Metal Anarchy

Rammstein’s Till Lindemann has filed a new lawsuit against Spiegel. The frontman took legal action against the German publication after accusing them of falsifying documents and attempted trial fraud while reporting on the sexual assault allegations against him. The news comes after he was previously awarded a publication ban against Spiegel.

As previously reported, the accusations initially stemmed from “Row 0” parties in which Lindemann allegedly engaged in sexual assault, spiking drinks, etc. An investigation was launched to assess the situation, but it was ultimately dropped due to a lack of evidence and a lack of testimonies from alleged victims. Following that win, Lindemann shifted his focus towards Spiegel. His representative Schertz Bergmann said the following about that:

“Criminal charges of forgery and attempted trial fraud against SPIEGEL executives due to the affidavits submitted by SPIEGEL in the injunction proceedings against Till Lindemann

We issue the following press release on behalf of our client Till Lindemann:

Under the headings “Götterdämmerung” and “Sex, Macht, Alkohol — Was die jungen Frauen aus der Row Zero berichten” [“Sex, power, alcohol, what the young women from row zero report”] in its issue of 10 June 2023 (print and online), SPIEGEL reported on allegations of various women against Till Lindemann.

With the judgement handed down in the appeal proceedings on 19 July 2024, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court confirmed Hamburg Regional Court’s interim injunction on the core allegations issued on 14 July 2023. Accordingly, SPIEGEL is still prohibited from arousing the suspicion that Till Lindemann drugged women or had them drugged at Rammstein concerts with KO drops or or drugs in order to enable him to perform sexual acts on the women.

In the injunction proceedings, SPIEGEL submitted two affidavits in its rejoinder to the Regional Court from 28 June 2023, from women named “Zoe” and “Sophie W.” in the article. “Zoe’s” affidavit had the peculiarity that it began on the penultimate page with a sentence that was not
continued on the next page. This page contained solely the witness’s signature, so that it had to be assumed that individual pages of the affidavit had been removed or replaced (see our press release of 15 May 2024).

Although this irregularity had already been criticised at the hearing before the Regional Court on 25 August 2023, SPIEGEL did not respond thereto until a week before the hearing in the appeal proceedings and submitted two previously unknown affidavits. Thereby, SPIEGEL had to concede that the originally submitted affidavits were not from “Zoe” and “Sophie W.”. Due to an oversight by its own legal counsel and its secretariat different versions had been mixed up during the submission of the affidavits, said SPIEGEL.

The different versions of “Zoe’s” affidavits differ significantly from each other, especially concerning her described recollection of the encounter with our client. In addition, in the proceedings, as well as accompanying the proceedings, SPIEGEL repeatedly defended its reporting with the argument that affidavits have a high degree of credibility due to the criminal penalty involved. In word-against-word cases, they should be sufficient to justify reporting on suspicion.

In so far as it has now been established that two affidavits were not actually rendered as submitted, this is a matter that must be clarified by the criminal prosecution authorities. Our client will therefore file a criminal complaint with Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office against SPIEGEL executives for falsification of documents and attempted trial fraud.

Berlin, 2 August 2024
Simon Bergmann
Attorney”

Notably, Lindemann wasn’t the only member of Rammstein hit with allegations. Keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz was later accused of sexual misconduct as well.