New German death art

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New German death art

Development phase: Late 1980s
Place of origin: Germany
Stylistic precursors
Electro Wave , Neoclassic , Cold Wave , Gothic Rock , Post-Punk , Avantgarde , New German Wave
Pioneers
The I , Goethe's heir , end space , relative humanity
Instruments typical of the genre
Synthesizer , sequencer , sampler , e-drum , drum computer , personal computer , electric guitar , electric bass , piano , violin , cello
Regional scenes
Bayreuth

The New German Death Art , or NDT for short , was a German-language, strongly literary music movement that developed in the dark wave environment at the end of the 1980s . The unifying element of the genre was the recitation of mostly self-written song texts with the addition of a musical superstructure. The topics had epoch-making references, e.g. to the baroque , romantic or modern literature . In terms of content, there was often a confrontation with death and transience (i.e. also the process of dying), but also Weltschmerz , criticism of religion , existential philosophy , nihilism , surrealism , social isolation , necrophilia and madness were central themes.

The New German Death Art is credited with popularizing the German language within the Dark Wave movement, although bands like Xmal Germany , Geisterfahrer or Malaria! who mainly set German-language lyrics to music.

Origin of name

The genre name Neue Deutsche Todeskunst first appeared at the end of 1991 in relation to the band Relatives Mensch sein . The creator is Horst Braun, one of the co-producers and sound engineers of the Danse Macabre label, who advertised the band as New German Death Artists in a label info . As a result, the journalist Svenjoy took up the name to describe the first work "Moritat" of Relatives Mensch sein in the December issue of Zillo magazine and to categorize other interpreters of the style, such as Das Ich and Goethe's heirs .

“At that time the term“ New German Death Art ”became central. […] At first we suspected that someone at the Zillo would have made it up. There was vigorously denied. At some point we remembered that my long-time employee Horst Braun had created the term on the occasion of a label information for relative human existence. "

- Bruno Kramm , Danse Macabre Records

The name was primarily associated with the artists of the Danse Macabre label and was used sporadically by the record company itself. B. in connection with the audio medium magazinOphon , which was conceived as a music broadcast on tape cassette at the beginning of 1992. However, a large number of artists, such as Goethe's Erben or Syria, could not make friends with this title, which is in the tradition of the Neue Deutsche Welle , the Neue Deutsche Post-Avantgarde or the New Slovenian Art .

history

Early approaches

After the demise of the Neue Deutsche Welle , many musicians turned to the Anglo-American music scene. Groups like Malaria !, X-mal Deutschland and Belfegore increasingly concentrated on setting texts in English. Exceptions were German punk bands such as EA80 , Razzia and Fliehende Stürme , post-punk artists of the second generation, cf. Voices of silence and the avant-garde music by artists such as Einstürzende Neubauten , Kowalski and Hirsche not on the sofa (HNAS), which especially attracted attention in the growing independent culture. Groups such as Walls Have Ears, Die Erde , Am Tag unter Null, Nagorny Karabach, Toeten alle Lust, Scorched Earth and Illness of Youth emerged from the gray area between punk , wave and avant-garde, all of which were already based on an abstract, partly metaphorical, artificial language served.

"German-language texts have a long tradition in the history of the scene: The Neue Deutsche Welle and punk had a decisive influence on the development of the community and thus also anchored German to convey critical and rebellious content in the emerging scene structure."

- Bianca Stücker

At the same time, interest in German-language poetry grew in the punk and wave scene. Punk fanzines began to publish the prosaically written thoughts, poems and stories of their readers. One of these print media was Der Trümmerhaufen , from which the nationally distributed literary magazine Ikarus developed in 1987 . Many of the texts contained therein were descriptive and introspective in nature and dealt with death, senselessness and hopelessness, cold, loneliness, suffering and despair. The illustration was done z. B. by artists such as Sabine Döhm, who decorated the magazine with motifs and portraits typical of the dark wave .

The newly ignited self-image in dealing with the German language and poetry was essentially the driving force for the emergence of the New German Death Art and for groups that tried to rehabilitate the German language with the help of expressionist stylistic devices from the ruins of the commercialized NDW .

Style development

Along with Goethe's heirs, the I are the main initiators of the NDT.

In the late 1980s, primarily musicians from southern Germany worked on combining a stylistic range of electro wave , neoclassical , gothic rock and cold wave with abstract texts on a poetic basis and presenting them in an elaborate stage show. References in terms of content and textual structure were found, for example, to existentialism , expressionism , symbolism and black romanticism , as well as surrealism .

The protagonists of the style are Das Ich and Goethe's heirs , both strongly influenced by the music and expressionism of the Einstürzende Neubauten. The focal point of the movement became the Franconian cultural metropolis of Bayreuth , which developed into the melting pot of the NDT, the Danse Macabre label and the scene club Etage (also known as Danse Macabre Dancehall ).

At the same time, relative humanity and end space came into the limelight, which together with Das Ich and Goethe's heirs formed a "quadriga" of the still young genre.

