The nice man
| The nice man | ||||
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Studio album by 
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Rock-O-Rama Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP |
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Title (number) |
14th |
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running time |
32:50 |
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| occupation | Singing: Kevin Russell Drums: Peter Schorowsky |
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Laslo Viragh |
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Studio (s) |
MTV Studio Frankfurt |
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The nice man is the first studio album by the German rock band Böhse Onkelz . It was released in early May 1984 on the Rock-O-Rama Records label . The album is considered to be one of the first German skinhead albums. In 1986 it was first indicated as harmful to young people and later also confiscated for glorifying violence .
The seizure was the first of its kind in Germany. The resolution has now expired, but the indexing was renewed on July 29, 2011. This means that the album may not be made accessible to young people under the age of 18, performed publicly or advertised. The indexing was lifted in December 2019 for the songs: The nice man, girl and Böhse Onkelz.
History of origin
In 1984 the Onkelz were in contact for the first time with Herbert Egoldt , the owner of the record store Rock-O-Rama and Mailorderversand of the same name (at that time still fixated on punk and new wave), with whom they finally signed a simple contract for three studio albums. According to this contract, the exploitation rights of the songs passed to Herbert Egoldt for life.
The album was then completely recorded within just four days and pressed with an edition of 4,000 copies. The band received no further money for the copies sold except for a first discount of 4,000 DM.
Cover design
The album cover is completely black and white. It shows a photo of a child's doll, stripped and covered in blood, lying on the asphalt. Above the picture is Böhse Onkelz in white lettering and at the bottom of the picture is The Nice Man .
Track list
| # | title | length |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | France '84 | 2:41 |
| 2 | Football + violence | 3:22 |
| 3 | The nice man | 2:58 |
| 4th | Germany | 3:11 |
| 5 | Singing and dancing | 2:34 |
| 6th | girl | 2:22 |
| 7th | Dance on your grave | 2:14 |
| 8th | Dr. Martens beat | 2:05 |
| 9 | United | 3:01 |
| 10 | free beer | 3:27 |
| 11 | Proud | 2:34 |
| 12 | Friday night | 2:23 |
| 13 | Böhse Onkelz | 2:35 |
| 14th | alcohol | 2:22 |
Indexing and Seizure
The Nice Man was born on August 30, 1986 for the titles France '84 , Football + Violence , The Nice Man , Girl , Dr. Martens Beat and Böhse Onkelz placed on the list of writings harmful to minors ( indexing ) by the Federal Testing Office for writings harmful to minors . The applicants were a total of four city and state youth welfare offices . Due to the judgment of the local court in Brühl on December 5, 1986, the album was also confiscated and confiscated for glorification of violence . This judgment was confirmed on April 22, 1987 after an objection by the Cologne Regional Court . The seizure was the first of its kind in Germany, and the decision has now expired. The indexing, however, was renewed on July 29, 2011.
In the indexing report of the album, individual text passages are reproduced incorrectly, in the song Der Nett Mann, for example, Teint was understood instead of the word scream , which is probably due to the comparatively poor sound quality of the album, which (among other things) makes the vocals sometimes sound very indistinct.
Including the unauthorized publication The Nice Man + Demos , which was confiscated by a judgment of the AG Heilbronn on May 6, 1993, the album is one of the eleven albums confiscated for glorification of violence (Section 131 (1) StGB ).
Despite being indexed and confiscated, the album was still copied and passed on thousands of times. Over the years, the Rock-O-Rama label itself brought various versions of the album into circulation, sometimes without the indexed tracks, in order to avoid further confiscation.
In December 2019, the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People announced that it would remove the song "The Nice Man" from the index , as the relevant committee had denied that it was harmful to young people. This also means that this song can be performed live again with no penalty. The album itself remains indexed , mainly because of the song France '84 .
Background information on individual songs
France '84
The song for the 1984 European Football Championship is one of the titles that led to the indexing of the album.
In the lyrics of the song it says: "Yes, we'll definitely see you in the summer of '84 during the invasion of France". This text passage seems to have been inspired by a sticker from the hooligan scene, which shows a bombed-out village and which was used to advertise “France attack - EM '84” in German Gothic script. This is an allusion to the western campaign against France in 1940. Two members of the band were arrested during riots at the 1984 European Championship and their tickets were confiscated. Another source may have been the anthem of the October Club on the occasion of the tenth World Festival of Youth and Students ("Yes, yes, we will definitely meet, summer '73 for the tenth festival")
The BPjS classified the song as a glorification of the hooligan scene and stated that the degradation of the French team carried Nazi tendencies and violated the idea of international understanding laid down in Art. 25 of the Basic Law.
The lyrics were repositioned by the band before the album was indexed. So the "attack in France" became the "attack in Mexico ", which was to take place in Mexico in 1986 for the soccer World Cup . The band only played this version of the song live a few times before a completely new song was recorded with Mexico , the world title from the album Mexico .
Football + violence
This song sings about the typical behavior of hooligans who go to soccer games to fight each other. The piece also helped index the album for glorifying violence.
The nice man
The song is another track that was instrumental in indexing the album.
“I'm the nice man next door, and anyone could be. Look at me, look at me, I'm the perverted pig! ", It says in the song. Singer Russell sings from the perspective of a child killer who pretends to be "the nice man next door". This narrative attitude can also be found in other songs by the band (e.g. Bomberpilot ). According to the band, this way "the greatest possible harshness of the statement" should be achieved. The song is meant to denounce crimes - in this case child sexual abuse .
