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Universal cuts ties with German metal band Weimar following neo-Nazi allegations
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 13 February 2023
Universal Music’s German division has announced that it has cut its ties with metal act Weimar after it emerged that the band’s members have far right connections – including at least two members having previous links to neo-Nazi bands.
The decision comes after German newspaper Der Speigel published an article on the band’s members and their apparent beliefs.
“Based on the information we recently learned from a journalist’s inquiry, we terminated our relationship with Weimar, which consisted of distribution of one album”, said the major label in a statement. “That has been stopped with immediate effect”.
”The information that has come to light made clear that any relationship with the band was absolutely unacceptable to us and inconsistent with our values”, it went on. “We feel deceived by the band. If we knew then what we know today, we would never have released the album in the first place”.
The band perform in masks and have seemingly used other means to hide their identities. Though, while their lyrics do feature lines that have been deemed to have similarities to other anti-Semitic language, the Weimar project itself is not overtly neo-Nazi.
However, in its article, Der Speigel says that three of the band’s four members – Richard Wegnar, Kurt Ronny Fiedler and Till Schneider – all met in the neo-Nazi scene in Thuringian in central Germany.
All appear to have used aliases while working with Universal in order to mask their past associations. Fiedler (who the newspaper identifies as Steffen P) and Schneider (aka Konstantin P) have both previously played in overtly racist and anti-Semitic bands, it is claimed.
Meanwhile, the newspaper says that there is evidence that vocalist Wegnar is actually Christian P – who has had links to the banned Blood And Honour far right network, which is known for coordinating neo-Nazi bands.
He has also been accused of possessing illegal weapons and “forming armed groups”, and in 2002 released an album under the name Murder Squad, which featured a Swastika on the cover and had anti-Semitic lyrics.
This all comes just a week after The New York Times published an article revealing that BMG signed French rapper Freeze Corleone to an albeit ultimately abandoned one album deal in 2021, despite seemingly being aware that he had previously recorded songs with anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying lyrics.
Universal had previously dropped the rapper after releasing one album with him in 2020, due to controversy surrounding his earlier work.
The Times report alleged that BMG’s French office had expressed reservations about working with Corleone but had nevertheless been attracted by the potential financial benefits of partnering with a fast rising rapper.
To mitigate the potential issues, a clause was inserted in his contract stating that the label could veto problematic lyrics and that BMG’s involvement with him would not be publicised.
However, the deal was eventually terminated the day before the first single from the BMG album was due to be released, after the French office asked the company’s Berlin HQ to review his past lyrics.
Freeze Corleone then released the album independently. He currently has over 2.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has since collaborated with other artists, including British rapper Central Cee.
Weimar released their debut album ‘Auf Biegen Und Brechen’ (’Bending And Breaking’ in English) in May last year, reaching number five in the German charts.
The LP was actually released by the band’s own label, with distribution handled by Universal. As well as ending its relationship with the band, the major has deleted their catalogue and pulled all videos from the label’s official platforms.
Der Speigel suggests that Weimar’s deal with Universal may have been brokered by the manager of Italian band Frei.Wild. They have also been accused of having far-right associations, although have publicly distanced themselves from such political views.
A planned Weimar tour has also been cancelled, with promoter In Move saying that it had not previously been aware of the band members’ “questionable pasts” and that these “run counter to all our convictions”.
In a statement posted to social media yesterday, the band deny any current connections to far right groups. They add that the band’s members “expressly distance themselves from violence, extremism of any form, xenophobia, racism, homophobia and the fatal misbelief of history, that seems to be repeated to this day, that some people are better than others”.
They do concede that Schneider and Wegnar were previously involved in right wing organisations, stating that “we do not want to downplay that they wore provocative clothes and moved in a politically extreme scene”.
However, they state, “the past cannot be changed. If they wanted to continue down these paths, they would have. However, they both decided against it many years ago”.
On the media report that led to Universal cancelling their deal, they then say: “It is a mystery to us how the media can confront us with the accusation of advancing the right wing”.
“On the one hand, the band Weimar, their attitude and music, has absolutely nothing to do with this scene, on the other, this press coverage probably has a much more significant advertising effect for this scene”.
You can read the full statement here.
