Der nette Mann
Der nette Mann is the debut album by German rock band Böhse Onkelz. It was released in 1984. Der nette Mann is considered the first album of the German skinhead subculture.
In August 1986 six of its 14 tracks were deemed to either promote violence, Nazi-ideology or pornography by the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.
Shortly after the 'indexing', the album was additionally embargoed due to purported "glorification of violence" in its lyrics, making it altogether illegal to sell the album in Germany. As of today, this decision ceased to come into effect, the indexing still stands.
Original copies of the album are regarded as rarities and have a value of more than €350.
In 1988 Rock-O-Rama re-released the album without permission by the band under the new title Freitag Nacht without the indexed tracks.
In 2019, the band asked the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons for a re-examination of the album and in December 2019 three songs were taken off the index.
On 28 December 2020, the album was officially reissued for the first time as part of the group's Onkelz: 40 Jahre boxset, albeit omitting the tracks "Frankreich '84", "Fussball + Gewalt" and "Dr. Martens Beat", after the Onkelz lobbied to have the album removed from the Index. This new version of the album is called Der nette Mann von nebenan.
Track listing
- Frankreich '84 '
- Fußball + Gewalt '
- Der nette Mann '
- Deutschland '
- Singen und Tanzen '
- Mädchen '
- Tanz auf deinem Grab '
- Dr. Martens Beat
- Vereint '
- Freibier '
- Stolz '
- Freitag Nacht
- Böhse Onkelz
- Alkohol ''''
Track notes
Frankreich '84'
This song's theme is the UEFA Euro 1984 in France. The band indeed had tickets to some of the games, but got into trouble with the French border police."Frankreich '84" was one of the tracks, because of which the whole album was embargoed. The term "Frankreichüberfall", is reminiscent of the German attack on France in World War II. The Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften concluded that "Frankreich '84 is forcing violence and glorifying the Nazi regime" and is demeaning to the French national team and supports Nazi tendencies.
Fußball + Gewalt
This song is about the battles between football hooligans.Der nette Mann
This track is concerned with child abuse, told from the perspective of the criminal himself. "Ich bin der nette Mann von nebenan, und jeder könnt' es sein. Schaut mich an, schaut mich an, ich bin das perverse Schwein." . Although the band intended the song as a statement against child molesters, the Bundesprüfstelle reached the conclusion, that its lyrics propagate violence towards children. Nevertheless, the band performed this song until their dissolution on several concerts, deliberately facing paying hefty fines each time.Deutschland
This is an over-patriotic song. The Böhse Onkelz were - so they say - unpolitical skinheads at this time. "Deutschland" begins with the lines "Auch zwölf dunkle Jahre in deiner Geschichte macht unsre Verbundenheit mit dir nicht zunichte. Es gibt kein Land frei von Dreck und Scherben, hier sind wir geboren, hier wollen wir sterben" . Critics state, that this is in fact a deliberate belittlement of the Nazi years.At a concert in Lübeck in 1985 singer Kevin changed the lyrics to "Schwarz-Weiß-Rot wir stehn zu dir" instead of "Schwarz-Rot-Gold wir stehn zu dir", with the former being the colours of the banned Reichskriegsflagge as opposed to the official federal German flag. The rest of the band allegedly distanced itself from the singer and the changed lyrics after the concert.