Death R.P.S. Lanrue dead - co-founder of Ton Steine Scherben

With "Macht kaputt, was euch kaputt macht", the band Ton Steine Scherben provided the soundtrack for the revolutionary part of the 70s. The musician known as R.P.S. Lanrue and co-founder of the political rock band, Ralph Peter Steitz, is dead.

He died on Sunday in Berlin surrounded by his family at the age of 74, as his wife confirmed to the German news agency DPA in Berlin. Earlier, "Die Tageszeitung" had reported.

Lanrue had founded the band with Rio Reiser in 1970. Ralph Peter Steitz (Lanrue) and Ralph Christian Möbius (Reiser) had a lot in common. They ran into each other in Nieder-Roden in Hesse in 1966. Lanrue needed a guitarist and had Reiser play a Stones song. As Beat Kings and De Galaxis, they played covers and their first original songs.

Tumult was part of the band and part of the musicians' lives. Having just formed in Berlin, the rock band around lead singer Rio Reiser performed together for the first time on the island of Fehmarn in 1970. The 1970 Love and Peace Festival was to become a kind of German Woodstock. To the indignation of the musicians, the box office disappeared. The political rockers play "Break what breaks you". Reiser gets the fans fired up. The first disc single unleashes its elemental force: the stage goes up in flames in the general tumult.

"One of the most important composers"

The German Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth, once the band's manager, expressed her sadness and deep sorrow in a reaction. "This is a great loss, also for me personally," said the Green politician in a statement. "R.P.S. Lanrue was one of the most important composers and guitarists in our country."

Roth said that his collaboration with Rio Reiser resulted in songs that shaped the sound of an entire generation. "With Ton Steine Scherben, they founded one of the most political bands in our country, but one that also stood for great art." Lanrue had made and shaped music for more than 50 years and stood for a militant idea of combining music and politics. "The songs are timeless, they are still just as moving and powerful today," says Roth.

SDA