“Stylistic parallels to Goethe's heirs and Das Ich can hardly be denied in Relative Human Being. The theatrical, German spoken chant, the rough words, the crossover of hard electronic rhythms with orchestral instruments from the retort and the good old piano, these are the names and symbols of an underground music style that is enjoying increasing popularity. "

- Oliver Köble, "Glasnost Wave Magazin", 1992

The Swiss Tilo Wolff was temporarily associated with the NDT, most recently in 1993 with regard to a joint project by the writer Christian Dörge and his work Lycia , in which Oswald Henke and Bruno Kramm also participated as guest musicians and producers. In contrast to the performers mentioned above, Lacrimosa did not come from the environment of the Danse Macabre label and is also not mentioned in many papers on the NDT.

The New German Death Art experienced its heyday in the first half of the 1990s. Due to the success of the album Die Propheten von Das Ich, some NDT interpreters relocated their activities to Bayreuth. The genre celebrated club hits with songs such as God's Death and Von der Armut from Das Ich, Das Ende and Der Spiegel von Goethe's Heirs, Verflucht und Tempel von Relatives Mensch sein, The Silence of the Night and Rain Dance from Endraum and Soul in Need by Lacrimosa.

Other interpreters who received isolated approval in the course of this first wave were Mental Inquisition, Lore of Asmoday and Silently Down (see The Heirs of Darkness ).

As early as 1993, a second generation of artists followed who were able to make a name for themselves in the then still lively tape scene , including Misantrophe , Rue du Mort and eXplizit lonely .

“It has now been more than two years since Danse Macabre surprised the German wave and gothic scene with the“ bugbear ”of German poetry and sparked a boom in it. Since then there have been many bands that combined morbid lyric poetry and often baroque music - mostly kept minimalist - just mentioning Goethe's heirs and relative humanity. Misantrophe are now the second generation of artists who try their hand at this music. "

- Jörg Kleudgen , "Gothic Hysterika" magazine, 1993

Decline

From the mid-1990s, the New German Death Art fell into oblivion, especially due to the style change of its main representatives (Goethes Erben, Endraum) and the dissolution of the Danse Macabre record label, although artists like Law of the Dawn, eXplizit lonely, Adiaphora and Other Day die Music movement continued mostly underground in the coming years . Relative Menschlichkeit officially stopped the production of the following albums in August 1993 as part of a line-up change. Goethe's heirs left the path they had chosen in 1994 with the completion of their album trilogy (cf. Dying is aesthetically colorful , The dream of memory , dead eyes see life ) - the subject of death took a back seat.

“After the trilogy, I was faced with the decision not to do anything or to go new ways. The albums in the trilogy have become very similar due to their subject matter. After all, you can't release three completely different albums if they belong together in terms of content. But after the trilogy was over it was necessary to do something new. "

- Oswald Henke , Goethe's heirs , 1995

Danse Macabre continued to run the company as a private company after all of the bands and employees were laid off in 1994 due to financial difficulties. The publication policy of Das Ich was also a disadvantage. The postponement of their debut The Prophets caused displeasure among fans and press alike. Over the years, dates have repeatedly been postponed or completely discarded (e.g. for the EP Sun, Moon and Stars , whose publication was withdrawn against all expectations). When the MCD Stigma appeared in May 1994 after a three-year hiatus , the New German Art of Death had long since reached its zenith. At the time, the I was increasingly successful, especially abroad. The genre itself remained largely unknown there.

The INTRO employee Judith Platz criticized the lack of new impulses in the music, among other things due to the loss of their style-defining protagonists. Zillo journalist and author Kirsten Borchardt criticized the turn of various interpreters and stragglers to hit compositions (cf. Lacrimosa, Illuminate etc.) - a direction from which bands like the Einstürzende Neubauten “had only just laboriously lured German-language music out.” The music journalist, too Manfred Thomaser accused young junior research groups of a lack of independence. These often hardly get beyond mediocrity.

“A few years ago, apart from Das Ich, Goethe's heirs were something unexpectedly new. Everything else, however, has to put up with the drawer allocation “Already heard elsewhere” . Sometimes it's just not enough to be a shadow of those who came first. "

- Manfred Thomaser, INTRO music magazine, 1995

Although the New German Death Art produced only a few artists and the number of publications remained manageable, it had a major impact on the Dark Wave movement of the 1990s. Bands like Neuzeit Syndrom, Dorsetshire, Undead , Sanguis et Cinis and Sopor Aeternus experimented across styles with the usual means for the NDT and their lyrical texts.

Stylistic features

music

The New German Death Art is predominantly (neo-) classically inspired, the sound is mostly generated synthetically, but also supplemented by classical instruments. Both electronic and chordophonic instruments are used. The use of synthesizers , e.g. B. electronically generated strings (see violin and cello ), and sequencers to create and play back a programmed basic melody, mostly accompanying the rhythm, as well as percussive elements (see drum computer and electronic percussion , e.g. in the form of a marching drum or idiophones such as cymbals , Bell ring and glockenspiel that have already been saved as a preset on the synthesizer and are available for retrieval). In addition, the use of samples , such as environmental noises, but also unconventional sound generators (see music box and death knell ) is widespread . The piano is just as frequently found as a basic instrument (cf. Das Ich - Jericho / Goethe's Erben - Abseits des Lichtes ) - among other things for the realization of ballad pieces and the development of an elegiac mood.

