ABSTRACT
Introduction Rammstein, which is, at the time of writing, Germany’s most successful band on an international level, has caused considerable controversy, especially in its home country. There is a broad range of devoted fans of all ages, but there are also voices that have criticized the band for its use of nationalist and right-wing symbols and for glorifications of violence. Primarily due to the latter, the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (BPjM, the Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors), at the request of the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Sport, added the album ‘Liebe ist für alle da’ (Love Is There for Everyone) to what is commonly referred to as ‘the index’, that is, its list of media harmful to minors, in 2009. The committee at the BPjM responsible for this decision regarded one of the songs on the album ‘Ich tu dir weh’ (I Am Hurting You, or I Hurt You) and an image included in the CD booklet as a positively connoted conflation of sexuality and violence, and has therefore classified it as liable to corrupt the young: ‘After considering artistic freedom and our mission to protect the young, the committee accorded greater weight to the protection of young persons’. As a consequence, the band was neither allowed to actively market the album nor to sell it to consumers under the age of eighteen. As required by the BPjM, ‘Indexed media must not be presented, conveyed or made available in any other way to minors’ (Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors, 2015). In a decision issued on May 31, 2010, the Administrative Court of Cologne revisited the decision by the BPjM. The Administrative Court found that there was reasonable doubt concerning the interpretation of the album. In this case, the process of considering artistic freedom and youth protection should have, according to the court, been decided in favour of artistic freedom. Because of this decision, Rammstein’s label was allowed to market and sell the CD as intended.
