Ich tu dir weh: Rammstein’s Sadomasochism Single and the German Index

“Ich tu dir weh” means “I’m hurting you.” It is an industrial-metal song by the German band Rammstein, Neue Deutsche Härte rather than a dungeon manual. It sits on their sixth studio album, Liebe ist für alle da (2009), as the second single, released 5 February 2010. The video was already online on 21 December 2009. The lyric circles sadomasochistic harm and desire hard enough that the whole album landed on Germany’s BPjM index of media considered dangerous to youth. The band had to put out a cut version. In May 2010 the uncensored album and this single were taken off the index and could be sold in Germany without that special restriction. For adults who follow BDSM in mainstream media, it is a stadium-sized SM song: hurt treated as intimacy, wrapped in industrial metal, a state censorship fight, a real body modification in the video, and a pyro stage show. It is a performance for adults. It is not a lesson in actually injuring someone.

The video: lenses, a cheek cable, and Flake in the current

Jonas Åkerlund directed the clip. The online premiere was hosted on the adult site visit-X, which matched the picture. The set is an industrial dungeon in black and gray, with heavy gear around the band. Singer Till Lindemann and bassist Oliver Riedel wear contact lenses that change color, Lindemann’s to red and Riedel’s to green. When Lindemann sings, his mouth throws white light. That is not a post effect. A cable runs through his cheek to a light inside the mouth. He had the cheek pierced for the shoot so the lamp would be real. At the last note the stage around keyboardist Flake fills with electricity and the band appears to blow apart. The self-injury-adjacent stunt and the dungeon palette are why an adult site was a logical place to premiere it.

The bathtub and the rewritten German dates

Live, the song is a pyro set piece. Mid-song Lindemann and Flake fight a choreographed fight. Flake is shoved into a huge bathtub. Lindemann rises on a platform and dumps a mass of sparks out of a milk can into the tub. The tub explodes. Flake comes back in a silver holographic suit. On early German dates of the tour, the band changed some of the live lyric so Lindemann could still sing under the BPjM restriction. That was not a radio edit. It was a rewrite so the show could happen while the original text was indexed.

Formats

Every track is credited to Rammstein. The limited CD single carries “Ich tu dir weh” (radio edit, 3:57), Scooter’s “Pussy” (Lick It Remix, 4:54), Devin Townsend’s “Rammlied” (Rammin’ the Steins Remix, 5:09), and Jochen Schmalbach’s “Ich tu dir weh” (Smallboy Remix, 6:42). The 12-inch pairs the radio edit with the Fukkk Offf remix (6:07). The UK pressing of that 12-inch is white vinyl. The 7-inch is single-sided and etched, radio edit only, black in Europe and red in the UK. The digital EP collects those remixes plus the Fukkk Offf remix, with a digital booklet. The stack of formats treats the single as a collector’s object and as a chart release at the same time.

Chart positions differed by country. The cultural load is larger than the peaks. A major-label metal band put first-person sadomasochistic harm on a single, watched the parent album get indexed and then de-indexed, and locked the song to the tour with bathtub lightning and hardware through a cheek. The title names the hurt, the video stages it, the youth-media office litigates it, and arenas full of people shout it back.