To the reporters and consumers of the media coverage concerning the Rammstein/Lindemann scandal
Subject: Not in my name! Demand for a media correction of the Rammstein/Lindemann scandal
In this open letter we mainly publicly denounce the one-sided media coverage around the whole „Row Zero“ experience in the context of the Rammstein concerts and especially Till Lindemann’s personally.
We demand a media correction so that the public is finally shown our point of view and our positions! We are all women who have also had „Row Zero“ experiences and can identify with the following statements, support them and want to draw the attention to them that has been missing until now.
In our opinion, one of our main points of criticism is the insufficient research even by journalists from well-known media and the resulting misrepresentation of the holistic „Row Zero“ experience.
It is of great concern to us to make it clear to the media and also to the general public: Not in my name!
The exclusively negative reports of some women’s subjective perceptions and experiences, related to the general „Row Zero“ experience, is fundamentally different from ours. That’s why we don’t give anyone permission to speak on our behalf. Especially not Shelby Lynn. We have not at any time in the past or present been able to identify with Shelby Lynn’s representations of anything other than her own immediate individual experiences and we will address the latter in a later section.
At this point, however, we want to make ourselves heard for the fact that we feel the extent of the current situation, among other things, as a massive encroachment on our self-determination as women! We are not, as so often mentioned in the reports, girls, but women of full age, who have the right and are able to make decisions for themselves and stand up for themselves. That on the part of the media or even politics bans of the „Row Zero“ and the associated parties were demanded, without waiting for investigation results and above all without listening to our experiences and perceptions, is extremely patronizing.
The demand in Germany to have the „Row Zero“ legally banned shows that also on the part of the politicians no attempt was made to get in contact with us, who had this experience directly, and to get our perception and assessment in this regard. In this regard, a thus unsolicited addendum: The „Row Zero“ has represented a place where we – no matter how revealingly one wanted to dress – could dance, sing and cheer exuberantly without being insulted or even groped, as it can unfortunately otherwise happen in a concert crowd. We felt safe and respected there. This made „Row Zero“ itself the real safe space for women! The fact that political officials want to legally take away this protective space from us because they want to shelter us and make decisions for us without being asked is, in our view, an act against our self-determination and thus misogynistic and ignorant. In general, we feel that these demands are a step backwards in the fight for women’s equality and the (sexual) self-determination of all people.
This rebuke is primarily directed at the media coverage. The process of how these reports came about gives us the impression that we women are being systematically and deliberately ignored, waved off, not taken seriously and thus ultimately even metaphorically muzzled. However, we finally want to be heard!
To our great regret, the media have always disregarded in their reporting the extensive positive portrayals of women like us, which have been actively sought out since the beginning of the scandal and documented on social media platforms. Thus, in our opinion, a distorted ratio of positive and negative experiences has been created for the uninformed public.
In addition, certain terms such as „slut parade,“ „leftover fucking,“ and „suckbox“ (instead of the neutral term black box) were printed and disseminated by the media. The following should be clarified in this regard: First, we have never noticed this disparaging language in our dealings with either the band or the crew and are firmly convinced that these misogynistic and disrespectful terms have coined themselves outside of this environment and have been carelessly published by the media. Second, the unsubstantiated and ill-considered dissemination of these misogynistic terms, both to women who participated in the „Row Zero“ experience without sexual intent and to women who acted in a sexually self-determined manner, is demeaning and borders on slutshaming on the part of the media.
Furthermore, the media increasingly rely on baseless assumptions and unproven, selectively reproduced statements by individuals that are not subjected to any critical examination and are placed in a prejudicial context. At the same time, facts elsewhere are ignored.
In this context, we will now also take another look at Shelby Lynn, whose case study is a prime example of the justified criticism of media reporting. Not even her own statements are partially reproduced correctly, if it is disregarded that according to her own statement Till Lindemann did not touch her and she also never claimed that Lindemann personally drugged her. Representations of this kind are erroneous citations.1 In addition, there are also few reports on the investigation of Shelby Lynn’s bruises, which, according to a forensic medical report, are highly unlikely to be related to outside influence and to be the cause of an accident.2 There was also little to no attention paid to testimonies from several women who spent the evening with Lynn questioning key parts of her report.3 Also withheld by the media is evidence that would favor possible alternative explanations that may account for symptoms such as memory loss, nausea, and headaches. This includes the result of a negative drug test for Lynn, as well as the failure to consider the effects of taking medications with alcohol. Common factors, such as inadequate food or fluid intake, can also alter the effects of alcohol.
