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| Donauquell dein Aderlass | Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding |
| Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen | Where comfort and sorrow dissolve |
| Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass | Nothing good lies hidden, wet |
| In deinen feuchten Wiesen | in your damp meadows |
| Keiner weiss was hier geschah | No one knows what happened here |
| Die Fluten rostigrot | The floods (are) rusty red |
| Die Fische waren atemlos | The fishes were breathless |
| Und alle Schwämme tot | And all sponges dead |
| An den Ufern in den Wiesen | At the banks in the meadows |
| Die Tiere wurden krank | The animals became sick |
| Aus den Augen in den Fluss | Out of the eyes into the river |
| Triebabscheulicher Gestank | (the) stench (of) vile urge |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Mütter standen bald am Strom | Soon mothers stand at the stream |
| Und weinen eine Flut | And cry a flood |
| Auf die Felder durch die Leiche | On the fields through the dead body |
| Stieg das Leid in alle Teiche | The sorrow climbed into all ponds |
| Schwarze Fahnen auf der Stadt | Black flags on the city |
| Alle Ratten fett und satt | All rats fat and satisfied |
| Die Brummen giftig allerort | The poisonous humming everywhere |
| Und die Menschen soviel fort | And the people so far away |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Donauquell dein Aderlass | Donau Spring your bloodletting/bleeding |
| Wo Trost und Leid zerfließen | Where comfort and sorrow dissolve |
| Nichts Gutes liegt verborgen nass | Nothing good lies hidden, wet |
| In deinen feuchten Wiesen | in your damp meadows |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand weisst was hier geschehen | No one knows what happened here |
| Keiner hat etwas gesehen | Nobody saw anything |
| Wo sind die Kinder | Where are the children? |
| Niemand hat etwas gesehen | No one saw anything. |
| Lyric © Rammstein | Translation © Affenknecht.com |
Submitted by Dill
The song deals with an accident near Baia Mare, in Romania, which occurred on 30th Januar 2000.
Extremely heavy rainfall on 30 January caused a dam to breach, causing 100.000 m³ of water to flood a goldmine and carry with it app. 100 ton of heavy metals and sodium cyanide into the nearby river Donau (German name for the Danube). The poison was carried along the river, causing havoc in several countries; drinking water became poisoned, and people fled the rivers’ surroundings to escape the deadly poison, which quickly destroyed all life in and around the river itself.
Lots of children were obviously affected by this disaster, but the name ‘Donaukinder’ (‘Danube Children’) more probably refers metaphorically to the fish in the river, seen as the ‘children’ of the Danube/Donau; the fish obviously suffered most directly the full force of this disaster and the absence of fish in the river is the most obvious consequence of the disaster. Hence, the song rhetorically asks: ‘Wo sind die Kinder?’ (‘Where are the children?’). Furthermore, the German name for Baia Mare, where the breach occured, is ‘Frauenbach’, meaning ‘Woman-River’, which sustains the metaphor of comparing River/Fish to Mother/Children.
No, Rammstein are no Nazis. They are just artists specializing in songs about cannibalism, rape, burying children alive, crashing airplanes, killing for love, hate or fun and whatever daily activities that are happening in a suburb near you.
Thank God for their tongue in cheek-lyrics. Unfortunately not all fans around the globe share the same sense of humour. Thanks for this site to bring us back on track.
It seems to me that this song is a modern Requiem for those who passed away due to the massive poisoning of Europe during the days when these guys were kids.
To my knowledge the only songs by Rammstein that are politically motivated are Amerika and Links 2 3 4, the latter emphasising their hatred for the facist regime
i agree with fender. ive listened to rammstein from the beginning and none of there songs has any reference to the nazi movement. in fact i read in a magazine that they were touring in mexico somewhere and someone brought the mein kampth (however the fuck its spelled) book written by hitler and they all refused to autograph it and said that was the biggest disgrace anyone could have ever done to them. and another thing any song that would even come close is Feuer Frei! and thats only because during the wars a general or commanding officer would scream it to the soldiers to fire at will. hence the songs name meaning fire free. thats one of the only songs that really even refers to war. but if u read the translation u will see that the song doesnt have anything to do with war at all just the name. so again ppl leave the nazi bullshit out of rammstein’s lyrics and translations.
i always feel disturbed and sick when i read comments or interpretations of Rammstein lyrics, and there is always a guy that brings the Nazi shit… well i`m portuguese. i make a band, will you link it to the portuguese inquisition or slavery in africa?? c`mon, let`s make interpretations of american bands and maybe i`ll digg up some thing related to the coward Atomic bomb that killed thousands of innocent people. STOP bringing the NAZIS to Rammstein lyrics goddamm it!!! it`s all on your imagination!! it`s just crazy lyrics, it`s just (brutal) music. enjoy it!!!!