In addition to the multitude of influences from electro wave and neoclassical music, the compositions are occasionally expanded to include the use of electric guitar and electric bass . This is often done in a subtle way with simple chord progressions or single notes and corresponds to post-punk / gothic-rock-like sound schemes (cf. Relative humanity - androids / end space - the silence of the night ).

The use of atonal, avant-garde elements, especially noise and machine noises, sometimes serves to convey a theme-related mood picture (cf. Misantrophe - In Zeit und Raum ).

“The contradiction between noise and harmony is also what was picked up by the new buildings . They used the noise to destroy harmonies and thus perhaps create a new musical idea or a new musical culture. We want to put these things together in order to be able to articulate more, to make music really figurative. "

- Bruno Kramm, Das Ich, 1993

Texts

The contents of the NDT can be divided into several subject areas. These include morbid texts about death and decay as well as the description of sexual taboos (see necrophilia ), the reflection of personal emotions and states of mind (fear, anger, sadness, isolation, loneliness, melancholy, [death] longing, hopelessness, disappointment, self-doubt, Madness), philosophical, often metaphysical circles of thought (e.g. regarding the meaningfulness of being), but also a critical examination of world events (especially social and religious criticism).

The drastic, sometimes detailed depiction of death, especially the process of dying, is striking, using naturalistic word structures and metaphors that describe the process of putrefaction, rotting, starvation and withering.

“[...] With shocking directness, the words recited record the brutality that death brings with it in all its aspects. He is presented in contexts that actually make him appear as a very everyday phenomenon that is part of the natural course of things in this world. "

- Oliver Köble, "Glasnost Wave Magazin", 1992

Many text writers and reciters of the New German Death Art drew their inspiration from the expressionist works of Georg Trakl , Gottfried Benn , Georg Heym , Walter Hasenclever and Franz Werfel . The play Von der Armut of the NDT band Das Ich uses, for example, increasingly set pieces from the poems and prose Hasenclever and Werfels (cf. “Wars will never destroy violence” / “Our mother earth hangs on the last twitching nerve”). The representatives of French symbolism , especially Charles Baudelaire ( cf.Les Fleurs du Mal ) and Arthur Rimbaud , but also poets of German Romanticism such as Novalis , ETA Hoffmann and Ludwig Tieck , and philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche exerted considerable influence on the composition of the lyrics .

There are also idioms with a linguistic proximity to the Baroque era, e.g. B. in Das Ende von Goethe's heirs ("... the devil won the battle" / "rot while still alive") and poets of the Weimar Classic , cf. Johann Gottfried Herder ("Chaos without meaning").

In many texts a negative attitude towards religion is conveyed. The focus of criticism is particularly on the Abrahamic religions .

"What we are talking about, that is the made-up faith, which actually only brings the danger: because it is not very individual, because it does not respond to the person himself, because he grafts the same image of God on every person, so that this belief then quickly becomes a fascist Accepts tendency and does not accept any other forms of belief - see Christianity and Islam , where war can even occur and people die senselessly. Christianity or Islam are extremely dangerous. The whole thing has frozen. A person always develops spiritually, that is why faith cannot be frozen and exist in a fixed image of God. This is a problem that goes very deep, especially because it is deeply rooted in childhood. "

- Bruno Kramm, Das Ich, 1991

The art of death: historical references

Death lurks behind the mask of beauty: a baroque vanitas motif from the late 18th century that emphasizes the “finiteness of all splendor”.

In the historical context, the term death art was often used for literature and allegorical art from the Baroque and Middle Ages (cf. Ars moriendi , Dance of Death , Vanitas and Memento mori ).

It was used early in German-language poetry as early as 1721 by Georg Conrad Pregitzer, a professor at the University of Tübingen , who, in addition to his work as a theologian, was also enthusiastic about poetry:

Gentlemen, you must finally die
Oh noble science! it is you alone
who has to give the last consolation on the bed of the dead
What else one has learned remains on the lips
It is an empty haze, a wrongly
borrowed appearance but you can last, when everything must pass
O noble art of death ! persist even after death.

After an era of mitigation of the macabre or the suppression of death in the art epoch of classicism, the writer and cultural scientist Gustav René Hocke noted a recourse to the Baroque era in the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries:

“This Mannerist-Baroque death art and literature is experiencing its literary resurrection exactly at the beginning of contemporary modern literature. Hugo Ball spoke of 'modern necrophilia' . In view of an anatomical drawing by Vesalius (1555), Charles Baudelaire wrote: Mysterious and abstract beauty in this thin skeleton, which the flesh serves as a dress. - The map for a poetry about man. "

- Gustav René Hocke, "Death = Abstract Beauty", 1957

In addition to Charles Baudelaire , the “world-weary art of death” by Maurice Maeterlinck and Georges Rodenbach is the subject of reception of symbolist literature . The “secret main character” in Maeterlinck's plays is death, who “is the clearest manifestation of the power of fate in people's lives. The majority of five dramas deal with the theme ( L'intruse , Les Aveugles and Les Sept Princesses , also known as the "trilogy of death", as well as L'Intérieur and La Mort de Tintagiles ). "

According to the poet Gottfried Benn , there were also points of contact between literary expressionism à la Georg Heym and the Baroque. Critics criticized the “baroque force” in Heym's works as well as the “horror of his visions” - in Benn's eyes “all the stigmata of cosmic dissolution and the visionary ecstasy that is attributed to Expressionism.” The poet Jakob van Hoddis characterized the two-part volume Verfall and the triumph of his expressionist colleague Johannes R. Becher even as "faecal baroque".

