The woman who banned Rammstein becomes President of the European Commission

Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen, a German politician serving as Minister of Defence since 2013, was nominated to the position of President of the European Commission by the European Council yesterday. She served continuously in Angela Merkel’s cabinet since she took office in 2005, first as Minister of Family Affairs and Youth from 2005 to 2009, then as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs from 2009 to 2013, before becoming Minister of Defence in 2013.

But what we mostly know about vond der Leyen aka ‘Zensursula’ is that she was in charge of the request to ban the Rammstein album “Liebe ist für alle da” on November 11, 2009. This because of the SM nature of the lyrics. On May 31 2010 the German Justice apparently noticed this was really a bridge too far and removed it again from the index.

Not everything is negative about von der Leyen of course. She for instance caused another controversy in 2016 after she refused to wear a hijab while visiting Saudi Arabia. She said: “It annoys me when women are pushed into wearing the abaya.”

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

The donations are safely powered by Paypal.