Rammstein partially vindicated by court ruling and strikes back at Der Spiegel: ‘Serious accusations for sales figures’
Lots of Rammstein news these days. According to the Hamburg court, the news magazine Der Spiegel was not allowed to spread the claim that Rammstein singer Till Lindemann systematically drugged women with the intention of having sex with them.
However, the German rock group, which responded with a strong statement on Thursday, did not entirely win on all fronts.
It all started with accusations from a 24-year-old woman from Northern Ireland against 60-year-old Lindemann, whom she held responsible for her confused state after a Rammstein concert in Lithuania. She also claimed that he angrily left after she refused to have sex with him. Following that report, Der Spiegel published similar stories from several young women who claimed to have been personally approached by a band employee.
Lindemann denied the allegations and launched a counterattack through his lawyers. The court ruled that Der Spiegel’s reporting did not provide sufficient evidence. However, there is a significant caveat to that judgment. Essentially, the magazine was not allowed to state that Lindemann or his team drugged women with the intention of having sex with them. But it would have been permitted to suggest that Lindemann engaged in sexual contact with women who were not entirely lucid and that Lindemann was aware of this.
Full-blown attack through statement from their lawyer
It is a fine line, making the court’s ruling no easy matter. Meanwhile, the metal band has chosen to launch a full-blown attack through a statement from their lawyer on Instagram. “The judgment of the Hamburg court is an example of recent, completely out-of-control reporting of suspicions related to the ‘MeToo’ topic,” the statement reads.
The lawyer accuses Der Spiegel of sensationalism. “Knowing that reporting on this topic leads to high sales and viewership figures, the media increasingly disregards the requirements set by jurisprudence for reporting suspicions. Time and again, serious accusations are reported, even though only one-sided statements are available and no criminal investigations have been initiated or are underway. This leads to massive prejudice and goes against the principle of presumption of innocence as established by the European Convention on Human Rights.”
Rammstein and Lindemann aim to quash the reporting. “If the prohibited suspicions raised by Der Spiegel are also voiced by other media outlets, we will take legal action against them as well.”
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