http://www.abload.de/img/rammstein_wall_1200pjxcaw.jpg
The members of Rammstein, with the exception of Riedel, were all born in parts of East Berlin and grew up there. Riedel was born and raised in Schwerin, which is north of Berlin and was part of the former German Democratic Republic. The bandmates did not know each other during their early years, but some played in smaller gigs together before forming Rammstein. A heavy influence on the music came from the oppressive state of the GDR while the men were young; the education they received was a lot of propaganda, the secret police forces were always on the watch, and some of the members, such as Kruspe, had poor relations with parents and step-parents. Another factor of the time was that the government of the GDR was heavily promoting classical music. This led to the rise of rock bands as they could be perceived as “rebellious” and also rap/pop music grew into a very rap-oriented culture which allowed many oppressed youth to have an outlet. The socialist regime in East Germany, and East Berlin, viewed this popular music with suspicion and suppressed it early on. The restrictions placed were lessened in the early Seventies, and by the time the members were young men in the late Eighties, there were very few restrictions left.
The Seventies started with the Munich Massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics. This caused the governments of Germany to reevaluate their national security plans; East Germany did not see too much change, but West Germany tightened their security policies. East and West Germany did not change by a great margin over the next two decades, however, other than the loosening of restrictions in East Germany and the admittance of both the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) into the United Nations in 1973. Leaders of the German Democratic Republic felt they were losing the younger generations within their borders during the mid-to-late Eighties and planned several events in an attempt to better the feelings of the youth towards the Eastern Bloc. Events such as the Springsteen Concert backfired, and the youth only felt more wanting of reunification. Finally, in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down due to West German Pressure and a weakening political scene in East Germany. The fall of the wall led to the creation of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, also known as the Two Plus Four Agreement, in 1990 between the FRG, the GDR, and the four occupying powers, France, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the USA. This treaty allowed for a unified Germany to be created through having the occupying powers renounce all rights and the GDR and FRG to merge.
Today’s Germany emerged from the Two Plus Four Agreement, and elections for the 12th Bundestag were held later in 1990; this was the first all-encompassing elections Germany had held since 1933 when Hitler was elected Chancellor. The results of these elections had the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) coming out on top with about 40% of the total seats in the Bundestag. The next few years were a time for the newly reunified Germany to prove itself to the world; the country slowly grew economically, and signed the treaty that created the European Union in 1993. Germany was left to govern itself completely on its own in 1994 when the last foreign troops left in the country were withdrawn from Berlin.
The first years of the twenty-first century were a very busy time for Germany, In 2001, Germany agreed to help the USA with the conflicts in Afghanistan and had its largest deployment, roughly 4,000 soldiers, outside of Europe since World War II. The German government also met with leaders in the nuclear power industry and agreed to phase out nuclear power by 2022; and several leaders of the Eastern Bloc during the years of a divided Germany were found to be guilty of human rights violations by the European Court of Human Rights. The Deutsche Mark, which had been the currency since 1948, was replaced in 2002 by the Euro which helped Germany to become a leading nation within the European Union. The German government, however, still showed signs of the past with the Neo-Nazi National Democratic Party. Despite attempts to discredit this party in 2003, the Constitutional Court of Germany decided it had the right to stay as a political party. In the next year, labour protests began as the government made plans to cut things like unemployment benefits and reform the labour market. These reform plans would also counteract the slow economic growth, but they ultimately failed and a new Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was elected in 2005; Angela Merkel was the first female Chancellor. The economy again showed improvement as unemployment dropped below 4 million in 2006, but ultimately crashed again in 2008 as a result of the global recession.
Germany emerged from the recession as a leader in the European Union. It was able to make roughly €9 Billion from Euro-Financial Crisis by 2011 by having ~0% interest rate bonds. This allowed them to invest money in other countries so they could rebuild and restructure. This helped the German economy to grow and improved the social atmosphere in the country. The healthier world views of Germany helped build the sense of nationalism the German people felt towards their country and many businesses grew and developed as trade and international partnerships increased.
Despite the constantly changing political, social and economic climates in Berlin, Rammstein has remained largely the same since their inception in the early 90’s. It is safe to say that Eastern German culture had the largest impact on the band, influencing their rebellious style of music, while more recent events concerning Berlin as well as Germany as a whole have had little to no influence on the band’s style.