After numerous accusations against the band Rammstein and its singer Till Lindemann became public, there were also a number of lawsuits. In these proceedings before the Hamburg Regional Court, Lindemann demanded that Shelby Lynn stop using her Instagram profile description “The girl that got spiked AT Rammstein”. Also, an interview passage in which Lynn described how she was presumably drugged during a Rammstein concert should no longer be disseminated.
The district court is of the opinion that Lynn’s statement about being drugged (“I got spiked”) is a permissible expression of opinion. According to a report in the LTO, not even Lynn’s lawyer, who assumed that it was a factual statement, had come up with this idea. So you can see how things can go in court. Lynn’s lawyer will presumably have tacitly and gratefully taken note of this argumentation. In any case, the district court sees this expression of opinion in the context of other posts by her.
In them, Lynn describes how she felt after the tequila shots (like a zombie) and that she was no longer able to coordinate her body. She had also published some photos of her body showing clear bruises. Lynn added the comment that she did not know when and how the bruises occurred.
The decisive factor here was Lynn’s assumption that there must have been something in the drinks. This was an evaluative conclusion that fell under freedom of opinion. This permissible expression of opinion outweighed the right of personality of Lindemann, who was only affected in his professional sphere.
Interestingly, both sides welcomed the decision. Lynn, of course, because she had won in this instance. Lindemann’s lawyers assessed the judgement in favour of their client, because according to the court, Lynn had precisely not expressed the suspicion that Lindemann had mixed drugs into her drink. That’s one way of looking at it.
Judgment LG Hamburg v. 15.8.2023 – 324 O 256/23
