Christian Flake Lorenz

Name: Christian Lorenz
Date of birth: 16th November 1966
Place of birth: Berlin, Germany
Height: 1,93 m
Weight: 73 kg
Color of eyes: Blue
Natural hair color: Brown
Distinguishing marks: none
Place in group: Keyboard
Usual place on scene: On the bottom, on the right
Previous group: Feeling B
EquipmentChristian Flake Lorenz

Christian Flake Lorenz played in old band, Feeling B (Keyboards). Divorced, but one daughter named Annie.
Very serious offstage, very funny onstage. Likes to conduct interviews in German. Didn’t like Rammstein at first (thought the band would be too boring…). Wanted to become a doctor.

His family background is vague. It is said Lorenz has a brother who is three years older. As well, there are some rumours of him being adopted into the Lorenz family. He was brought up and still lives in the former Prenzlauer Berg area of Berlin (now a part of the borough of Pankow), where he still passes his old school building on the way to band rehearsals.

Lorenz learned the piano after being given one for his 15th birthday, and he is consequently a well-educated pianist, though he doesn’t consider himself very good. Flake says he chose to play the piano because a childhood friend of his did.

At the age of sixteen, he apprenticed as a toolmaker, an apparently short-lived career.

In 1983, at age seventeen, he began to play in the band Feeling B with Paul Landers and Aljoscha Rompe, a Swiss living in East Berlin. He stayed with the band for about ten years.

Feeling B started out firmly grounded in the underground punk scene. Over time, Feeling B’s popularity grew greatly and at the end of the German Democratic Republic, it was one of the most respected and influencial Eastern German bands despite their underground status.

Flake squatted/lived in an apartment with Paul during their early years. When they weren’t playing gigs, Landers and Flake would sell jackets made from cut-up bed sheets and dusters on the black market. Two jackets a month meant as much money as an average salaried worker. “It was quite easy to make a living; not to work and stay out of trouble,” says Landers, “You only got problems if you were caught.”

The group disbanded in the mid-1990’s. On special occasions, the band members would get together for individual concerts at punk festivals, until Rompe died in November 2000.

There is a book available about Feeling B.

Flake is probably best known for his part in the controversial live performance of the song Bück Dich (Bend Down), where he and vocalist Till Lindemann would engage in simulated sodomy with a water-squirting dildo. On 1999-06-05 in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA) Lindemann and Flake Lorenz were arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior. A statement from Sergeant Thomas Radula of the Worcester Police Department stated that Lindemann was simulating sex with Flake onstage “using a phallic object that shot water over the crowd.” They were held and released the following day on $25 bail. After months of legal debate, they were eventually fined $100.

His role in Bück Dich is not the only live act he is known for. Up until 2002, Flake would surf the audience in a boat during the performance of Seemann (Seamen). Olli took his place in 2002. The reason for the change is unknown. During a 2001 concert in St. Petersburg, Flake was tipped out of the boat by the crowd and almost completely undressed. When performing Mein Teil (My Part or My Penis), Flake is “cooked” with a flamethrower by Till in a giant cauldron. Flake used to do a dance during Weißes Fleisch (White Flesh). On the video for Keine Lust (No
Desire), Flake is seen in an electric wheelchair.

During a concert in Gothenburg, Sweden on July 30, 2005, Till Lindemann suffered a knee injury when Flake accidentally ran into him with the Segway he rides during the performance of Amerika. This caused concerts scheduled in Asia to be canceled.

Flake has been divorced once and has three children. One of these children is a girl named Annie. His current marital state is unknown, since there is very little information available about his personal life outside of his musical career.

Personal

Brown is his natural hair colour, but he has dyed it various times. His eyes are blue.

Not much is known about Flake’s personal life because he chooses to keep most of it private.

Flake, an atheist, is opposed to religion. He is quoted to have said, “I disapprove of religions which are made into rigid institutions. I also think that religious fanaticism and missionary work are dangerous.”

Flake seems to dislike America and most of American culture. He calls it a “sick nation with no culture.” He likes the net (but is no longer able to access it from home), Poland, and Polish food. He despises McDonalds.

He likes to listen to Einstürzende Neubauten, Die ärzte, Element of Crime, Coldplay, Placebo, Johnny Cash, PJ Harvey, System of a Down, Ministry, Prodigy and once remarked that he eould’ve liked to have been the sixth Rolling Stone.

Flake is an amateur painter and likes classic cars. He has a Mercedes and is involved in vintage car hire business.

Lorenz used to write frequently in the Fanarea logbook on the official website fanclub, which closed September 2004.

