Metal Hammer Mai 2002
So you’re sick and tired of always having to state your position?
Yes, it’s especially frustrating to be depicted in the public as a fascist. I don’t feel like a fascist, have never felt like a fascist. But, I have to put on the shoe, I did and said things that point in that direction. There’s nothing to gloss over there. But do I as a 38-year-old have to keep on explaining what I did as a 16-year-old? I think it’s such a waste of time. I’d rather spend time with my family or play music.
Fortunately not everyone is so pigheaded. We also get positive feedback, so I can easily tune out the rest.
What experiences would you prefer not to have had?
A difficult question. I could have gone without being called a Nazi.
Question: “Do you still threaten to slug concertgoers in the face if they raise their arm in a Hitler salute?”
Stephan: “Our concerts are not political events. We won’t let our concerts be ruined by a horde of fascists. That’s why we react strongly.”
From “BILD” Düsseldorf/ Cologne, 15 May 1999
Stephan: “It’s important for us that our fans know what’s going on, that we don’t sympathize with right-wing ideologies. The leftist camp always acts as if it has a monopoly on morality and has always been on the good side – and from a purely theoretical perspective I don’t want to say they’re wrong, because I find fascism utterly repulsive and fighting it is extremely important.”
from “Mannheimer Morgen”, 01 July 1999
Question: “Your radical right-wing past is still hanging over you…”
Stephan: “We’re now in our mid-thirties and that was all so long ago. We were so young then and stupid and didn’t spend much time thinking about ideologies.”
Question: “Do you still have the kind of national pride that you expressed for example in the song “Deutschland” (Germany) from 1984?
Stephan: “Nowadays we’re only patriots at football matches. People who lack identity hide behind national pride. We want fans to unite behind our music, to offer them another kind of identification.”
From “HNA Sonntagszeit”, 18 October 1998
Question: “What pisses you off more, right-wing or leftist hostilities?”
Stephan: Actually I find the right-wing worse than the left – the left I can sympathize more with. Arguments from the right-wing are fairly stupid.”
From “Animalize”, Oct/Nov ‘98
Question: “Many people don’t know to this day what the ONKELZ did to be so bombarded with criticism. How would you answer that?”
Stephan: “Well, in the early eighties as a punk band we recorded two songs with texts that were xenophobic. But they never appeared on a record, they only existed on a demo tape. Since then we have released nine albums, reappraised the “old stuff” with the German press in the mid-eighties, and thought we were finished with that stuff. Then a few years later when the attacks on foreigners started, the press simply took our old songs and transplanted them into the nineties. That the band had made a 180-degree turn and had repeatedly apologized in public for the “sins of its youth” doesn’t seem to interest anyone.”
from “Tiroler Tageszeitung”, 31 October 1995
Question: “How do you view your past today?”
Stephan: “Not one of us has any desire to play for a bunch of right-wing radicals. Whoever acts the hooligan is thrown out. The right-wing extremist neo-Nazis have long seen us as leftist turncoats, and I don’t mind that at all.”
From “Badisches Tageblatt” Baden-Baden, 4 November 1995
The Böhse Onkelz in the press of 1993:
Gonzo: “The right-wingers hate us because we have never shied away from telling them that they have no business hanging around us. On the contrary, their political views conflict with ours. Every BÖHSE ONKELZ fan knows that the ONKELZ have nothing to do with right-wing radicalism. Right-wing radicals, should a couple of them wander our way, are not allowed in our concerts. Or they will be booted from the concert hall the minute they reveal themselves by chanting their slogans etc.”
from “Aschaffenburger Stadtzeitung”, January 1993
Stephan: “We never saw ourselves as a right-wing band and never felt that we belonged to the right-wing scene.”
from “Animalize” No. 10, October 1991
Question: “Why do you think so many right-wing radicals can relate to your texts?”
Stephan: “There will always be people who are too primitive to correctly understand the sarcasm, the irony in our texts.”
from “Wild Axes”, No. 4, heavy metal magazine, Austria, October/November 1991
Stephan: “Since then we’ve all become a bit more aware. We believe that our only chance as musicians and as political humans is in crossover. There’s no point in setting skinheads against punks, metalheads against hippies, and everyone against everyone else. Instead of fighting ourselves, we should unite against those who repress and oppress us all, against corrupt politicians, environmental destroyers, warmongerers and against a political system that does nothing for the individual.”
From “Metal Hammer”, hard rock magazine, “Böse ja, rechtsradikal nein” by Edgar Klüsener, Munich February 1988
