Nietzsche and “Das Ich”
51
The specific occasion that triggered the production of the single were the events
on September 11,2001 in the U.S. However, Kramm explains,
What concerned me much more than the attack itself. .. was
the new way to make politics worldwide, when the biggest
power of the world suddenly speaks of an “axis of evil” and
judges the whole world by the position it takes towards the
good Christian world and towards “God’s own Country” in the
fight against evil (Kaschke 7).13
Kramm continues to explain how such thinking in binary oppositions leads to
“hatred and angst” (“Haft and Angst”) (Kaschke 7) in large parts of the world’s
population; only a worldwide war can come out of this. How Ackermann and
Kramm envision such a war, the lyrics of “Krieg im Paradies” show in detail; it
is an apocalyptic vision that causes goose bumps.
The next track, “Tor zur Holle” (“Gate to Hell”), is orchestrated with
harpsichord, violin, and temple blocks. These instruments represent a time
before Nietzsche, perhaps at the height of the Catholic Church’s influence in the
Baroque period. The gritty lyrics describe the gates of Hell and how to get there.
Thought-provoking and full of catchy metaphors—on the way to hell, the singer
has to cross “an ocean full of excrement of the Gods”14—this song includes
reflections on anxiety, murder, blood, desire, vanity, and misanthropy. These
reflections, found in the verses, are covered by the loud, raucous
accompaniment.
Track 7 is “Garten Eden” (“Garden Eden”): a shrill protest against the
instrumentalization of the human mind and body in modem society. Since the
attempt “to overcome the rational organization of society in
modernity... attained its first programmatically consistent formulation in
Nietzsche” (Schulte Sasse 112), this song shows how relevant Nietzsche’s
philosophy is for this youth subculture. “Nothing is mining you more deeply
than any ‘impersonal’ duty. . . , every sacrifice before the Moloch of
abstraction”15 (177), Nietzsche states in Antichrist. Later, he writes, “Christian
means hatred against the senses, against the enjoyment of the senses, against
happiness altogether”16 (188). Das Ich translates these thoughts into words, for
instance, “In my nerves, a dark master preaches Man don’t laugh.”17 The music
mimics Bach’s counterpoint. The harpsichord is contrapuntal and the drums beat
a steady pattern on the first and third beats. The end instrumental section is
similar to old-world, dark Gothic church music; it accompanies the desire for
harmony in a pre-modem world, expressed in lines such as, “Show me the
garden Eden/Lead me to your mead.”18
“Das dunkle Land” (“The Dark Land”) is a dance song, more pop than
Gothic; it gives a certain ease to the single. The instrumentation includes
trumpets and bells. The lyrics talk about waking up in a cold grave at midnight
because the “Master of Darkness” (“Herr der Dunkelheit”) is calling the singer.
The words “Today is Walpurgis Night” (“Heute ist Walpurgisnacht”) indicate