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Die Ärzte (also spelled die ärzte; German for "the physicians") are a German rock/punk rock band from Berlin. They are self-proclaimed "die beste Band der Welt" ("the best band in the world") and, along with Düsseldorf outfit Die Toten Hosen are among the best-known German punk rock bands.

History

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Die Ärzte were formed in 1982 by Jan Vetter (alias Farin Urlaub, which is similar to the expression "Fahr' in Urlaub", that can be translated as "Going to Holiday"), Dirk Felsenheimer (alias Bela B.) and Hans Runge (alias Sahnie).

The band chose the name "Die Ärzte" because no other band in Germany or anywhere used the letter "Ä" and when they went into a store they missed this letter. They did not seek any affiliation with medicinal issues whatsoever - a fact that was, until now, all too often forgotten by journalists and bootleg manufacturers, who included wordplays and allusions to hospitals, medicine, surgery etc. in article headers and record titles. On their most recent album Geräusch, they spell their name with three dots over the a in ärzte, a sort of "triaresis" mark that does not correspond to any real language construct—a play on the heavy metal umlaut. This can be represented in Unicode: die a⃛rzte. Please note that "Die Ärzte", with two dots, is correct German orthography and not related to the heavy metal umlaut.

Sahnie left the band in 1986 and Hagen Liebing (alias The Incredible Hagen) filled in as bassist until the band broke up in 1988. In 1993 the band reunited with Rodrigo González (alias Rod) playing replacing Liebing.

Die Ärzte have shown no fear of controversy and have faced off with the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien) over their tongue-in-cheek lyrics to "Geschwisterliebe" (over claims that it promoted incest), "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" (over claims that it promoted zoophilia) and "Schlaflied" (over references to excessive violence). Due to these three songs, the band's albums Debil (1984) and Die Ärzte (1986) were "indexed" in Germany (e.g. cannot be purchased by people under the age of 18, and may not be promoted). The group has leveraged these controversies to their advantage and gained popularity by making fun of their censors. Since November 2004 the album Debil with the songs "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" and "Schlaflied" is no longer banned in Germany.

The band has been immensely popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while also enjoying some success in other Northern European countries. Much of the band's popularity can be attributed to their humorous lyrics, which are lost on non-German speakers. Die Ärzte are virtually unknown outside of Europe, aside from members of the German diaspora.

Ironically, despite being considered controversial in Germany, Ärzte songs have been used in German classes in high schools and universities outside of Germany as a teaching aid to teach German as a foreign language.

Discography

Albums

• Uns geht's prima... (1984)
• Debil (1984)
• Im Schatten der Ärzte (1985)
• Die Ärzte (1986)
• Ist das alles? (1987, best of album)
• Ab 18 (1987, compilation album of "indexed" songs)
• Das ist nicht die ganze Wahrheit... (1988)
• Nach uns die Sintflut (1988, live album)
• Die Ärzte früher! (1989)
• Die Bestie in Menschengestalt (1993)
• Das Beste von kurz nach früher bis jetze (1994, best of album)
• Planet Punk (1995)
• Le Frisur (1996)
• 13 (1998)
• Wir wollen nur deine Seele (1999, live album)
• Satanische Pferde (2000, live album only available to fanclub members)
• Runter mit den Spendierhosen, Unsichtbarer! (2000)
• 5, 6, 7, 8 - Bullenstaat! (2001, only available at concerts, to fanclub members and as digital download here))
• Männer haben kein Gehirn (2001, only available as digital download here)
• die ärzte (2001, best of album released in Japan)
• Rock'n'Roll Realschule (2002, MTV Unplugged)
• Geräusch (2003)
• Devil (2005)

Singles

• "Paul" (1984)
• "Zu spät" (1985)
• Original Ärztesoundtrack zum Film Richy Guitar (1985)
• "Wegen Dir" (1985)
• "Du willst mich küssen" (1986)
• "Für immer" (1986)
• "Ist das alles?" (1986)
• "Gehn wie ein Ägypter" (1987)
• "2000 Mädchen" (1987)
• "Radio brennt" (1988)
• "Ich ess' Blumen" (1988)
• "Westerland" (1988)
• "Zu Spät... (Hit Summer Mix '88)" (1988)
• "Der Ritt auf dem Schmetterling" (1988; Came with the album Nach uns die Sintflut)
• "Teenager Liebe" (1989)
• "Bitte bitte" (1989)
• "Schrei nach Liebe" (1993)
• "Mach die Augen zu" (1993)
• "Friedenspanzer" (1994)
• "Quark" (1994)
• "Ein Song namens Schunder" (1995)
• "Hurra" (1995)
• "3-Tage-Bart" (1995)
• "Mein Baby war beim Frisör" (1996)
• "Männer sind Schweine" (1998)
• "Goldenes Handwerk" (1999)
• "1/2 Lovesong" (1999)
• "Rebell" (1999)
• "Elke (live)" (1999)
• "Wie es geht" (2000)
• "Manchmal haben Frauen..." (2000)
• "Yoko Ono" (2000)
• "Rock'n'Roll-Übermensch" (2001)
• "Komm zurück"/"Die Banane" (MTV Unplugged) (2002)
• "Unrockbar" (2003)
• "Dinge von denen" (2003)
• "Nichts in der Welt" (2004)
• "Deine Schuld" (2004)
• "Die klügsten Männer der Welt" (2005)

External links

• The band's official website
• Official fanclub
• Legal live bootlegs downloads

Template:Last.fm

• German musical groups
• German punk bands