Beyond Heimatsehnsucht: Rammstein's Approach to Vergangenheitsbewältigung and German Identity. Issue 4 (8th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Schicker, Juliane; Henry, Nick
• Is Part Of: Popular music and society. Volume 44:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 397
• Page End: 415
• Publication Date: 2021-08-08
• Subjects: Rammstein -- Vergangenheitsbewältigung -- Heimat -- Deutschland -- Germanness -- Identity; Popular music -- Periodicals; Music -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; 782.42164
• DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2020.1797961
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0300-7766

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article explores how the most recent works of the German Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein express a Vergangenheitsbewältigung that is not limited to the history of the Nazi regime and divided Germany, but includes a much broader time and geographical frame that extends to Germany's present and future. In particular, the article argues that Rammstein's members confront their own Heimatsehnsucht, push for a new conceptualization of Germany, and forge an individual Germanness, rooted in their personal and political histories and expressed through their works.