From Rosenrot · 2005 · Track 8
Hilf mir
«Help me»
More from the album · Rosenrot
In context
A German children's tale from 1845 about a girl who catches fire, retold in the girl's own first person as she burns.
- Children's tale
- Fire
- Loneliness
- Origin
- From “Rosenrot” (2005). It is built on “Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug”, a story from “Der Struwwelpeter”, the book the physician Heinrich Hoffmann published in 1845 to frighten children with the consequences of misbehaving.
- The German key
- Rammstein takes the first lines almost word for word — “I was home alone, my parents had both gone out” — and follows the scene step by step: the pretty object, the match struck “the way Mum did so often”, the fire that leaps at her face with claws. “Der Struwwelpeter” is school material in Germany: listeners recognize the story before the song tells it.
- What the band has said
- The band has not commented on the choice of story; the pattern of taking German school material and handing it back with an edge runs through all their work.
- Live
- Never performed live.
Our reading
The decisive change is the person. Hoffmann narrates from the outside, with a raised finger; here it is the girl who sings, in the first person, while she burns. There is no one to judge her and no one to save her — the cats who weep in the tale don't appear.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Immer wenn ich einsam bin Zieht es mich zum Feuer hin
Translation
Whenever I am lonely something pulls me towards the fire
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
The original tale
“Hilf mir” is built on Die gar traurige Geschichte mit dem Feuerzeug (“The very sad tale of the tinderbox”), one of the stories in Der Struwwelpeter, the children’s book the German physician Heinrich Hoffmann published in 1845 to frighten children with the consequences of misbehaving.
In the tale, Paulinchen is left alone at home, finds the tinderbox, plays with it although the cats shout at her not to, and burns until she is a small heap of ashes. It is one of the most brutal stories in a book already famous for its brutality.
Rammstein takes the opening lines almost verbatim — I was all alone at home, my parents had both gone out — and follows the scene step by step: the pretty object that appears, the match struck “the way mother often did”, the fire that leaps at her face with claws, the dress catching, the jacket burning, the light visible far away.
What the band adds
There are two changes, and both matter.
The first is person. Hoffmann narrates from outside, finger raised; here the girl sings it herself, in the first person, while she burns. Nobody judges her and nobody saves her: the cats who weep in the tale never show up.
The second is motive. In the original, Paulinchen plays with fire because she is disobedient. In the song she says it herself: whenever I am lonely, something pulls me towards the fire, and then why is the sun round, why do I not get well. The misdeed becomes a symptom. The cautionary tale is turned into a description of self-harm, of damage as a form of company — which is exactly the terrain of Rosenrot.
Context
Eighth track on Rosenrot (28 October 2005), recorded in 2003 in Málaga during the sessions that also produced Reise, Reise. In March 2004 it turned up in the GEMA database with a five-minute running time, and a tracklist published at the time by the magazine Sonic Seducer listed it as the first track of the fourth album; that tracklist was later discarded.
There is no record of it ever being played live. Flake played it on his radio show Die Sendung on 14 July 2020.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.