Goethe's heirs

This article deals with the volume of Goethe's heirs. For her album of the same name, see Goethes Erben (album) .

Goethe's heirs
General information
Genre (s)	New German Death Art (1989–1994) Avant-garde , Rock , Electropop (1995–2007)
founding	1989
Website	www.goethesorben.de
Founding members
singing	Oswald Henke
music	Peter Seipt (until 1990)
Current occupation
singing	Oswald Henke
Electric guitar, bass	Tom Rödel
Keyboard, piano, electric guitar	Tobias Schäfer
Drums, percussion	Markus Köstner
former members
guitar	Conny Rühl (1991–1992)
Keyboard, programming	Mindy Kumbalek (1991-2007)
guitar	Wolfram "Troy" Nestroy
cello	Harald Lindemann
violin	Rose Bihler Shah (1993)
Violin, viola	Susanne Reinhardt (1995-2015)
Bass, guitar	Matthias Konrad (1996, 1998-2004)
bass	Cornelius Sturm (1999-2003, 2015)
guitar	Carsten Klatte (2002-2006)
bass	Michael Wollersheim (2002-2006)
guitar	Tim Hofmann (2004)
guitar	Frank Zeutschel

Goethes Erben are a German band that was founded in 1989 by Oswald Henke and Peter Seipt. In the early 1990s, the group was one of the style-defining bands in the German dark wave and gothic movement. In the mid-1990s there was a change in style and image. Since then, Goethe's heirs have been publishing more rock- and avant-garde-inspired works.

When the band was founded, the focus was on the idea of ​​putting German, spoken texts into music, which also explains the band name, which is supposed to symbolize the idea. Your appearances - called "music theater" by Goethe's heirs - are musical, avant-garde productions.

history

Goethe's heirs were founded in 1989 by Oswald Henke and Peter Seipt, who met during their training as nurses when they were working in the same hospital. In contrast to Henke, who up to now only had theater experience, Seipt had already been musically active in various bands.

According to Henke, the choice of the band name is to be understood as an homage to the German language.

“Our group name should say as much as possible about our music. Goethe is practically the epitome of the German language, and since our texts are in German, Goethe offered himself as an association. But it is not the same as wanting to lift ourselves to literary levels. "

- Oswald Henke

In 1989 Henke finally met Bruno Kramm and Stefan Ackermann through a band he was friends with, who had just started the Danse Macabre Rec. Label and would later found the band Das Ich . With Kramm's support, Henke and Seipt recorded the tape Der Spiegel, the path of which leads to the end through silent witnesses, and a live tape that appeared in 1990.

On May 25, 1990, the band performed live for the first time on a stage in the Schongau youth center. On the same day the band Das Ich also made their stage debut there.

However, even before the first concert by Goethe's heirs, Seipt announced that he wanted to get out because the people who attended the concert were too weird for him. With his folk rock band The Seer , Seipt achieved a high level of fame after leaving in July 1990. After that, Henke only works in the studio, which ultimately led to a break with Danse Macabre Rec. , According to Henke, due to "musical and human differences".

In the now closed Bayreuth discotheque Die Etage , Henke finally got to know Mindy Kumbalek and Conny Rühl, who were both enthusiastic about Goethe's heirs and with whom Henke reformed the disbanded formation, which finally made it live again. On August 31, 1991, Goethe's heirs performed live on stage for the first time.

After the sales of the album Schach ist nicht das Leben , which did not meet the expectations of the band , the existence of Goethe's heirs was on the brink for a long time. Henke attributed this to the increasing number of black copies that are being distributed on the Internet. The first edition of the next album Nothing stays as it was was therefore issued with a copy protection that could not be played on the computer. However, it stayed with this one release with copy protection, because the band did not believe that this would be an obstacle for many black copiers to copy the data anyway.

On September 15, 1995, an incident occurred during a concert in the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena. While the band was performing in the hall, neo-Nazis tried to storm the halls. Stewards acted quickly and closed the doors. All the window panes were destroyed by the rioters. All 50 neo-Nazis were arrested. There was a loss of 10,000 euros.

