From Mutter · 2001 · Track 6
Mutter
«Mother»
More from the album · Mutter
In context
A being born not from a womb but from an experiment, and who therefore has no real father or mother, confronts whoever made it. It is the album's title track and the most solemn song in the early catalogue.
- Abandonment
- Origin
- Reproach
- Origin
- Fourth single from the album “Mutter”, released on 25 March 2002. In the video Till plays a monstrous creature who kills his mother and throws the body into the water, and ends up locked underground; he also appears as a well-dressed figure rowing through a swamp — two faces of the same character.
- The German key
- “Mutter” (mother) is one of the first words any German child learns, and the song empties it out: it is repeated as a call and as an accusation, calling to a mother who does not exist. The effect depends on the word being as domestic as possible.
- Live
- It is one of the most restrained moments of the show and works as a breather between the pyrotechnic blocks. The band has always known that a concert that only screams stops impressing.
Our reading
Compared with the black humour of “Haifisch” or the scandal of “Bück dich”, there is no joke or provocation here. It is a song about abandonment sung by someone who does not even have anyone to reproach for it — the reproach is left without an addressee and ends up turning against the one making it.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Mutter
Translation
Mother
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
The one who had no mother
The lyrics describe a being not born from a womb but from an experiment, and who therefore has no true father or mother. From there it makes its claim: against the woman who did not bear it, against a life it did not ask for, and finally against itself.
The word Mutter repeats as both a call and an accusation. In German it is among the first words any child learns, and the song hollows it out: calling for your mother when there is no mother to call.
It is the central track of the album it names, and the most solemn of the early catalogue. Against the black humour of “Haifisch” or the scandal of “Bück dich”, there is no joke and no provocation here: it is a song about abandonment, sung by someone who has no one to blame for it.
The video
Till plays a monstrous creature who kills his mother and dumps the body in water, ending up confined underground. He also appears as a well-dressed figure rowing through a swamp — two faces of the same character.
Live
It is one of the most restrained moments of the show, and works as a breath between blocks of pyrotechnics. The band has always understood that a concert that only shouts stops impressing; this song is the proof.
Context
Fourth single from Mutter, released 25 March 2002.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.