Scooter has kicked up controvery with its performance in Crimea. While the band is known in the global techno scene, the name is new to others. A look at the music group making headlines.
Image: Kontor Records
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Scooter: Making music and headlines
Since its start in 1993, Scooter has found fans around the world, including in eastern Europe. On a few occasions, the band has stumbled into controversy. DW takes a look at Scooter's followers and alleged faux pas.
Image: Kontor Records
Flocks of fans in eastern Europe
Very few Germans bands have found international success the way Scooter has. The techno trio that got its start in Hamburg in 1993 has fans around the world, with particularly devoted followers in the former Soviet bloc nations, especially Russia. There, frontman H.P. Baxxter is so well-known that he was obliged to do a TV ad for the Russian branch of the electronics chain Media Markt.
Image: Kontor Records
The hype continues today
Scooter attributes its success in eastern Europe to the time-specific overlap between the rise of the band and the new feeling of liberty that people experienced after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Scooter's music hit the era's key nerve, and the hype around the band has lasted until today. Whether in London, Berlin or Moscow, the techno-trio continue to fill large venues.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Pavlishak
Controvesial Crimea concert
Scooter drew international criticism after crossing from Russia to Crimea to perform at the ZBFest rock festival in Balaklava in early August 2017 (above). Since the Ukrainian peninsula's de facto annexation by Russia in 2014, Ukraine has banned people from traveling to Crimea unless it occurs at special checkpoints manned by Ukrainian officials. H.P. Baxxter and the band arrived via Russia.
Image: Reuters/P. Rebrov
Far-right band fan photo?
A March 2011 departure from Russia also caused controversy. On a flight from Moscow to Berlin, H.P. Baxxter agreed to a photo with fellow passengers - the extreme right-wing German band Kategorie C. While Kategorie C flaunted the photo online, Baxxter said he didn't know who they were when they approached him. He argued he takes photos with tons of fans (like above) a day and can't vet every one.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Pavlishak
Photo fake
Around the same time, a second photo surfaced on a right-wing music blog. It showed Baxxter taking tea during a 2006 honorary visit to the German city Leer. In the photo, his black polo is emblazoned with "Burzum," the name of a Norwegian black metal band whose lead has far-right views. The photo was quickly identified as a manipulated fake and taken down upon request from Baxxter's label.
Image: picture alliance / Jazzarchiv
An official statement
In relation to the two controversial and contested photos - both of which appeared on the far-right music blog Oireszene - Scooter's label Kontor Records stated "that neither the Band Scooter nor its front man H.P. Baxxter has maintained any type of contact with or affinity for the right-wing scene." Oireszene published the label's statement and removed all offending material.
Image: Kontor Records
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A German techno trio that got its start in Hamburg in 1993, Scooter is known for fast beats, non-political - and sometimes nonsensical - screaming lyrics. The band's high-energy shows featuring lasers and pyrotechnics. They have sold over 30 million records worldwide. While the band's members have changed over time, frontman H.P. Baxxter (center) has been there from the start. The band's other current members are Phil Speiser and Michael Simon.
In early August 2017, the band kicked up controversy when they arrived at a rock festival in Crimea, the peninsula on the Black Sea that Russia and Ukraine continue to contest. While H.P. Baxxter insists the band is focused on music, not politics, it isn't the first time he has waded into politically-related controversy. In 2011, a series of photographs of Baxxter that surfaced online forced the group's founder to speak out on the incidents and the group's label to issue an official statement on Scooter's relation to the right-wing music scene.
Click through the images above to learn more about the band at the heart of this controversy.