The use of the term death art can be traced back to the mid-1980s. The historian Heinrich Schipperges mentioned the “art of death with its baroque style of dying” in his works and referred to the ars moriendi of the late Middle Ages.

In the New German Death Art there are also countless references to the Baroque, its art and aesthetics, as well as the poets of Symbolism and Expressionism. Oswald Henke (Goethe's heirs) expressed his admiration for the Baroque era and almost exclusively wore baroque stage clothes to his early live shows. Just like Henke, Bruno Kramm (Das Ich) not only emphasized content and visual affinities, but also recognized an ideological concept behind them.

“[…] It is music that deals more with the darker side of life in order to be able to draw something positive from it. With a similar attitude as it was the case in the Baroque. "

- Bruno Kramm, Das Ich

End time romance

In the context of the NDT, the term end-time romanticism came to the fore, for example in relation to the album Morgenröte by Endraum. The music magazines of the 1990s classified musicians and listeners of the New German Death Art as end-time romantics.

Publications with key qualities

  • 1990: The Self : Satanic Verses
  • 1991: The I: The Prophets
  • 1990: Goethe's heirs : The mirror ...
  • 1992: Goethe's heirs: The dream of memory
  • 1991: Relative humanity : morality
  • 1992: Relative Human Being: Fallen Angels
  • 1991: Endraum : Fantastically pointless
  • 1992: End space: rose garden
  • 1990: Lacrimosa : Fear
  • 1992: Mental Inquisition: Hilarious
  • 1993: Rue du Mort: Blood and Honor
  • 1993: Christian Dörge: Lycia
  • 1992: Misantrophe : Dismail
  • 1994: Misantrophe: Death ate away childhood
  • 1995: Adiaphora: cold gray
  • 1996: Sanguis et Cinis : Destiny
  • 1996: Other Day: Sodium Amnital
  • 1997: eXplicitly lonely : heirs to oblivion
  • 1997: Law of the Dawn: Dawn of the Cold Shadows
  • 1997: ES: Passion
  • 1998: Body & Soul: Amada
  • 1999: Sopor Aeternus - Dead Lovers' Sarabande

Other performers associated with the NDT are Lore of Asmoday, Silently Down, Leichenblass, The Hopeless Dancer, Trauma Syndrome, Illuminate , Seelenfeuer, Xrossive and No Man's Father.

public perception

The New German Death Art was controversial for a long time and was perceived in a highly polarizing way within the Dark Wave movement. On the one hand, it was seen as a novelty and a bearer of a musical culture of optimism in Germany, in whose sphere of activity especially a young dark wave community had been socialized. In contrast, the NDT could hardly find favor with traditional fans of the scene who were caught up in British and US Gothic music, where it was repeatedly rejected as pseudo-intellectual and “striking in terms of content and form” with a tendency towards “involuntary comedy”. Judith Platz cited the linguistic stylistic devices that appeared unusual to the listener as a possible reason.

“There is a serious to depressive mood reflected in their portrayal, supported by the expression, which is strongly characterized by lyrical and dramatic elements, comparable to the literary epoch of Romanticism. Today the lines of text formulated in this way often appear artificial, exaggerated, pathetic, or bombastic. "

- Judith Platz, New German Death Art , In: Die Welt der Gothics

The text content was also criticized. Goethe's heirs , for example, had to face the accusation of careless handling of issues such as suicide . After the suicide of a fan - for which the song Keiner Weint is held responsible - the pressure increased on the band, which in the mid-1990s was in a crisis-ridden process of dissolution.