However, these mentions are indispensable in this context in particular, as there is no other circumstantial evidence or even proof of drugging women or other sexual offenses on the part of the band or at Rammstein pre- or after-show parties in general. The investigation in this regard was already discontinued after a short time.4
In addition, assumptions and speculations by individuals were also taken up and disseminated in the media. In this context, the report of Kayla Shyx, a German Youtuber, who relies on such assumptions, should be mentioned, whose personal perception we do not want to undermine or deny in any way in this letter. However, it should not be ignored that perception is interpreted and processed based on previous personal experience, which can lead to different conclusions. It must be emphasized that there is no such thing as an objective perception of a situation, since everyone constructs it for themselves in their own individual reality. For this reason it is even more important to focus on facts and to separate them from interpretations on her part: There was no contact between Shyx and Lindemann. Her representation is based exclusively on her perceptions and speculations, for which we would like to give some examples briefly:
The after-show party at the hotel, which she never attended, is portrayed (against all the facts) as a potential orgy, and Alëna Makeeva’s offer to have a drink is portrayed as making the women compliant. According to her, Makeeva’s friendly manner becomes a ploy to make women more trusting.5 These statements are based solely on her personal interpretation of the situation and partly on hearsay. Statements by women who attended the same after-show party as Kayla Shyx, but who perceived and described the situation completely differently, are hardly given any attention in the media. Even Kayla Shyx herself has noticed the ambivalence of her perception and that of the other women.6
The events that came under criticism, such as the pre-party, „Row Zero“ as well as the aftershow party (holistically referred to by us as the „Row Zero“ experience) were by no means hidden. Sharing one’s experience on social media was welcomed, and the „Row Zero“ and the aftershow party ribbons were visible to everyone. There were also no declarations of confidentiality. In our estimation, there was also no reason for this.
In our view, there was no discernible system of sexual recruitment of women in the organization of „Row Zero“. After all, neither the relationship status nor the physical characteristics of the women were taken into account. The dress code, which was much criticized in the media, only served as an orientation and was variable. It ranged from elegant and chic to „sexy“ and could be implemented and interpreted differently by us women. Everyday clothes and especially fan articles such as merch were to be avoided.
Alëna Makeeva was always available to answer any questions we had and always did her best to answer them as quickly as possible. We can also confirm that the drinks at the pre-show and after-show parties were locked or that there were bartenders who prepared them in front of everyone. If Till Lindemann personally served alcohol, it was always done in front of everyone. For any consumption we were responsible for ourselves and there was neither compulsion nor was pressure exerted. Furthermore, it was always possible to leave the event without any problems. In our opinion, keeping the cell phones in a clearly visible place also served to protect Lindemann’s privacy as well as that of us guests.
Till Lindemann was courteous and respectful to us at all times, and in no way pushy or brash. In our experience, Lindemann places great value on consensus in any interaction with him. Also, in our opinion, his behavior and the general conditions around „Row Zero“ were always kept in such a way that an eye-level encounter took place between him and us women. For example, the focus of the dress code was that no merch should be worn, also to avoid the mood of a meet and greet between artist and fan. Whether a distance between the latter can ever be completely bridged may remain debatable, but we want to emphasize that Lindemann never exploited his status for his own advantages. Accordingly, we are firmly convinced that there can be no talk of abuse of power! Sexual acts were never in focus at any time and were never a prerequisite for continuing to be invited.
All these points are of enormous importance, considering that the resulting debate in public and especially on social media platforms is largely not about legally relevant facts, but is fought out on a moral level. However, it is impossible to conduct this debate constructively if the public is deprived of our perceptions and experiences and, in some cases, even relevant facts. We therefore emphasize once again: Not in my name! We expect neutral reporting from the media, in which both sides are heard equally, without the appearance of taking sides or biased and one-sided research, in which the outcome of the media investigation is already determined in advance. We also call for women with positive perceptions and experiences to no longer be turned away, as has unfortunately been the case in the past, to finally be allowed to make their voices heard. In this way, we would also like to prevent the scandal from being exploited for economic purposes. Unfortunately, this impression has already arisen in part on our part, which has led some of us to serious trust problems in individual journalists and media reporting in general.
One last request addressed to the general public: we also ask you to listen to us and to include what we have written in your personal judgment!
Note: This is the slightly abridged English-language version of the open letter in German almost without citing German sources. This letter can still be signed by women with verifiable „Row Zero“ experience, who can contact the Instagram profile @Rowzero.erfahrungen (https://instagram.com/rowzero.erfahrung?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==) for this purpose. Signatures are updated on a regular basis.
- https://instagram.com/shelbys69666?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== [13.09.2023] ↩︎
- https://uksnackattack.co.uk/vorwurfe-gegen-rammstein-frontmann-till-lindemann-rechtsmedizinisches-gutachten-zur-entlastung-vorgelegt#:~:text=By%20presenting%20the%20evidence%20to,accident%20rather%20than%20physical%20assault [13.09.2023] ↩︎
- Exclusive Interview: Rammstein Witness Says There’s Something Very Wrong With the Accuser’s Story – YouTube [13.09.2023]; Exclusive Interview: I Was There & Rammstein Accuser Is Lying About What Happened at Vilnius – YouTube [13.09.2023] ↩︎
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66646096.amp [13.09.2023] ↩︎
- Was wirklich bei Rammstein Afterpartys passiert – YouTube (16:30-16:35, 18:40-18:50, 20:08-20:45) [13.09.2023] ↩︎
- Was wirklich bei Rammstein Afterpartys passiert – YouTube (16:20-16:26) [13.09.2023] ↩︎
Nicht in meinem Namen! Not in my name! 