DONAUKINDER • LIFAD Special Edition Bonus CD, Track 2, 2009 • Raritäten, 2015 Rammstein Tracks Moodboards • Part 12

Wo sind die Kinder Niemand weiß was hier geschehen Keiner hat etwas gesehen Wo sind die Kinder Niemand hat etwas gesehen

99 Luftballoons (NENA) A cheerful-seeming song about balloons that turns rapidly into total nuclear obliteration because of humanity's foolishness, pride, and paranoia? Yeah, this is pretty dang Extinction.

Donaukinder (Rammstein) Picture that one day, you wake up to the stench of rot as birds' corpses fall from the sky and all fish in the lakes are now floating dead, and the people around you are all falling ill, for water has suddenly turned toxic… Donaukinder ("Children of Danube") is a song about the ecological disaster in Baia Mare, Romania: In January 2000, a dam at a gold processing plant broke and released 70 tons of cyanide and other toxic waste into Tisza, a river tributary to Danube. As a result, countless animals died of poisoning, five species of fish went completely extinct and water supplies of many cities in several countries were polluted. The spill has been often described as the worst environmental disaster in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster.

The first phrase of the chorus translates to "Where are the children?": The singer is watching his hometown die in front of him because of a chemical spill, smelling the rotten fish and birds in the river, and it hits him: Where are my kids? (Though it could also can be interpreted as the river/Mother Nature's grievance, mourning her countless "children" killed by humanity's greed and stupidity). And just as the song states, the Romanian government and the mine itself denied everything and claimed ignorance for a good while. "No one knows what happened here, no one saw anything" indeed.

Translation from Letras.com: "Danube source, your bloodletting / Where comfort and sorrow merge / Nothing good lies hidden, wet / In your moist meadows. No one knows what happened here / The floods, rusty red / The fish were breathless / And all swans dead / On the banks, in the meadows / The animals fell ill / From the meadows into the river / Drifted a repulsive stench. "Where are the children?" / No one knows what happened here / No one saw anything / "Where are the children?" / No one saw anything. Mothers soon stood by the river / And wept a flood. / Onto the fields, through the dikes / Sorrow rose in all ponds. / Black flags on the city / All rats fat and satisfied / The wells toxic everywhere / And the people moved away. "Where are the children?" / No one knows what happened here / No one saw anything / "Where are the children?" / No one saw anything. Danube source, your bloodletting / Where comfort and sorrow merge / Nothing good lies hidden, wet / In your moist meadows. "Where are the children?" / No one knows what happened here / No one saw anything! / "Where are the children?" / No one saw anything…"