For the record, I just found out about this video today. I used to be a fan of theirs, but haven't really paid much attention to them in quite a while because I lost interest in whole 'dark' thing. And yes, I know Deutsch, so I know what they're saying. In fact, they're the reason I learned German in the first place!
The song, for those who don't know, is about Germans coming to terms with their own past. Its certainly not your typical Rammstein song. They're actually trying to say something serious and important in this one. A lot of people are flipping out over the video though, due to a scene where the band's members portray Holocaust victims (seriously).
I've love to talk about this video, but youtube isn't exactly the best place to have any kind of discussion on anything anymore, but then i remembered this site which I don't really visit anymore. I was hoping to find someone else's thread on the topic, but there doesn't appear to be one, so I decided to make my own.
Personally, even though I'm hardly German, I can fully understand where they're coming from. I'm well aware that Germans don't have the best relationship with their own history. My own German teacher, who was actually from Germany, told us that 'no one was proud to be German anymore'. I've been told that's a bit of an exaggeration, but from what I've seen it is at least partially true.
What intrigues me about this song and video is that, even though it was obviously aimed at Germans, honestly as an American I can identify with what they're saying a lot. America right now is contending with its own dark past which is now making a resurgence. And of course we're having a huge problem with the alt-right, so Nazis, in a way, are also having a negative effect on our own country. I actually wish that they would add English sub-titles to the video, because honestly I think Americans need to this too, for our own reasons. I don't know if that's actually going to happen or not, since foreign music videos don't seem to get subtitles very often. Also, they appear to have disabled the comments on that video, and of course anyone can easily see why.
We live in such a dark world right now. Its feels like the dark era that was the second world war is coming back. A lot of Americans are honestly afraid that we may in fact turn into a dictatorship, or even fall into a civil war. I mean, we seriously have holocaust deniers in office! The alt-right rules pretty much every social media site there is. And no one wants to talk reason anymore, anywhere. I think the video really speaks about what the present era is like. People evil people are wanting to restore the past, and either change, justify, or erase the atrocities committed in the past. The Nazis are seriously returning, and so far, at least in the US, they seem to be winning.
Also, honestly, I would like to have the video explained to me. Yeah, I get what the video's about, but I'm assuming that it contains a bunch of references that only a true German would catch (in particular I'm curious as to whether the 'medieval' outfits you see in the video are historically accurate or not). I'd also like to know what events the brawling scene and the prison scene are referring to. I can find explanations for some things, like the guy in the office and the rockets in the holocaust scene, but they don't cover everything. I also don't get the symbology of the scene with the monks. I believe the woman is supposed to be a personification of Germany (I believe she's supposed to represent a character called 'Germania'). And yes, I know what the lyrics mean, and I already found a video explaining what they reference (such as the one line taken from the German national anthem). The guy in the video, who actually is German, interpreted the song as being about Germans and their relationship to their own national identity.
edit: As for the 'German national anthem' thing, I misread that. I originally thought the text I got that from said that German's don't use their national anthem anymore, but apparently they do, just not that part (and by 'that part', I mean the entire first two stanzas). Oops I'm sincerely sorry if I offended anyone, I just made a minor mistake with history there. I'm not exactly European here