The NDT received media attention outside the scene through the Sondershausen murder . The 15-year-old victim Sandro Beyer was known as an ardent admirer of groups such as Goethe's Heirs and Relatives Menschlichkeit, whose music was ridiculed by Sebastian Schauseil, one of the main perpetrators and then a member of the neo-Nazi combo Absurd . After Schauseil and the rest of the band had tried to gain a foothold musically in the black scene , they developed a strong antipathy against Gothic as a result of a private feud with Beyer. This was expressed through insults and degradation; the feud finally culminated in April 1993 with the murder of Sandro Beyer.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Andrea Schilz: Flyer of the black scene in Germany: visualizations, structures, mentalities. Waxmann Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3-8309-2097-0 , p. 92.
    “[…] A major center of such activities was Bayreuth, which was otherwise hardly known for avant-     gardism in the 20th century. Here, in the last quarter of the 1980s, the nucleus of a movement was formed that was to develop into one of the largest and most distinctive pop cultures in Germany over the next decade. "
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: Das Gothic- und Dark-Wave-Lexikon , Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89602-277-6 , p. 311.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Bruno Kramm: Danse Macabre - The New German Death Art. In: Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger (eds.): Gothic! The scene in Germany from the point of view of its makers. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-332-2 , p. 220.
  4. ↑ Sven features: cassette Order market , Zillo music magazine, issue 12/91, December 1991, p. 6
  5. ↑ MagazinOphon No.1: Studio report . Interviews. Scene report. Record reviews. Radio play. MCine No.1, 1991.
  6. ↑ Volkmar Kuhnle: Das Gothic-Lexikon , Imprint Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-203-2 , p. 117.
    “The first CD,“ Dying is aesthetically colorful ”appeared in 1992. Oswald Henke sat on it intensely and in a lyrically demanding way with the topic of dying - more precisely: with the moments between life and death. The two following CDs "The Dream of Memory" (1992) and "Dead Eyes See Life" (1994) also deal with the subject of death. A side effect was that the group (together with Das Ich) was given the label "New German Death Art" by resourceful journalists - a label against which Oswald Henke has repeatedly and vehemently resisted. "
  7. ↑ Alexander Nym: Where from and where to? A conversation with Goethe's heirs. In: Alexander Nym (ed.): Shimmering darkness: history, development and topics of the Gothic scene. Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-86211-006-3 , p. 288.
    “I find the name“ New German Death Art ”unfortunate, as this drawer delimits it by name […] I always have Goethe's heirs as a German-language music theater marked with gloomy texts. "(Oswald Henke)
  8. ↑ Mike Litt: Interview with Syria (alias Christian Dörge), Zillo Musikmagazin, issue 11/95, November 1995, p. 68.
    “This connection was probably made through the Lycia album. The term 'death artist' strikes me as very strange. It may correspond to some people's background, but my artistic profile is more constructive. "
  9. ↑ Various artists: Neue Deutsche Post-Avantgarde , 1988.
  10. ^ Günter Sahler: New Deutsche Welle - Protocol of a development . Parapluie, 1997
  11. ↑ Kirsten Borchardt: Einstürzende new buildings. The legacy. Hannibal Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-85445-216-0 , p. 203.
  12. ↑ a b c d Bianca Stücker: The functionalization of technology within the subcultural context. Europäische Hochschulverlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86741-863-8 , pp. 176–177.
    “German-language texts have a long tradition in the history of the scene: The Neue Deutsche Welle and Punk had significantly influenced the development of the community and thus also anchored German to convey critical and rebellious content in the emerging scene structure. At the beginning of the 1990s, a sub-genre had developed whose essential and style-defining component are German-language texts: The New German Death Art, which, with its lyrically inspired and emotionally performed lyrics, represents a movement reserved solely for the Gothic scene. [...] The immediate understanding of the texts was therefore one of the needs of some of the scene-goers in the German-speaking area. "
  13. ^ Stefan Schulz-Hardt, Jens Neumann: Editorial. In: Ikarus, magazine for art and literature. Issue 1, Spring / Summer 1987, p. 3.
  14. ^ Stefan Schulz-Hardt, Jens Neumann: Authors and draughtsmen. In: Ikarus, magazine for art and literature. Issue 2, December 1987, p. 4.
  15. ↑ a b Christian Walther: Song texts and poetry in the Gothic scene. In: Alexander Nym (ed.): Shimmering darkness: history, development and topics of the Gothic scene. Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-86211-006-3 , p. 323.
    “More complex, critical and avant-garde texts as well as references to poets and thinkers are reserved for the subgenres of music. Groups like Einstürzende Neubauten [...] or German-speaking artists from the Gothic scene should be mentioned here. The latter also clearly distinguish themselves from the rest of the music scene by dealing with 'remote' topics such as melancholy, death, macabre and critical treatment of religion. [...] German texts are commonly associated with the New German Death Art in the Gothic scene. "
  16. ↑ Dirk Hoffmann: Relatives Mensch sein , Zillo Musikmagazin, issue 2/93, February 1993, p. 9.
  17. ↑ a b c d Bianca Stücker: The functionalization of technology within the subcultural context. Europäische Hochschulverlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86741-863-8 , p. 83.
