“That’s a strength you can’t actually muster!”

The music manager Thomas M. Stein already had the nickname “Uncle Stein” during his time as a juror in the talent show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” (DSDS). Through his private company “Clowns and Heroes” he is still very active today.

The 74-year-old can look back on an impressive old-school career as head of the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), founded in 1986. After his resignation and the withdrawal of the Gütersloh-based media group from the classic business with sound carriers, Stein wrote a biography in 2009 entitled “Said, Done”. As the proverbial tough dog from the industry, he now plays his own role primarily in the television format. And broadcasters and TV production companies are very happy to oblige them to do so. Stein just likes to polarize, in the old-fashioned way, which is well received in the course of the quota battle between private and public broadcasters.

With his statements in the ARD talk show “Hart, aber Fair” he has now triggered a storm of indignation on Twitter and Co, as well as among media observers and insiders. The theme of the program was “Where men have power, women count for little”. This resulted in an extensive conversation gallop from the “Row Zero” scandal about Rammstein to the remuneration movement “Equal Pay”.

Stein caused general astonishment when he wanted to assign Lindemann a place in a (natural history) museum in his explanations. Reason: As a 60-year-old, this would be a “strength, you can’t actually muster it!”

Here, Stein alludes – between admiringly to mockingly cynical – to the rumors that Lindemann rushed into a specially prepared backstage room during his stage break during the Rammstein shows, which would later be referred to as a “suck box”. Stein’s choice of words “to make happy” in particular caused a general furore, which he uses in connection with the young women who were specially recruited for this purpose.

“I mean ‘bless’!! What a shice, who invites him? Disgusting ..” writes a user named Nurder Koch. Elsewhere it says: “What a disgusting guy. A rape is not a ‘happiness’…

One increasingly gets the impression that the Rammstein cause, with which the Berlin judiciary is still busy, is increasingly shifting to side scenes and becoming a general culture war. Till Lindemann only recently received explicit “props” from the Dresden bestselling author Uwe Tellkamp. TV comedians like Dieter Nuhr adopt a similar style to the “witty” level.

Meanwhile, the band itself stoically unwinds its live strip. After the double concert in Bern last weekend, we are now heading to sold-out mega shows in Madrid (June 23) and Lisbon (June 26).