From Rosenrot · 2005 · Track 2
Mann gegen Mann
«Man against man»
More from the album · Rosenrot
In context
An expression for hand-to-hand combat used to talk about desire between men. The same phrase means a fight or an encounter depending on how it's read.
- Desire
- Deliberate ambiguity
- Discomfort
- Origin
- From “Rosenrot” (2005). It is one of the few songs the band spoke about explicitly.
- The German key
- “Mann gegen Mann” is hand-to-hand combat, man against man. The preposition “gegen” — against — is what carries all the ambiguity: it can be read as opposition or as closeness.
- What the band has said
- The band stated: “We certainly didn't want to write a gay anthem. Of course it's a delicate subject, how a heterosexual person deals with the subject of a homosexual person.”
- Live
- Played 71 times, between late 2011 and May 2012.
Our reading
That statement is as revealing as the song. The band neither takes the character's side nor condemns him: it puts itself in the position of the heterosexual who doesn't know where to stand, and writes from there. The musicologist Christian Diemer analysed the lyrics and the video and concluded that the work deliberately presents opposing positions, with varying degrees of explicitness. This archive keeps the quote verbatim because any summary would tilt it — it is neither a song of advocacy nor an attack, and the discomfort is deliberate.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Mann gegen Mann
Translation
Man against man
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
The title
Mann gegen Mann is a combat phrase: hand-to-hand fighting, man against man. The song uses it to speak about desire between men, so the same phrase means fight or encounter depending on the reading. The preposition gegen — “against” — carries the whole ambiguity.
What the band said
It is one of the few tracks the band commented on explicitly:
“We definitely didn’t intend to write a gay anthem. Of course it is a critical topic how a heterosexual person deals with the topic of a homosexual person.”
That statement is as revealing as the song. The band neither sides with the character nor condemns him; it takes the position of the heterosexual who does not know where to stand, and writes from there. Musicologist Christian Diemer analysed lyrics and video and concluded that the work deliberately presents contrary positions, with varying degrees of explicitness and diffuseness.
We record it with the quotation intact, because any summary would tilt it one way. It is neither a song of vindication nor an attack: it is an uncomfortable song, and the discomfort is deliberate.
The video
Directed by Jonas Åkerlund and premiered on 2 February 2006. The members appear nearly naked, wearing only army boots; Till wears long black hair extensions, thigh-high feminine high-heeled boots and black latex briefs. There are muscular, oiled men on a stage, rain, crowd-surfing, and Till as a winged demon.
Context
From Rosenrot (2005); single released 3 March 2006.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.