    “New German death art describes a subgenre that, in its heyday between the beginning and the middle of the 1990s, German, frequently spoken / recited texts with dark, melancholy music linked. The pieces deal with philosophical, emotional and self-reflective topics, they deal with pain, death and metaphysical phenomena. "
  18. ↑ Kirsten Wallraff: The Gothics. Music and dance. Music as art. Thomas Tilsner Verlag, Bad Tölz 2001, ISBN 3-933773-09-1 , p. 50.
    “Goethe's heirs gained artistic attention through their demanding, critical texts, which are visualized in music theaters. The interplay between music and the visual presence of the group is expressed in the term New German Death Art . Another representative of the New German Death Art is the group Das Ich. Similar to Goethe's heirs, front man Stefan Ackermann in particular knows how to fascinate his audience with seemingly bizarre stage appearances. "
  19. ↑ a b c d Kirsten Borchardt: Einstürzende Neubauten. The legacy. Hannibal Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-85445-216-0 , p. 204.
  20. ↑ a b c Torsten Kusmanow: Interview with Das Ich. In: PopNoise. Issue 1/91, spring 1991, p. 22.
  21. ↑ a b c d Andrea Schilz: Flyer of the black scene in Germany: visualizations, structures, mentalities. Waxmann Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3-8309-2097-0 , p. 93.
    “In     terms of personnel, the trend was concentrated in musicians (Das Ich), label operators (Danse Macabre), publicists (columnist at Zillo) and DJ Bruno Kramm as well as in the singer Oswald Henke (Goethe's heir). In the wake of their work, a kind of specifically German neo-Gothic developed ... "
  22. ↑ Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: Das Gothic- und Dark-Wave-Lexikon , Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89602-277-6 , p. 248.
    “This label and its bands were crucial at the beginning of the 1990s for the development of the scene in Germany; Bayreuth was considered the most important center of the New German Death Art. "
  23. ↑ Olivier Bernard: Anthologie de l'ambient , Camion Blanc, 2013, ISBN 2-35779-415-1 .
    «  Ils ont mis en place le label Danse Macabre en 1989, qui lancera le mouvement germanique du Neue Deutsche Todeskunst (nouvel art allemand de la mort). Le groupe propose une darkwave introspective, parfois agressive, influencée par la musique industrial. Leur album The Prophets sort dans leur patrie en 1991 et les propulse sur la scène gothique mondiale. On considère que le disque aura été vendu à plus 30,000 copies.  »
  24. ↑ Oliver Köble: Relative humanity - morality. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 29, September / October 1991, p. 41.
    “Relative Human Being are a Danse Macabre band that couldn't be more typical. There is no singing, but moving words of desperate poetry are recited theatrically in dramatic language. In addition, there is a musical framework that serves more as an illustrated background. Light, electronic rhythms and a deep guitar wall in 'Verflucht'. An electronic string set and a piano accompany the tragic fate told in 'Tempel'. Relative humanity is music for little black gravedigger. The joy of the shovel shimmers in the candlelight. "
  25. ↑ Oliver Schütte: Relative Human Being - Fallen Angels. In: Gift Magazin. Issue 7, August / September 1992, p. 27.
    “For some people, relative humanity is the new German death artists, for others fairy-tale uncles with gothic texts. Be that as it may, Relative Human Being offers a song potential on "Fallen Angels" that can certainly measure up to that of Das Ich or Goethe's heirs. With this CD, Relatives Mensch sein easily joins the ranks of the Danse Macabre headliners. "
  26. ↑ Oliver Köble: Interview with Relatives Mensch sein . In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 32, March / April 1992, p. 15.
  27. ↑ Sven Happy: Zillo Open Air. In: Zillo Musikmagazin. Edition 5/93, May 1993, p. 18.
    “Lacrimosa are next to Das Ich and Goethe's heirs the most popular representatives of the“ New German Death Art ”at the moment. This may be a watered-down expression, but it also stands for a generation of German-speaking musicians who inspire a young generation of Wave and Gothic friends with intensive, thoughtful lyrics. "
  28. ↑ Stefan Faltus: Christian Dörge - Lycia , Vertigo Musikmagazin, issue 6, winter 1993, p. 48.
    “The list of participating musicians reads like a who's who of German death artists: Tilo Wolff (Lacrimosa) shares the singing and Oswald Henke (Goethe's heirs), who - besides Troy (Catastrophe Ballet) and Christian Dörge himself - are partly responsible for the music. But that's not all, because many of the tracks on the CD were mixed by Bruno Kramm in the Danse Macabre Studios. So actually no further word should be said about the sound itself. "
  29. ↑ Im Ich - Interview with Das Ich. In: Kreuzer, the Leipzig city magazine. Verlag Moderne Zeiten Medien, 1995, p. 64.
  30. ↑ Volkmar Kuhnle: Das Gothic-Lexikon , Imprint Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-203-2 , p. 133.
  31. ↑ Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89602-277-6 , p. 357.
  32. ↑ a b Christian Peller: Misantrophe - Death ate away childhood. In: Aeterna music magazine. Issue 4, summer 1994, p. 15.
    “Misantrophe is the name of the plant that enriches the dead field of the German-speaking darklings with another offspring. The duo bathes almost as well in lyrical effusions, just as swollen and articulated excessively as, for example, Goethe's heirs practice. There is, however, a difference: Where Oswald Henke disguises a textual statement in intellectual phrases and metaphors, misantrophes get right to the point, sometimes relentlessly open (e.g. necrophilia ). "
