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It all started when the German publication Spiegel published a report on June 10, 2023 titled Twilight of the Gods (or Sex, Power, Alcohol – What the young women from Row Zero report if you read it online). The report detailed allegations against Rammstein vocalist Till Lindemann and the band’s alleged Row 0 afterparties where various sexual misdeeds are said to have occurred.
Lindemann’s legal team at Schertz Bergmann successfully prevented Spiegel from publishing any further stories on allegations against Lindemann later that same year. According to Schertz Bergmann at the time, the Hamburg Regional Court stated “that there is a lack of the necessary minimum evidence for this serious suspicion” and that these stories lead to a false sense of Lindemann being guilty. German prosecutors would later drop their investigation against Lindemann a few months later.
Rammstein recently issued a statement thanking fans for attending their recent tour dates, noting in part they’ve “been actively dealing with the allegations made against the band since last summer. We take this debate seriously, even if much of it is baseless and grossly exaggerated. It is an internal process that will accompany us for a long time. Each of us does it in our own way and deals with it differently.”
Now Schertz Bergmann has issued a new press release stating that Lindemann will file a a criminal complaint with Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office against Spiegel executives for allegedly falsifying documents. The press release argues that two affidavits provided by Spiegel during recent court proceeds were “not actually rendered as submitted” and is seeking clarification on the issue.
“Under the headings Götterdämmerung and Sex, Macht, Alkohol — Was die jungen Frauen aus der Row Zero berichten [Sex, power, alcohol, what the young women from row zero report] in its issue of 10 June 2023 (print and online), SPIEGEL reported on allegations of various women against Till Lindemann,” wrote Simon Bergmann of Schertz Bergmann.
“With the judgement handed down in the appeal proceedings on 19 July 2024, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court confirmed Hamburg Regional Court’s interim injunction on the core allegations issued on 14 July 2023. Accordingly, SPIEGEL is still prohibited from arousing the suspicion that Till Lindemann drugged women or had them drugged at Rammstein concerts with KO drops or or drugs in order to enable him to perform sexual acts on the women.
“In the injunction proceedings, SPIEGEL submitted two affidavits in its rejoinder to the Regional Court from 28 June 2023, from women named ‘Zoe‘ and ‘Sophie W.’ in the article. ‘Zoe‘s’ affidavit had the peculiarity that it began on the penultimate page with a sentence that was not continued on the next page. This page contained solely the witness’s signature, so that it had to be assumed that individual pages of the affidavit had been removed or replaced (see our press release of 15 May 2024).
“Although this irregularity had already been criticised at the hearing before the Regional Court on 25 August 2023, SPIEGEL did not respond thereto until a week before the hearing in the appeal proceedings and submitted two previously unknown affidavits. Thereby, SPIEGEL had to concede that the originally submitted affidavits were not from ‘Zoe‘ and ‘Sophie W.’. Due to an oversight by its own legal counsel and its secretariat different versions had been mixed up during the submission of the affidavits, said SPIEGEL.
“The different versions of ‘Zoe‘s’ affidavits differ significantly from each other, especially concerning her described recollection of the encounter with our client. In addition, in the proceedings, as well as accompanying the proceedings, SPIEGEL repeatedly defended its reporting with the argument that affidavits have a high degree of credibility due to the criminal penalty involved. In word-against-word cases, they should be sufficient to justify reporting on suspicion.
“In so far as it has now been established that two affidavits were not actually rendered as submitted, this is a matter that must be clarified by the criminal prosecution authorities. Our client will therefore file a criminal complaint with Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office against SPIEGEL executives for falsification of documents and attempted trial fraud.”
