From Mutter · 2001 · Track 4
Ich will
«I want»
More from the album · Mutter
In context
A list of first-person demands —to be understood, to be believed, to be seen— repeated until it stops sounding like desire and starts sounding like a symptom.
- Media
- Fame
- Attention
- Origin
- Single released on 10 September 2001, from the album “Mutter”. The video is the best explanation of the song: the band robs a bank, takes hostages and is arrested, and as they are led out in handcuffs they receive a Goldene Kamera (Golden Camera), the German television award. It was shot in Berlin, in the former State Council building of the GDR, so the robbery takes place in the seat of power of the country where they grew up.
- What the band has said
- According to the band, the song is about the media's obsession with a good story and about the kind of immortality achieved by those who do harm.
Our reading
It is not about someone who wants to be loved, but about someone who has discovered that doing something terrible is the fast track to being watched. It dates from 2001, before social media, and describes precisely the mechanism social media would later industrialise: attention as a reward, regardless of how it was earned. It has aged better than almost any song of its era about the media.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Ich will dass ihr mich versteht
Translation
I want you to understand me
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
Wanting to be seen
The lyrics are a list of first-person demands: understand me, believe me, see me. Repeated to exhaustion, it stops sounding like desire and starts sounding like a symptom.
According to the band, the song is about the media’s obsession with a good story, and about the kind of immortality achieved by those who do wrong. Which is to say: it is not about someone who wants to be loved, but about someone who worked out that doing something serious is the fast lane to being looked at.
The video
It is the best explanation of the song. The band robs a bank, takes hostages and is arrested. As they are led out in handcuffs, they receive a Golden Camera — the German television award, roughly an Emmy equivalent. Criminals and celebrities in the same shot, with no transition.
It was filmed in Berlin at the former State Council building of East Germany, which adds a layer: the robbery takes place at the seat of power of the country they grew up in.
Why it holds up
It is from 2001, before social media, and it describes precisely the mechanism those platforms would later industrialize: attention as reward, with no regard for how it was earned. It aged better than almost any song of its era about the media.
Context
Single released 10 September 2001, from Mutter.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.