Rammstein Front Man Beats Up Fan Who Asked For Selfie

Story ByMichael Leidig, Sub EditorJoseph GolderAgencyCEN

The lead singer of German rock band Rammstein has landed in hot water after he allegedly beat up a fan who asked for a selfie before finding out the alleged victim was a lawyer.

The alleged fight took place in a bar in the VIP Bayerischer Hof hotel in the southern German city of Munich, where the 56-year-old Til Lindmann was having a drink with a female companion when the lawyer allegedly asked for a selfie.

There was then an altercation between the two men, which resulted in the singer using his elbow to knock the other man to the ground.

Pictures Credit: CEN

The singer claims that the man insulted his female companion identified only by her name Lana by speaking to her in English and reportedly offering to pay double the amount that he was paying for her services, apparently implying she was an escort, for which he demanded an apology. He says the man then suggested they go outside to sort the problem out.

But the lawyer, identified as 54-year-old Bernd Roloff, rejected the allegation saying: “I didn’t insult anyone. I certainly never called anybody a prostitute. I must have been misunderstood. I just asked again for a selfie, and I did not put my fist together and suggest that we step outside. He was just showing off and wanted to impress this Lana.”

He described himself as a victim of what is obviously an uncontrollable violent streak, and has filed GBH charges which are now being looked at by German prosecutors.

Earlier reports said he had a broken jaw, but he said in fact he had a split lip which needed to be sewed up, and bruising to his head, arm and leg from the fall.

Pictures Credit: CEN

The star’s ex-partner Sophia Thomalla however rejected that he had a violent streak, saying: “Till is the most polite person that I know. I have no idea what got him so upset, but if he really did lose his cool, I’m positive it was absolutely justified.”

Under German law, anybody accused of GBH has an obligation to report to police to assist with the investigation when requested, and can also be kept in investigative custody if requested. A conviction can result in anything from a fine up to 5 years in prison.

Earlier this year Rammstein were again in the headlines with a video clip showing them wearing what appeared to be concentration camp uniforms adorned with yellow star badges like the ones the Nazis made Jews wear.

After it went viral on social media critics slammed the band for their new single called ‘Deutschland’ (‘Germany’) calling it “repulsive”.

Ex-president Charlotte Knobloch of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said that “with this video the band has crossed the line”.

Knobloch said: “The way Rammstein abuses the suffering and the murder of millions for entertainment purposes here is irresponsible and repulsive.”

Jewish historian Michael Wolffsohn went even further and called it “a form of desecration of corpses”.

MP Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) also sharply criticised the band.

He said: “The Shoah is not suitable as an advertisement. It does not matter for what. We have to wait and see if this is something by which Rammstein wants to make a contribution to the revision of the Holocaust.”

In 1998 Rammstein included excerpts of the 1938 propaganda flick ‘Olympia’ shot by infamous Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl into their music video for the song ‘Stripped’.