Böhse Onkelz

Böhse Onkelz was a popular German rock group. They were founded in 1980 in a town called Hösbach near Frankfurt/Main in Germany.

The Böhse Onkelz started their career playing punk music, but entered the Oi! movement and went through a drift to the political right in the early 1980s. Around that time they wrote controversial songs like "Türken raus" ("Turks out") and "Deutschland den Deutschen" ("Germany to the Germans").

Their debut album "Der nette Mann" (1984) was forbidden by German law till 2005 (20 years) because of its alleged violence-glorifying and sexist content, meaning that you weren't allowed to buy or sell it anymore, neither were they allowed to perform any of the songs on the album.

In the middle of the 80's, Böhse Onkelz left the skinhead scene. You can read their statement here.

By releasing more and more albums they built up an amazing fan community. Their last album got the significant name "Adios" and they finally ended their career after 25 years on the Lausitzring-Festival in 2005 - In front of more than 120.000 fans. Without any promotion, the tickets were sold out after 22 days. They have had special guests there, performing on this "little festival". Headliners: Motörhead, Machine Head, J.B.O., In Extremo, Psychopunch, Children of Bodom and Pro-Pain.

According to Machine Head singer Robert Flynn, "Every person knew every lyric, and pointed the words right back at them in perfect sync. Literally a sea of more than 100,000 would raise their arms and point along with the words, and then when the lyrics stopped they’d all go back down."

The band members were:
Kevin Richard Russell (lead vocals)
Matthias "Gonzo" Röhr (guitar)
Stephan Weidner (bass guitar, guitar, vocals, keys)
Peter "Pe" Schorowsky (drums)