On 5 October 2005, Flake appeared briefly on Deutsche Welle. When asked how he felt about the reunification of Germany, he said he prefers/misses the way things were then. “Even if the DDR survived, I still would’ve stayed a musician. The increased size of the world also brought the danger of being compared to all of the international acts. The bands which were in the east were the only ones there, and if you were successful there, you were successful. I miss the
simplicity. You went into a bar, ordered a beer, and you got a beer!…They didn’t ask if you wanted…with a head or without a head, foam top or bottom….It really gets on my nerves having all of these choices I really don’t want.”

Nicknames

Christian Lorenz commonly goes by the nicknames “Flake” (pronounced as “Flock’-uh” in German) and “Doktor.” Doktor came about because at one point he wanted to be a surgeon. As for Flake, the reason he is called this is unknown. He says that people began calling him Flake at a young age and it just stuck.

Christian Flake Lorenz

62 COMMENTS

  1. there’s some hilarious comments in this section from Americans who, of course, think that their country is at the centre of the world. Are you guys really suprised that someone who was born and grew up in the GDR, and indeed misses the GDR, does not like your culture of excess and overconsumption? Why are you so against someone having a different perspective of the world? Your country is not that great, either. You talk about the problems with the GDR but are blind to the ongoign issues within your own country, where the Christian far-right have taken over the top levels of your government and are stripping people of their liberties every day. Where innocent people are shot by the police just for looking a certain way and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Where people die every day because they cannot afford essential health care, while those of us in the developed world can get sick without the fear of being put into crippling debt because of it. What kind of system is that? Where people are left to die for a lack of means. It’s unjust, and yet you have the gall to criticize a country you were brainwashed to hate.
    Besides, where did Flake say “I hate every American”? He has just, rightfully, criticized your system because, from our perspective, you do not support each other. In your land, it’s like everyone is just out for themselves and not the community or the greater good. It’s sad, more than anything.

    You’re not Rammstein’s only fanbase in the western world, either. They’re huge literally everywhere in Europe. They’d be fine without you.

    and btw, the US didn’t save Europe from the Nazis. We did that ourselves, and with the Soviets.

  2. alec19, why would you even care what he says America. Let him hate all he wants. I wont lose any sleep over it. I love what he adds to the band, but he isn’t even close to the level of someone like Jon Lord from Deep Purple. His keyboard riffs are ridiculously simple, but they do work and I think Rammstein would not be the same without him. But let him hate all 330 million of us all he wants. That just shows how ignorant he is. That kind of hatred towards someone, anyone, just because of the piece of land their mother happened to be on when they were born is just plain stupid and arrogant!

  3. Great bloke, great mentality and a musical genius.
    Crazy brave too!!
    He rode a rubber dinghy over the crowd at the Newcastle gig as he always does. Brilliant.
    If he fell out he would be mobbed to death by fans.
    Keep up the excellent work dude.
    The best folk on earth are those who can laugh at themselves.
    Christian is the epitimy of that.

  4. Hey i think you need anger management, what on earth has he ever done to you, he is part of the best band in the world after all. WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM

  5. I like your viewpoints on this subject. It seems as though you have crawled into my head and written my thoughts. I know I couldn’t express my thoughts this well. You are right on point.

  6. Well, some of this isn’t quite right; Flake’s marital status is known, in fact his wife is the one who did the whistling for “Roter Sand” and “Liese” on the new album (Flake mentioned this in a 2009 radio interview). Her name is Jenny Rosemeyer. Also he actually learned to play the piano *before* his parents bought him one at 15, according to Flake in the book “Mix Mir Einen Drink” his parents didn’t want to spend the money for one at first because they were afraid he wouldn’t stick with it – at least that’s what me and my bad German got out of it (shows what they know I guess! 😀 )
    And it’s interesting to note that in the same interview when he says America is a “sick nation with no culture” he also says America is his favorite place to play concerts.

      • Ask that to Martin Luther KIing, Jr. While they were liberating Europe from Hitler racism was the norm back home. Jesse Owens was more appreciated in Nazi Germany than in America where not even a thank you letter from the president was recieved for the victories in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

  7. Mr. Christian flake Lorenz haha jk flake I love u & rammstein I also LOVE Germany & its culture u guyz were the reason why I got into Germany & visited many times but wen u said that u hate America does that mean u hate me to? :'(

  8. Flake is awesome! Always been my fav along with one or two of the others. I love talented keyboard/piano players 🙂

  9. I don’t think Rammstein would be Rammstein with out Flake, however I think his comments about America are stupid. The American culture is a mix of European Cultures, where does he think we all came from? Different Neighborhoods in the cities still uphold their European culture base. He says he prefers things they way they were in the DDR, does that mean he misses the machine guns aimed at there own people or the lovely way people were shot in the back as they tried to leave the DDR. Or maybe it was the wonderful way people lived, like having to wait 15 years to get a car, or ten years to get an apartment. Does he miss the Secret Police. Flake my friend you need to upgrade your knowledge of the world, the US buys your product, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

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