The song was indexed by the BPjS for glorifying violence. The BPjS evaluated text and narrative perspective as a glorification of child abuse and mutilation.
However, the band continued to play the song at their concerts even after the indexing, despite the threat of punishment. B. also at her farewell concert in 2005, which led to a complaint and a fine.
On December 30, 2019, the BPjM announced the lifting of the indexing of the title song, whereas the album itself remains indexed.
Germany
With lines like “We are proud to be German”, “Black-Red-Gold, we stand by you” and “Germany, Germany, Fatherland”, the song is considered a patriotic statement by the band.
The line of text "Even twelve dark years in your history does not destroy our bond with you" is interpreted by fans of the band as a clear distancing from National Socialism, while critics in the allusion to the "dark" years of the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 a strong one Recognize the trivialization of the same, which, moreover, do not seem to stand in the way of an unclouded national pride.
According to the political scientist Christoph Butterwegge , the song "We are proud to be Germans" became an anthem for right-wing extremist skinheads.
However, the song was not mentioned during the indexing process.
At a concert in Lübeck in 1985 the singer Kevin Russell changed the line of text " Black-Red-Gold , we stand by you" to " Black-white-red we stand by you". Years later, this was criticized by the band as the singer's "solo effort".
Dr. Martens beat
Doc Martens is a cult shoe brand in the skinhead scene. The content of the song is aimed at the loser in a brawl. This song was also mentioned in the indexing report and interpreted as a call to violence.
girl
The text for the song Mädchen was classified as pornographic by the BPjS , which violates Section 184 of the Criminal Code (distribution of pornographic writings) .
Böhse Onkelz
The band anthem Böhse Onkelz was also classified as harmful to young people. The BPjS certified that the band had a National Socialist tendency in their indexing decision based on this song . The lines “We drink with our left and rule with our right” and “Today Germany belongs to us and tomorrow the whole world” were mainly referred to, the latter being reminiscent of Hans Baumann's song The rotten bones tremble . However, in "The rotten bones tremble" the word "heard" is not sung but "Germany hears us".
reception
According to the political scientist Henning Flad, the album The Nice Man is “probably the most influential skinhead album in German right-wing rock history”. Although the album did not disseminate any decidedly right-wing extremist content, the title Deutschland was classified as “extremely nationalistic” by Klaus Farin or “moderately German-national” by Christian Dornbusch and Jan Raabe . In addition, the connection to the hooligan scene was obvious. From today's point of view, the titles of the album seem relatively harmless, but the readiness for violence announced in the lyrics combined with a national, right-wing attitude was something new. With the album, the Böhsen Onkelz managed to create a kind of blueprint for the right-wing extremist albums until the mid-1990s. Topics that are taken up again and again, such as “skinhead cult, alcohol glorification / party, violence, Germany, women and sexualised violence”, had a “genre-defining effect”. The album marked the beginning of Rock-o-Rama's turn to the right-wing skinhead scene with the albums by Skrewdriver . Egoldt dominated right-wing rock production in Germany until around 1994.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Onkelzvinyl - album "The Nice Man". Website accessed on August 16, 2010 ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Indexed sound carriers ( Memento from July 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ onkelz.de ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ album cover
- ↑ Dunklerort.net ( Memento from June 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c d e f Federal Testing Office for Writings Harmful to Young Persons (ed.): Indexing report on "The nice man" . 1986 ( reocities.com ). Indexing report on "The Nice Man" ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Dunklerort.net ( Memento from June 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ BPjM 12/30/2019: Indexing of the title song The Nice Man canceled
- ↑ "With their song Germany , the band made the slogan 'We are proud to be Germans'' into the anthem of the right-wing extremist skinhead scene.", Christoph Butterwegge : Topics of the Right, Topics of the Middle: Immigration, Demographic Change and National Awareness, VS Verlag 2002, ISBN 3810034193 , ISBN 9783810034199 , p. 126
- ^ A b Henning Flad: On the economy of the right-wing extremist scene - The importance of trading in music . In: Modern right-wing extremism in Germany . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2006, ISBN 3-89331-688-4 , p. 106 .
- ↑ Klaus Farin : reactionary rebels. The story of a provocation . In: Dieter Baacke , Klaus Farin, Jürgen Lauffer (eds.): Rock von Rechts II. Milieus, backgrounds and materials . GMK, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-929685-20-5 , pp. 22 .
- ↑ Christian Dornbusch, Jan Raabe: 20 years of legal rock. From skinhead rock to everyday culture . In: Christian Dornbusch , Jan Raabe (Ed.): RechtsRock. Inventories and counter-strategies . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89771-808-1 , p. 28 .
- ↑ Klaus Farin: reactionary rebels. The story of a provocation . In: Dieter Baacke, Klaus Farin, Jürgen Lauffer (eds.): Rock von Rechts II. Milieus, backgrounds and materials . GMK, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-929685-20-5 , pp. 19 .
- ↑ Henning Flad: Not dead despite the ban. Ideological production in the songs of the extreme right . In: Christian Dornbusch , Jan Raabe (Ed.): RechtsRock. Inventories and counter-strategies . Unrast Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89771-808-1 , p. 95 .
