From RAMMSTEIN (untitled album) · 2019 · Track 1
Deutschland
«Germany»
More from the album · RAMMSTEIN (untitled album)
In context
Ten years without a studio album, and the comeback arrives with the most loaded word in the language. The song doesn't resolve the contradiction between loving the country and condemning it: it holds the whole of it, without choosing.
- National identity
- German history
- Ambivalence
- Origin
- Their first new song since “Mein Land” (2011), released on 28 March 2019, and the opening track of “Rammstein” (2019). The video, directed by Specter Berlin, runs through German history from the Roman Empire to the present.
- The German key
- The core is two rhyming verbs set side by side: “lieben” (to love) and “verdammen” (to condemn). The lyric strings together pairs of opposite adjectives about the country without settling on any of them — a catalogue of contraries that sounds like a formula in German and gets lost in translation.
- What the band has said
- The band has not explained the lyric publicly. It had, however, declared in 2006 that it would not use Nazi imagery again, which makes the choice of teaser all the more contested.
- Live
- In the Stadium Tour setlist since 2019, midway through the show, and one of the moments with the most pyrotechnics in the current repertoire.
Our reading
It is neither a patriotic anthem nor a pamphlet against Germany. It describes a bond that can be neither cut nor cleanly celebrated, something that carries a specific weight there and doesn't automatically carry over to other countries. Casting Ruby Commey, an Afro-German actress, as Germania is part of the argument, not a casting decision.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Deutschland, mein Herz in Flammen Will dich lieben und verdammen
Translation
Germany, my heart in flames I want to love you and damn you
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
Read the full lyrics at a licensed source
To love and to damn
Released on 28 March 2019, it was the band’s first new song since “Mein Land” (2011) and the lead single from its first studio album in almost ten years. And instead of returning with something comfortable, they returned with the most loaded word in the language.
The key is the pair of verbs: lieben (to love) and verdammen (to damn), rhymed and set side by side. The song does not resolve the contradiction — it holds it. It is neither a patriotic anthem nor a pamphlet against the country. It is the description of a bond that can be neither cut nor cleanly celebrated — something that carries a specific weight in Germany which does not automatically translate elsewhere.
For anyone studying German it is also a catalogue of opposing adjectives: the lyrics chain contrary pairs about the country without settling on any.
The video
Directed by Specter Berlin and premiered the same day as the single. It runs through episodes of German history, from the Roman empire to the present, with the band playing different roles in each era. Afro-German actress Ruby Commey plays Germania, the national personification of the country — a casting decision that is itself part of the argument.
The teaser controversy
Days earlier, the band released a 35-second preview in which several members appeared in the striped uniforms of concentration camp prisoners with nooses around their necks; Paul Landers wore a yellow star. The reaction was immediate.
Charlotte Knobloch, a Holocaust survivor and former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the band “had crossed a line” with that video. Josef Schuster, the Council’s sitting president, criticized the use of the Holocaust for marketing. Other critics read it as a calculated publicity stunt.
We record it because it is part of the song’s file, not as colour: the band had stated in 2006 that it would not use Nazi imagery again, and this is the most serious public argument of their career.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.