits on a lunar set, intercut with people around the world taking up symbols of American consumerism; at the end it is revealed that everything is a set, a nod to the moon-landing theories. Till's suit bears the name “Armstrong”.
- The German key
- It is written in “Denglisch”, the mix of German and English that Germans use, and complain about, every day: verses in German, chorus in English. The central play is on sound — “wunderbar” (wonderful) and “Wonderbra”, the bra brand, sound almost the same, and the lyrics put the brand next to Coca-Cola. Praise and product collapse into the same syllable. There is another nod: “This is not a love song” quotes Public Image Ltd (1983), John Lydon's band after the Sex Pistols.
- What the band has said
- The band did not present it as an anti-American pamphlet; the “we” of the chorus includes the one singing.
- Live
- A fixture of the setlist since 2004, almost always near the end of the show.
Our reading
The target is not the United States but the rest of the world's willingness to consume it. For a Latin American audience it lands differently: it uses “Amerika” in the German sense — the United States — which is exactly the usage people in Colombia correct, since for them America is the whole continent. The song doesn't take that up, but the friction is there.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
We're all living in Amerika Amerika ist wunderbar
Translation
We're all living in America America is wonderful
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
The joke is the language
“Amerika” is written in Denglisch, the German-English blend that Germany uses — and criticizes — every day. The verses are German and the chorus is English, so the song does what it denounces: the language pushes into German through the chorus, exactly like the culture it describes.
The central play is phonetic. Wunderbar (“wonderful”) and Wonderbra — the bra brand — sound nearly identical, and the lyrics place the brand next to Coca-Cola in the list of what the world consumes. Praise and trademark collapse into the same syllable. It is a joke that only works on the border between the two languages.
There is another wink for the trained ear: the line “This is not a love song” quotes the title of the 1983 Public Image Ltd song, John Lydon’s band after the Sex Pistols. It serves as a warning: what sounds like an anthem is not one.
Context and interpretation
Released as a single on 6 September 2004, it is satire of Americanization rather than a simple anti-American pamphlet. The target is not the United States but the rest of the world’s willingness to consume it: the “we” of the chorus includes the singer.
For a Latin American audience the song lands differently. It uses “Amerika” in the German sense — the United States — which is precisely the usage that gets corrected in Colombia, where América means the whole continent. The song does not engage with that, but the friction is there and is worth naming.
The video
The band appears in spacesuits on a lunar set, intercut with people around the world adopting American consumer symbols: Buddhist monks eating hamburgers, African communities with Santa Claus imagery. The ending reveals it is all a soundstage, alluding to moon landing conspiracy theories. Till’s suit bears the name “Armstrong”.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.