I find interesting the Lager theory – that concentration camp was really named Donau, and it was not an ellimination lager like Treblinka or Auswitchz, only a working lager, so there was bigger number of women and children.. But I hate nexuses between Rammstein and Nazi, so I believe that the cyanide theory will have to do..
This song is really touching, I think. I absolutely love it!!!
i’m from romania. baia mare is in the north of the country, it has nothing to do with donau, danube. the pollution of tisa in 2000 is a real thing, it affected both romania and hungary, but it had nothing to do with “the havoc created in several countries”. and as far as i recall, it had little effect on the danube itself.
futhermore, even if it affected the danube, as it flows to the black sea, romania would have been the only country affected.
@ Adrian “Finally, can anyone tell me what the verb is that geschah and geschehen come from? I’m stumped…..”
“Geschehen” is itself the verb – in other words, it is the infinitive. This is unlike, for example, “gesehen”, which is the past participle of the verb “sehen”.
“Geschehen” also acts as the past participle (of itself!), and that is how it is used in the line “Niemand weiß was hier geschehen”. The fully grammatically correct sentence would be “Niemand weiß was hier geschehen ist”, but the “ist” is omitted for poetic reasons.
“Geschah” is the simple past form, so it does not use the helping verb “ist” and thus the line “Keiner weiß was hier geschah” is correct as written.
I was thinking about this, and I have thought this could be a metaphor for Swine Flu. Swine Flu has affected mostly children, and perhaps the fish drowning, is a metaphor for children dying from Swine Flu. Leaving the parents of both to wonder, where their children have gone.
Well, I believe that Donaukinder should have been in the place of Mehr and Mehr in the bonus tracks…
I’m romanian. In 2000,in Baia Mare had happened a very bad accident in a factory. Tons of cianyde got in Tisza. This river flows in Hungary and then in Serbia, where it flows in the Danube and Danube flows again in Romania. The pollution caused a terrible pollution which poisoned the fish and the water was no longer drinkable. That’s all i know.Sorry for my english if it was bad
I really love this song and I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s comments here. Interestingly, Donauquelle is a real place. All the websites for it are in German, but it’s the place where two springs join together to become the official source of the Danube, which fits in nicely with the first verse. There are some great pictures of it on German Wikipedia site: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donauquelle
The local town of Donaueschingen has a dyeing industry, which can be associated with environmental pollution and could explain the red river, but there aren’t any specific incidents cited. (But then, of course, “none has seen anything”, so we probably won’t find out.) Pollution sometimes turns rivers red, depending on the pollutants involved, and so perhaps it’s a generic tale rather than some specific event.
First time I heard the song, it made me think of the dark and melancholy tale of the Pied Piper (Der Rattenfänger von Hameln) which contains a river, rats, and townsfolk mourning for their lost children, who have been spirited away. It’s a “vibe” thing!
Finally, can anyone tell me what the verb is that geschah and geschehen come from? I’m stumped…..
nope after doing more research i came across this the meaning of the song did in fact happen at a goldmine in Baia Mare. it hit romania’s somes river, hungary’s tisza river, and yugoslavia’s danube river. the link i put there is the story of what happened and whatnot. the website is http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/cyan-f15.shtml
i really dont know what the song is about but either way its a great song and very depressing at the same time. if the person who had translated it is relatively close then yes it would be a poisoning of a river. however i checked for a few days on anything like this. and there were no poisonings of the danube river. now as grasshopper has mentioned there was a poisoning of the Tisza river but by the time the tisza meets the danube the poisoning was cleared for the most part. now the person that mentioned the ss donau may be in fact onto something. but we wont know unless rammstein themselves state what the song is really about.