Die Ärzte: История, Альбомы и "Вражда" с Die Toten Hosen

German rock band
the albums

Die Ärzte (; ) is a German rock band from Berlin. The band has released 14 studio albums. From May to August, as well as November and December in the same year they went on two concert tours throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Their concerts at the Festhalle Frankfurt and the Waldbühne Berlin were used for a live album and concert film called Die Nacht der Dämonen ("Night of the Demons"), which was released in 2013. In October 2020, die Ärzte released their first studio album in 8 years, Hell ("bright"). The tour that was meant to follow the album was first postponed into 2021 before being completely cancelled because of the COVID 19 pandemic. In 2023, they played a further tour, announced only a week before it started (and sold out within minutes), and announced two further concerts at Tempelhofer Feld for 2024.

Throughout their career, Die Ärzte have often been compared to fellow German punk band Die Toten Hosen; a comparison that has often been stylized as a rivalry by the media despite both bands never having an official feud. The comparisons are mostly drawn because of a similar origin as both bands were pioneers of the German punk rock scene and started around the same time in the early 1980s, in both cases evolving from earlier locally famous punk bands (Die Ärzte from Soilent Grün and Die Toten Hosen from ZK). Furthermore, both bands are heavily linked to their cities of origin: Die Ärzte from Berlin and Die Toten Hosen from Düsseldorf. While Die Ärzte are generally known for their more humorous approach to music, Die Toten Hosen also have a couple of humorous songs, mostly about alcohol. Both bands enjoyed a similar career trajectory and success (with the most notable difference being the 5 year hiatus of Die Ärzte). Due to all of these similarities, multiple media outlets in Germany tried to establish a Beatles/Stones style rivalry between both bands. While both bands admit to a certain level of competition and rivalry between them in the past, including a physical altercations in the early 80s, both bands are amicable towards each other today, if not poking fun at said "rivalry". Adopting aliases Die Ärzte and Die Toten Hosen have played small club shows together in the past. In 2012 Die Toten Hosen covered Die Ärzte's Schrei nach Liebe on the bonus disc for their album Ballast der Republik. The same year, they covered the song while headlining Germany's biggest rock festival Rock am Ring and have continued playing the songs live on multiple occasions. In the music video for die Ärzte's "Noise" , as Bela B, Die Toten Hosen drummer Vom Ritchie makes an appearancen playing drums with a Toten Hosen banner behind him, before being chased out by the band. In June 2022 Die Ärzte appeared at one of the 40th anniversary concerts Die Toten Hosen gave in Düsseldorf. They first performed two Die Toten Hosen songs on their own, before being joined by Die Toten Hosen for Schrei nach Liebe and Blitzkrieg Bop.

The band name "Die Ärzte" was decided upon after Farin Urlaub and Bela B noticed that the folder with the umlaut "Ä" was empty in most record stores. Since their 2003 album Geräusch, they have stylized their name with three dots over the ä in ärzte, intended as a play on the heavy metal umlaut. While the A with triple dot diacritic does not represent any real language construct, it can be represented in Unicode as "A⃛" using the combining character U+20DB
The three dots also symbolize the three members of the band. The German cartoonist Schwarwel, who also directed music videos for famous pop punk bands including Good Charlotte and Unwritten Law, realized the idea. "Die Ärzte", with two dots, is correct German orthography and not related to the heavy metal umlaut in any way. They often call themselves "Die beste Band der Welt" ("The best band in the world") in jest due to them wondering why they have so many fans. They often change their band name for short periods, sometimes only a matter of days. For example, they called themselves "Die Köche" ("The cooks") to promote their 2007 album "Jazz ist anders" ("Jazz is different"), relevant due to the album art's pizza theme. By adopting new names, the band is able to avoid attracting large crowds, allowing them to hold small concerts.

The band has been very popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while also enjoying some success in other Northern European countries. Unlike fellow early 1980s German punk band Die Toten Hosen (whose career has often been compared to Die Ärzte, often trying to promote a rivalry), Die Ärzte are largely unknown outside of these countries, aside from descendants of German nationals abroad as well as many students. The band considered releasing an album in English in the mid 1990s, but they dropped the idea (the songs recorded for said album were released in 2018 on the compilations "Seitenhirsch" and "They've given me Schrott"). In 2002 they did a short tour in Japan and released a compilation (titled simply die ärzte) of their last albums there, and in 2004 they did a short tour in South America. On occasion (for example concerts in 2008, 2019, 2023) they also played non German speaking countries of Europe, such as Poland, Czechia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Russia, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Year Presenter Awards Result 1988 Bravo Otto Rock Gruppe in Gold 1995 Bravo Otto Band Rock in Silber Echo Gruppe des Jahres national 1996 Comet Video National – Rod Loves You Bravo Otto Band Rock in Bronze Echo Gruppe des Jahres national Echo Erfolgreichste nationaler Song des Jahres: Ein Song namens Schunder 1997 Echo Nationaler Newcomer des Jahres – Rod Loves You 1998 Bravo Otto Band Rock in Bronze 1999 Echo Musikvideo des Jahres national: Männer sind Schweine Echo Gruppe des Jahres national: 13 Echo Erfolgreichster nationaler Song des Jahres: Männer sind Schweine 2001 Echo Videoclip national: Manchmal haben Frauen Comet Beste Rockband Comet Act national Comet VIVA ZWEI Zuschauercomet Comet Video national: Manchmal haben Frauen 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards Bester deutscher Act 2004 Comet Bestes Video: Unrockbar 2005 Echo Musik DVD Produktion national/international: Die Band, die sie Pferd nannten Echo Bester Live Act 2007 1Live Krone Lebenswerk 2008 World Music Award World's Best Selling German Artist 1Live Krone Beste Single: Junge Echo Gruppe des Jahres – Rock/Alternative National Comet Album des Jahres: Jazz ist anders Comet Bester Live Act MTV Europe Music Awards Bester deutscher Act 2009 Echo Bester Rock/Alternative/Heavy Metal national: Jazz ist anders Comet Bester Song: Lasse redn Comet Bester Liveact 2014 Echo Erfolgreichste Musik DVD Produktion (national): Live – Die Nacht der Dämonen