  33. ↑ Michael Wehmeier: Explicitly lonely - The eleventh commandment. In: Entry - magazine for dark music, cult (ur) and avant-garde. Issue August / September 1996, p. 58.
    “Explizit Einsam picks up with his music the bond that was tied by Das Ich and Goethe's heirs; classic New German Death Art. "
  34. ^ Jörg Kleudgen: Misantrophe - Dismail. Gothic Hysterika, Issue 2, 1993, p. 34.
  35. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Judith Platz: New German death art. In: Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of dark connotations of transcendence. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 281.
  36. ↑ Astan Magazine, 2004
    “A genre that no longer appears that often. It was once called the New German Art of Death and besides Goethe's heirs there are hardly any representatives of this direction. Such representatives are explicitly lonely. Music like a suicide attempt, destructive - eloquent and full of anguish. The German texts are highly poetic. "
  37. ↑ Zillo Musikmagazin, Kurz-Infos, issue 7/8/93, July / August 1993, p. 6.
  38. ↑ Vertigo Music Magazine: Danse Macabre Facts & Backgrounds - Autumn 1993 , Issue 6, Winter 1993/1994, p. 31.
    “Mourning the fans: 'Die Ewigkeit' will be the last album by Relatives Mensch sein in the original line-up. Dorsetshire, the new band from Relative Humanity maker Jogy, landed their first dance floor sweep on the 'We Came To Dance' sampler, 'Heartbeat'. "
  39. ↑ Michael Wehmeier: Goethe's heirs. Tour report. In: Entry - magazine for dark music, cult (ur) and avant-garde. Issue 3/95, June / July 1995, p. 26.
    "The impressions that Goethe's heirs conveyed on this tour confused numerous fans of their previous style - the time of the New German Death Art seems over."
  40. ↑ Volkmar Kuhnle: Das Gothic-Lexikon , Imprint Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-203-2 , p. 118.
  41. ↑ Manfred Thomaser: Interview with Goethe's heirs. Neurostyle music magazine. Issue 1/95, July / August / September 1995, p. 55.
  42. ↑ a b c Joe Asmodo: The I and its identity - exclusive interview with Bruno Kramm. In: Sub Line Magazine. Issue 9/93, September 1993, p. 69.
  43. ↑ Christian Peller: Das Ich - Stigma , Aeterna Musikmagazin, Issue 4, summer 1994, p. 23.
    “Das Ich ushered in the trend of German-language dark music. "The Prophets" sold 30,000 copies. While Goethe's heirs and Lacrimosa benefited from this and produced one record after the other, the former pioneers became silent. It is really a miracle that the gentlemen have pulled themselves together again to do something new. "
  44. ↑ Oliver Köble: The I - Dust. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 44, November / December 1994, p. 27.
    “Beyond all musical parallels, Das Ich is probably the only band to have achieved a status similar to that of the Einstürzende Neubauten. Far beyond the borders, they are deservedly considered export hits of German avant-garde culture. "
  45. ↑ a b Manfred Thomaser: Misantrophe - The thinker's skull. In: INTRO music magazine. Issue 25, June 1995, p. 66.
  46. ↑ Birgit Richard: German Gothic , In: Michael Ahlers, Christoph Jacket: Perspectives on German Popular Music. Routledge / Taylor & Francis Group, London / New York 2016, ISBN 978-1-4724-7962-4 , p. 133.
    “ In this decade, a number of German artists, for example Das Ich, Goethes Erben and Lacrimosa, developed a more theatrical style called "New German Death Art". This style in particular has been perceived to be a distinct and typically German phenomenon, and it has become very influential. ”
  47. ↑ a b c Torsten Kusmanow: Interview with Das Ich. In: PopNoise. Issue 1/91, spring 1991, p. 23.
    “My father taught me classical music, and so it happens that the basic themes of our music are classical, sometimes even very baroque. Now it is very difficult to always hire an orchestra, so we also use the most modern electronics. ”(Bruno Kramm)
  48. ↑ Oliver Köble: Goethe's heirs - dying is aesthetically colorful. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 32, March / April 1992, p. 40.
  49. ↑ a b c d e f Christian Walther: Lyrics and Poetry in the Gothic Scene. In: Alexander Nym (ed.): Shimmering darkness: history, development and topics of the Gothic scene. Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-86211-006-3 , pp. 324-327.
  50. ↑ Dirk Hoffmann: Interview with Das Ich , Zillo Musikmagazin, issue 12/90, December 1990, p. 24.
  51. ↑ Oliver Köble: Goethe's heirs - The dream of memory. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 35, September / October 1992, p. 33.
  52. ↑ Oliver Köble: Goethe's heirs - dying is aesthetically colorful. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 32, March / April 1992, p. 40.
  53. ↑ Oliver Köble: Interview with Relatives Mensch sein . In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 32, March / April 1992, p. 15.
  54. ^ Daniel Cramer : Biblia. This is the whole of H. Schrifft. Zetzner Verlag, Strasbourg 1625, p. 261.
  55. ↑ Veltlinisch Martyrbüchlein: That is, where a detailed description of the cruel murder was perpetrated on the children of God in Valtellina in July 1620. 1621, p. 57.
  56. ↑ Johann Gottfried Herder: Works. First part. Poems. Berlin 1879, pp. 208-212.
  57. ↑ Oliver Köble: Interview with Das Ich. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 26, March / April 1991, p. 15.
  58. ↑ a b c Heinrich Schipperges: The garden of health. Medicine in the Middle Ages , Artemis Verlag, 1985, ISBN 3-7608-1911-7 , pp. 56-58.
