Years active 1995 – present | Origin Germany (1995) | |
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Labels Freie Meinung GöttingenW & B RecordsPC Records Albums Stählerne Romantik, Germania Über Alles Members Andreas Koroschetz, Daniel Giese, Frank Krämer Similar The Bartlebees, The Baseballs, Beatsteaks | ||
Stahlgewitter is a controversial German Hard rock and Rock Against Communism group founded in 1995. Despite the genre's name, RAC song lyrics rarely focus on the specific topic of anti-communism. Rather, RAC lyrics typically feature nationalist themes. Stahlgewitter is listed by the group 'Netz gegen Nazis' (Network Against Nazis) as one of the more popular contemporary Rock Against Communism groups. This categorises Stahlgewitter in amongst other more historical Rock Against Communism groups such as the English band Skrewdriver which played a lending role in the formation of RAC and the fellow German band Landser who are now deemed a "criminal gang organisation" in Germany.
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Hate Speech
For their supposed Nazi ties the band has been investigated by the German police for supporting hate speech. The band is listed as a hate group for these reasons by the US organisation the Anti-Defamation League. However the band's lyrics never directly attack or demean any race or nationality, which then means it is not categorised as hate speech outside of Germany. This has led to the band's music being used to create fan made music videos which then can be uploaded to YouTube without Censorship.
Stahlgewitter's lyrics however, do promote extremism by promoting and praising National Socialism or organisations that were under the German Nazi party, who engaged in crimes against humanity through the means of both genocide and democide. In their lyrics they complain about "Zionist-occupied governments" as well pay homage to today's neo-Nazis as "political soldiers" by proclaiming them to be today's Sturmabteilung(SA) or "Brownshirts", a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party that played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
One example is the praise in their song 'Ruhm und Ehre der Waffen SS' of the Waffen SS who committed numerous war crimes, particularly civilian massacres (see Waffen-SS#War crimes) :
Discography
German
Songs
Auftrag Deutsches ReichAuftrag Deutsches Reich · 2006
PseudodeutscherLive Im Reich · 2005
Ruhm und Ehre