In addition to the publication of music-only CDs, the visual implementation of musical theater has become increasingly important in recent years. The album Nothing stays as it was was supplemented by a DVD with videos and the implementation of the musical theater “Schattendenken” on DVD has been announced.

In April 2004 - after the program "Schattendenken" - the band activities were discontinued until further notice, but without disbanding the band. However, there were isolated appearances at festivals.

On 10 October 2005 appeared in between a part of the music theater piece "shadow thinking" on CD.

In July 2006 the band announced that they would give two concerts in Berlin on September 14th and 15th. After it became known that these concerts would be the last appearances for many years, the concerts were sold out very quickly, so that an additional concert was given on September 13th. As announced in advance, the concert on September 15, 2007 should be the last concert of the heirs for a longer period of time. On December 15th, Mindy Kumbalek and Oswald Henke wrote an open letter on their homepage and via their newsgroup, with the information that the band is on pause for an indefinite period - but will not be dissolved. 2009 founded Henke with the eponymous group Henke a new music project, released two albums and several concerts as a follower of Goethe's heirs.

On July 17, 2012, the band announced on their website that Goethe's heirs will no longer return to the stage because Mindy Kumbalek has now completely withdrawn from music for private reasons. In 2013 the band returned live on stage on the occasion of the band's 25th anniversary in 2014. With Sara Noxx, Goethe's heirs released the single Weg zurück in November 2014 , which is featured on Noxx's album Entre quatre yeuxx . In 2015 several concerts took place again, for example at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen . In addition to the release of a new split single , the band will also return to the stage with the new music theater piece “Menschenstille”, of which a DVD is also to be released.

In 2018 Goethe's heirs finally brought a new album onto the market after more than 10 years with Am Abgrund .

style

Over time, the style of Goethe's heirs has changed significantly. At the beginning of the 1990s, a considerable affinity to the dark wave and gothic scene could hardly be overlooked and the music, often classified as New German Death Art , was minimalist, abstract and depressive. The first three albums - conceived as a trilogy - dealt primarily with the points of death and dying, but also with topics such as dream and psyche. The 1994 album in particular, Dead Eyes Seeing Life, was controversial in the press.

"It is easier to devote oneself to death in an abstract form than to stumble upon it sooner or later."

- Oswald Henke

The "blue album" from 1995, on the other hand, also received positive reviews - although the style is called avant-garde to bizarre.

The title Absurd from the EP Der Die Das from 1995 is a noise piece.

In the later works, however, a more positive mood emerged and the band moved away from their gloomy image. Since the 1997 album Schach ist nicht das Leben , a classification in a certain genre was no longer possible. A brief return to the musical roots took place on the album Nothing stays as it was , released in 2001 , which nevertheless shows hardly any similarities with the earlier works. The album Dezwischen , which followed in 2005 , then moved away from it stylistically, but contained a new recording of a classic from the early days of the group with The Black Being .

occupation

The line-up of the band changed several times after Seipt's departure until it stabilized around the core of Oswald Henke and Mindy Kumbalek .

In addition, there were temporarily various live musicians, u. a. Cornelius Sturm, Carsten Klatte, Matthias Konrad, Harald Lindemann, Christian Jarothe, Frank Zeutschel, Tim Hofmann and Michael Wollersheim.

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Singles

Glass garden (with Peter Heppner )   DE 62 05/11/2001 (3 weeks)

see also the list of songs by Goethe's heirs

MCs

• 1990: The mirror whose path leads to the end thanks to silent witnesses
• 1990: Goethe's heirs live
• 1991: The black being
• 1991: Live - Festival d'Etage

Albums

• 1992: Dying is aesthetically colorful
• 1992: The dream of memory
• 1993: Life in no man's land (live recording from June 10, 1993 in the incident , Bochum)
• 1994: Dead eyes see life
• 1994: First chapter (republication of "Der Spiegel, whose path leads to the end through silent witnesses" and "Live Recording")
• 1995: Goethe's heirs (The "Blue Album" )
• 1997: Chess is not life
• 1999: entitled to violence? (Republication of "The Brut" and "Seat of Grace")
• 1999: Condition: Power! - The musical work
• 2001: Nothing stays as it was
• 2005: in between
• 2018: On the edge

