Landser (band)
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[edit] Biography
Landser is a neo-Nazi rock band from Germany. Landser is a German word for a low-ranking soldier or private. The band, which is officially outlawed in Germany, was previously called Endlösung and was founded by members of the neo-Nazi group "Die Vandalen-Ariogermanische Kampfgemeinschaft" (The Vandal's-Aryan Germanic Fight Club), which was founded 1982. Compared to many far right bands, Landser's musical skills and production values are usually considered high. They have performed only one concert open to the public, and did so wearing masks. However, they have held several private concerts in restaurants in Berlin, Germany.[1]
[edit] Legal action
In Germany, the group has been deemed a criminal organization. Three members of Landser were convicted of "forming a criminal gang organization" in December of 2003, under laws that make the publication of materials that defame the dead of World War II, or are found to incite race hatred, a crime in Germany. Two members received nearly two years probation, while the band's leader, Michael "Lunikoff" Regener (also known as "Luni"), was sentenced to more than three years in prison, making it the first time in Germany that a band has been declared illegal, and its members incarcerated. On March 10, 2005, Germany's highest court (the German Federal Court of Justice) rejected Regener's appeal of his sentence.
Regener was still producing CDs while waiting for his appeal. After the forced breakup of Landser, Regener parted ways with his bandmates and founded a new band, called The Lunikoff Verschwörung (the Lunikoff conspiracy), in 2004. Thus far, they have made several CDs, including 2004's Die Rückkehr des Unbegreiflichen, Amalek Vol. 1 & 2, and Niemals auf Knien in 2005. The lyrics of these CDs were vetted by lawyers to make them not actionable according to German law.
On October 21, 2006, hundreds of neo-Nazis launched a protest outside the jail where Michael Regener was being held and demanded his release, [2].
[edit] Production
Landser recorded its music in Germany, but had the CDs manufactured abroad, mainly in the U.S., Canada and Eastern Europe. The music is distributed online, by underground dealers through peer to peer networks or purchased from music labels inside the United States and in some countries in Europe where such music is legal (again mostly in Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom).
[edit] Music themes
Their first CD was called Das Reich kommt wieder (engl. The Epire Will Rise Again). Other Landser albums include Ran an den Feind, (engl. Get the Enemy), where the title song -- a RAC remake of the 1940 German military march "Bomben auf England" -- calls for the bombing of Israel. Other tunes glorify one of Adolf Hitler’s top aides, Rudolf Hess, and, in Opa war Sturmführer (engl. Grandpa was a Sturmführer), pay tribute to a grandfather who was a Nazi SS officer.
Their music is against Blacks ("Afrika-Lied/Afrika fuer Affen" "Africa-song/Africa for monkeys"), Turkish ("Wieder mal kein Tor für Türkiyemspor" "no Goal for Türkiyemspor" (a soccer team from Berlin-West founded by turkish migrants), Polish ("Polackentango"), and communists ("10 kleine Kommiechweine" "10 little commie pigs"). In these kind of songs they call for killing, arresting and striking foreigners, especially Blacks, Poles, Turks, communists, pedophiles, homosexuals and Jews.
[edit] Discography
- Landser: Lunikoff Demo '92, ~1992, MC/later CD.
- Landser: Das Reich kommt wieder, 1992, MC/later CD - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Republik der Strolche, 1995, MC/CD - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Berlin bleibt deutsch, 1996, CD (identical with "Das Reich kommt wieder", Bootleg) - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Deutsche Wut, 1998, CD (called "Rock gegen oben") - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Best of..., 2001, CD. forbidden since October 2005.
- Landser, Stahlgewitter, Hauptkampflinie (HKL): Amalek - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Ran an den Feind, 2001, CD - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Sampler, 2001, CD - illegal in Germany.
- Landser: Endlösung - Final Solution: The Early Years, 2002, CD - illegal in Germany.
- Tanzorchester Immervoll, 2002, CD.
- Rock gegen ZOG - hepp, hepp..., 2003, CD.
- Tribute to Landser, 2003, CD.
