Because of the porn video: the publisher ends the collaboration with Till Lindemann

The Cologne-based publishing house, which published the volumes “In silent nights” and “100 poems” with poems by Lindemann, announced its decision on Friday. “We have been shocked to see allegations against Till Lindemann that have become public over the past few days,” said publisher Kerstin Gleba.

“In the course of the current reporting, we became aware of a porn video in which Till Lindemann celebrates sexual violence against women and in which the 2013 book published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch ‘In still night’ plays a role,” the statement said of the publisher. In the video for the Lindemann song “Till The End”, which has been circulating online for three years, the singer can be seen in numerous pornographic scenes with young women. In some sequences, a book of poetry is used and a poem is quoted.

Rape fantasies in poetry

The publisher was initially unable to find out how long this video has been known to the responsible authorities. The volume “100 Poems”, also published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, was under discussion in 2020 because of rape fantasies in the poem “When you sleep”. The publisher had protected Lindemann at the time: “The moral outrage over the text of this poem is based on a confusion between the fictional speaker, the so-called “lyrical I” and the author Till Lindemann,” it said in a statement.

Now the publisher is moving away from the singer. “We see this as a gross breach of trust and a reckless act against the values ​​we represent as a publisher,” wrote publisher Gleba. “We defend the freedom of art with full conviction. Till Lindemann’s actions that humiliate women in the porn in question and the targeted use of our book in a pornographic context mean that the separation between the “lyrical I” and the author/artist, which we so staunchly defended, becomes weaker mocked by the author himself.”

From the publisher’s point of view, “Till Lindemann exceeds immovable limits for us when dealing with women”. The collaboration will end “since our relationship of trust with the author has been irretrievably broken”.