From Mutter · 2001 · Track 2
Links 2 3 4
«Left 2 3 4»
More from the album · Mutter
In context
The band's answer to years of accusations of Nazi sympathies, built on a single German word and on a cadence that already had a political owner — on the opposite side from the one attributed to them.
- Politics
- Misunderstanding
- Wordplay
- Origin
- From the album “Mutter” (2001). It is a direct response to the accusations of fascism that dogged the band for years; the most often cited trigger was the use of footage by Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi regime's filmmaker, in the video for “Stripped” (1998). The video for this song is computer animation: an ant colony attacked by beetles, as unsubtle as the song, and on purpose.
- The German key
- In German “recht”, much like English “right”, means both the direction —and by extension the political right— and “correct”. The set phrase “das Herz am rechten Fleck haben” (to have one's heart in the right place) means to be a good person; the song takes it literally and answers that the heart, anatomically, beats on the left. The “Links, zwei, drei, vier” of the title also alludes to the “Einheitsfrontlied”, the united front song Bertolt Brecht wrote in the 1930s for the Communist Party of Germany, which became popular again in the GDR: what sounds like a military march is a workers' march.
Our reading
The band did not choose just any rhythm; it chose the one already signed by the left. And live it still marks the step, a gesture that, out of context, feeds the very misunderstanding the song set out to refute. That is the gamble: make the gesture and force the audience to read the lyrics.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Sie wollen mein Herz am rechten Fleck Da schlägt es links
Translation
They want my heart in the right place and it beats on the left
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
Read the full lyrics at a licensed source
The wordplay
The whole song turns on one word. In German, recht means both “right” (the direction, and by extension the political right) and “correct”. The set phrase das Herz am rechten Fleck haben — “to have your heart in the right place” — means being a decent person.
Rammstein takes it literally: if you demand that my heart be in the “right” place, I look down and find it on the left. Anatomically true, and politically a statement. The chorus says his heart beats links — on the left.
Why they wrote it
It is a direct answer to the accusations of fascism that trailed the band for years. The most cited trigger was the use of footage by Leni Riefenstahl, the Nazi regime’s filmmaker, in the video for “Stripped” (1998). The martial chorus and the marching title made the misreading easy, and the band decided to settle it by singing it.
The “Links, zwei, drei, vier” of the title alludes to the “Einheitsfrontlied”, the united-front song Bertolt Brecht wrote in the 1930s for the German Communist Party, later repopularized in East Germany. Which is to say: the cadence that sounds like a military march is in fact a left-wing workers’ march. The band did not pick just any rhythm — they picked the one that already had a political owner, on the opposite side from the one they were accused of.
The video
Computer animation: an ant colony — the left — is attacked by beetles — the Nazis. The ants perform human activities before the attack. It is as unsubtle as the song, deliberately.
Live
Played since 2001 with the band marking time, a gesture that out of context feeds the very misreading the song came to correct. That is the Rammstein wager: make the gesture, and force the audience to read the lyrics.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.