    “The art of living is only now becoming an art of death with its baroque style of dying, the famous» Ars moriendi «. For the last time, all "Ars moriendi" appear embedded and embedded in the "Ars vivendi", namely with Theophrastus von Hohenheim, who later called himself Paracelsus. The entire physiology and pathology of Paracelsus is based on a systematic thanatology. [...] The "Ars moriendi" became a genre of its own, with important authors and sources: above all Johannes Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, Dominicus de Capranica, Johannes Nider von Isny, Bernhard von Waging, the famous Nikolaus von Dinkelsbühl and his student Johannes Peuntner. "
  59. ↑ Konrad Paul Liessmann: Fame, Death and Immortality. About dealing with finitude. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-552-05299-2 , p. 34.
  60. ↑ Georg Conrad Pregitzer: New monument of goodness / whiteness / justice / omnipotence / truth and omnipresence of the great GOD / Auff the year 1721. Or continued god-sanctified poetry. Hornung 1721, p. 82.
  61. ↑ Gustav René Hocke: Death = Abstract Beauty. In: The world as a labyrinth, manner and mania in European art. Contributions to the iconography and formal history of European art from 1520 to 1650 and the present. Rowohlt Verlag, Hamburg 1957.
  62. ^ A b Hans Delbrück: Prussische Jahrbücher , Volume 131, Verlag Georg Stilke, Berlin 1908, p. 53.
  63. ^ Berthold Litzmann: Mitteilungen der literarhistorischen Gesellschaft , Friedrich Wilhelm Ruhfus, Bonn 1906, p. 121.
  64. ↑ a b Anita Kolbus: Maeterlinck, Debussy, Schönberg and others: Pelléas et Mélisande. For the musical reception of a symbolist drama. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8313-3 , p. 36.
  65. ^ Gustav René Hocke: Mannerism in literature. Contemporary monsters. Rowohlt Verlag, 1959
  66. ↑ a b c Gottfried Benn, Dieter Wellershoff: Collected works in four volumes. Autobiographical and mixed scripts. Limes Verlag, 1961, p. 381.
  67. ↑ Jakob van Hoddis: My poem. End of the world. Die Zeit, Issue 53, 1960, online article
  68. ↑ Diethard Tauschel, Sandra Teschke, Oliver Köble: A mirror of souls - Interview with Goethe's heirs. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 31, January / February 1992, p. 22.
  69. ↑ a b Diethard Tauschel, Sandra Teschke, Oliver Köble: A mirror of the souls - Interview with Goethe's heirs. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 31, January / February 1992, p. 27.
  70. ↑ Werner Reissaus: Interview with Bruno Kramm , inFranken.de, 2009
  71. ↑ Zillo Musikmagazin, Kurz-Infos, Edition 12/94, December 1994, p. 4.
    “After Zillo discovered the Frankfurt duo Endraum years ago in the category“ Cassette Market ”, the band was able to get a record deal with Danse Macabre. [...] Endraum have now founded their own label, on which Dawn has just appeared. The CD contains tracks from the early years of the end-time romantics. "
  72. ↑ Oliver Köble: Endraum - In flickering night. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 41, January / February / March 1994, p. 26.
    “Endraum represent the end-time romanticism in a creative way that no band from the circle of German death lyricists has succeeded in so far. Fragile electronic sounds weave a fine network of silk veils that glitter in the sunlit morning dew. Endraum have a fantastic talent for interpreting bizarre melancholy through piano and electronically arranged instruments. The pieces hardly follow catchy song patterns, but glide through the entire CD as if it were a single work, in constant change. A gloomy, foggy atmosphere spreads, sounds from exotic worlds rejoice, and the bright bell voice of a guest singer shines with heartbreaking tones. Despite the largely minimalist equipment, the music develops an intense charisma. "
  73. ↑ Kirsten Wallraff: The Gothics. Music and dance. Music as art. Thomas Tilsner Verlag, Bad Tölz 2001, ISBN 3-933773-09-1 , pp. 16-17.
  74. ↑ Frank Rummeleit: Illuminate - Courage to feel. In: Zillo music magazine. Edition 6/99, June 1999, p. 49.
    “I find that our music is not as dark as it is often portrayed. Illuminates stand out from the field of New German Death Art in precisely this respect, perhaps with the exception of 'Decay'. We rather stand for affirmation of life. "(Johannes Berthold)
  75. ↑ Diethard Tauschel, Sandra Teschke, Oliver Köble: A mirror of souls - Interview with Goethe's heirs. In: Glasnost Wave magazine. Issue 31, January / February 1992, p. 25.
  76. ↑ Robert Rosowski: Interview with Goethe's heirs . In: Entry - magazine for dark music, cult (ur) and avant-garde. April / May 1998 edition, p. 46.
    “At that time we received mail from a young lady whose brother had killed himself. I don't think Goethe's heirs are to blame, but the sister simply blamed us for it. My fault lies in the piece 'Nobody is crying', because it says “… and so my mouth falls silent until new hands grow” ! When I wrote this piece, we actually said that I wasn't in the mood anymore! I don't feel like interpreting anything live any more! I don't do anything anymore! And then I got this letter and thought to myself: You have a responsibility! When I publish something, you have a responsibility. Since that point in time I have never let go of any more of Goethe's heirs. Since then, all ends of theater plays or music productions have been open, i. H. there is still hope. And I think I've learned one thing now: You can take everything from people, illusions, etc., etc. But you can't take one thing from them, and that is hope. "(Oswald Henke)
  77. ^ Liane von Billerbeck, Frank Nordhausen: Satanskinder. The Sondershausen murder case and the right-wing scene. , Christoph Links Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3861532328 , pp. 58/59.
  78. ^ A b Liane von Billerbeck, Frank Nordhausen: Satanskinder. The Sondershausen murder case and the right-wing scene. , Christoph Links Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3861532328 , pp. 141-143.