From Liebe ist für alle da · 2009 · Track 6
Frühling in Paris
«Spring in Paris»
More from the album · Liebe ist für alle da
In context
An older man remembers his first time, in Paris, with a woman who charged for it. It is one of the few songs where the violence of the image points not to harm but to loss.
- Initiation
- Memory
- French quotation
- Origin
- From “Liebe ist für alle da” (2009). The first two lines of the chorus are taken almost verbatim from “Non, je ne regrette rien”, the song Édith Piaf recorded in 1960.
- The German key
- Every verse ends with the same formula — “ich hab es nie bereut”, I never regretted it — and when the chorus arrives, German gives up and switches to French to say exactly the same thing. The song doesn't translate Piaf: it lets her in.
- What the band has said
- The band has not said whether the scene is autobiographical.
- Live
- A regular in the setlist since 2009, in the show's quieter stretches.
Our reading
The lips “often sold, but soft” make it clear, without naming it, that the woman charged for it. The title line — when she shed her skin, spring bled in Paris — closes every return to the chorus, turning the loss into an image, not a reproach.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Oh non, rien de rien Oh non, je ne regrette rien
Translation
Oh no, nothing at all oh no, I regret nothing
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
Read the full lyrics at a licensed source
The borrowed chorus
The first two lines of the chorus are not Rammstein’s: they are taken almost verbatim from “Non, je ne regrette rien”, the song Édith Piaf recorded in 1960 and which became the French statement of regretting nothing.
The quotation is what holds the whole track together. Every verse ends with the same formula — “ich hab es nie bereut”, I never regretted it — and when the chorus arrives, the German gives way to French to say exactly the same thing. The song does not translate Piaf: it lets her in.
What is remembered
The story is simple and told by an older man. She came towards him dressed in light; he was very young and embarrassed. She shouted words into his face, but he did not understand her language. What he did understand was the body: I did not know my own body, I was afraid to look at it; she showed it to me in the light. Lips “often sold, yet soft” make clear, without naming it, that the woman was charging.
The line that closes each return to the chorus is the one that gives the song its title: when he left her skin, spring bled in Paris. It is one of the few Rammstein songs where the violence of the image marks loss rather than harm.
Context
Sixth track on Liebe ist für alle da (16 October 2009), recorded in 2008 at Sonoma Mountain Studio in California. The working title was “Paris, oh non!”, and a demo under that name leaked in February 2012.
It was never released as a single, but it became one of the most fixed songs in the live set of that era: 116 performances between October 2009 and July 2017, with recordings on Rammstein: Paris and the video release In Amerika.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.