Singles and EPs

• 1993: the brood
• 1995: The The That
• 1997: Seat of Grace
• 1998: puppets
• 2001: The ice storm
• 2001: Glass garden (with Peter Heppner )
• 2005: Nightmare Studio (limited to 500 copies)
• 2006: Days of Water (lim. 500 copies)
• 2017: Lazarus

Other publications

• 1996: Live in the Planetarium (semi-official, limited 1,000 copies, live recording from September 15, 1995 in the Zeiss Planetarium, Jena)
• 1998: Condition: Power! - The music theater piece (Live-DoCD, lim. 2,000 copies)
• 1999: Epochspiel (VHS)
• 1999: Goethe's heirs - 10 years (3-CD box set, limited to 1000 copies, hand-numbered and signed)
• 2000: Bittersweet and painful (vinyl, lim. 500 copies)
• 2000: Royal and yet rebellious (vinyl, lim. 500 copies)
• 2000: Violent thoughts (vinyl, limited to 500 copies)
• 2001: 1302km Iceland - In search of the glass garden (DVD, lim. 1,000 copies)
• 2002: What was remains (DVD, all videos for nothing remains as it was except meat debt )
• 2002: Iphigenie's diary
• 2003: Physical (DVD / CD)
• 2004: Blue Rebel & Win for the Past (DVD)
• 2006: Trauma Games (DVD)
• 2010: slow motion (best of compilation)
• 2014: Return to No Man's Land 1998 (anniversary CD limited to 1000 copies with 2 bonus tracks and a new booklet)
• 2014: Return to No Man's Land (DVD self-distributed)
• 2014: Way back ( Sara Noxx with Goethes Erben, published on Entre quatre yeuxx by Sara Noxx)

Sampler

In addition, Goethe's heirs are on various samplers, such as B. the night owls or Gothic Complication series represented.

Side projects

The first side project was started by Mindy with Still Silent , which has since been put on hold.

In 1996, Henke started a solo project called Erblast , where he received support from old friends, such as Susanne Reinhardt. He also got into artwork . Some time after the legacy and artwork had dissolved, he founded the band Fetisch: Mensch , which mainly consists of members of the two groups mentioned. In 2009 he founded Henke as a pure live band, which first appeared at some festivals to present old material from Henke's previous projects, but has now also given concerts of its own.

Others

• In the songs Koma and Five Years , Henke processed experiences from his time as a nurse.
• The song Seat of Grace , which was released as a single and later on Violent? Released is a German-language cover version of Nick Caves The Mercy Seat .
• The nameless fourth studio album by Goethe's heirs, which is mostly just called "Goethe's heirs" and represents Henke's personal favorite album, is also known under the name "Blau". In the booklet for the album Schach ist nicht das Leben, Oswald Henke wrote “We especially greet those who love the Blue Album by Goethe's heirs (…)”, which is how this term became common.
• The vocal-free song Barschel is an allusion to Uwe Barschel , who was found dead in the bathtub under unexplained circumstances. In the song you can hear water running and splashing.
• The song Glasgarten is the namesake for the rock band of the same name from Cologne, founded in 2005.
• The video on meat guilt would have been approved by the FSK from 18. Since Oswald Henke preferred a release from 12, he left this piece out and got the release from 12.
• The video on meat guilt is included on the Debilitas DVD as well as 2 Erblast videos . A short film with Oswald Henke in the lead role.

Web links

Commons : Goethes Erben  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Goethe's heirs at laut.de.
• Goethe's heirs at Discogs (English)
• Works by and about Goethe's heirs in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Manfred Thomaser: Interview with Goethes Erben , EB / Metronom, Edition 38, June / July 1992, p. 28
2. ↑ Did the constitution protection cause the Jena police to appear in 1995? Ostthüringer Zeitung from November 16, 2011
3. ↑ Mindbreed.de: Goethe's heirs are history
4. ↑ Chart sources: DE
5. ↑ Amboss-Magazin.de: The power of language: Goethe's heirs