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‘Ewhat has already been written, everything has already been said, “- the words that Blixa Bargeld chose to open Rampen, the latest Demolishing new buildings The record, which was released in 2024 to little acclaim, turned out to be a disaster. Could this be the end of the group that has defined German music, especially abroad, for almost fifty years?
“No!” Bargeld answers, his voice echoing in the small dressing room at the back of the National Theater of the Netherlands in The Hague. “Yes lightly – we will make another history.” Later that night, Einstürzende Neubauten (“New Building Ruins”) is the finale of the 15th Rewire festival, the city’s celebration of experimental and creative music. It is the third stop of the short party that the group started in the spring and summer, and of course, they carried a shopping trolley from Berlin, along with pipes, drills and sheet metal.
They are known for their powerful noise, made using construction materials and metal, Neubauten are seen as pioneers of the industrial genre, which influenced future groups like Nine Inch Nails or Swans, although the abrasive edge gave way to more in the early 00s.
This time, there is a new addition to the stage – a new member: bassist Josefine Lukschy, who is now sitting on the sofa next to Bargeld, in the first interview she gave together with another member of the group for many years. New themes provide new features.
Lukschy, who was born in 1989, is the first new member since Jochen Arbeit and Rudolph Moser joined in 1997. “When Josefine was born, we had just released Haus der Lüge,” says Bargeld, referring to the group’s fifth album. The catalyst for this new chapter was the departure of Alexander Hacke – who joined Einstürzende Neubauten shortly after it was founded in 1980 and has been with them ever since – who announced in April that he was leaving. The exact reasons are unknown. In his statement, Mr Hacke cited a difference in “basic standards, personal and professional, at every level” and said he was leaving to preserve his “integrity value”.
Bargeld, for his part, points to the growth of Hacke in his own projects – among them hackedepicciotto, the duo with his wife, artist and co-founder of Love Parade Danielle de Picciotto – and the decrease in commitment to Neubauten. “Alexander kept saying he didn’t have the time we wanted to make a new record,” he says, explaining why the band adapted the best passages from their 2022 shows as the basis for Rampen. In Bargeld’s words, the end of the contract seems to have come naturally.
After carefully searching for a replacement – Hacke had served as the band’s musical director during the band’s tenure – Neubauten invited four musicians to audition. Bargeld said: “We rehearsed with all of them and we agreed. With Josefine, it was as if she was always with us.
Demolishing new buildings announced their new member publicly at the end of March 2026, almost a year after the separation. Lukschy, who uses the term himself, could not become a household name even for devoted fans of the band: as an independent musician, he participated in several private projects in Berlin, among them the sludge-rock band Crashpad, where he played bass and shared vocal duties. Their path to one of Germany’s most popular traditional shops was a bit of a coincidence. One day he received a call from a friend saying that Neubauten was looking for a new bass player; After a few days, they were rehearsing the song the group sent. Lukschys said: “I was really looking forward to finally playing with them after practicing on my own, on the computer.”
And now they are, sitting next to Bargeld: the most famous figure in German culture, who dropped out of school in the small suburb of West Berlin in Tempelhof, co-founder of Einstürzende Neubauten and Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, of which he was a member until 20 years of Barge. of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany last year, the country’s highest federal honor, recognizing him as an example of creative thinking across the nation. Praise that would have been unmatched for his younger brother, building a house in a stadium filled with rubble in post-war West Berlin.
How does a musician who is much younger than his peers find that he is in a group that is older than them? As the first non-male member since co-founders Beate Bartel and Gudrun Gut left early on, how do they paint the scene as truly equal? “That’s Josefine’s question,” Bargeld says – before answering himself. “Obviously they know our job.” “Of course,” adds Lukschy. “I’m from Berlin, after all. As the conversation continues, Lukschy grows more comfortable in this new role, sitting next to Bargeld and representing Berlin music – which is still rooted in the history Einstürzende Neubauten contributed to.
This group is part of the life of a near-legendary period in Berlin: which began with the years of David Bowie and Iggy Pop in the divided city in the 1970s and ended, in the most cinematic terms possible, with David Hasselhoff singing I’ve Been Looking for Freedom on the Broken Wall in 1989. a place of counterculture, a place where history, DIY art and hedonism collide.
That Berlin, however, is said to be dying. Many articles and opinions that have been published in recent months in German newspapers and magazines have complained about the decline of the city – because of the economic decline of culture, social institutions and hygiene, and the great disappointment that Berlin’s dream of becoming an international city on the level of London or New York has not been realized. But perhaps the city is just changing, just as its iconic community is changing too.
It’s not too far to map the Einstürzende Neubauten to Berlin itself: from broken children banging on unmoving metal who were removed from the construction sites after selling their tools to survive, to art pictures, to unwilling members of the culture. Bargeld bristles at the last stage. “We were a culture of denial, double denial,” he says. “With this, you can’t be part of the establishment.” Like the city that created them, they have started a movement that they see as very inconsistent: “We are innocent for the emergence of something terrible like Rammstein,” says Bargeld, a statement that, in fact, is only half a joke. And despite their international reputation, the commercial economy has not caught up with them, as Bargeld points out in terms of looking for new ways to make their money.
But as long as there are parts to play, Einstürzende Neubauten will carry their trolleys around the world. After the interview, Bargeld and Lukschy return to their hotel across the street, with passers-by turning to see if they recognize Bargeld. Pipes, drills and steel have been waiting on the other side of the road. There is, after all, still a show to play.
Drama of the collapse of new buildings Wave Gotik Treffen, Leipzig, on 22-25 May, and Primavera Sounds, Barcelona, on 5 June. Then visit.
