Many thanks to LudicrousC, a member of RammsteinWorld.com forums, for giving us her time. Her excellent analysis of Mein Herz brennt was worth it!

Ernst T. A. Hoffmann was a Romantic writer and composer in the early 19th century.

His short story “Der Sandmann” (The Sandman) uses the myth of the monster that frightens children, which may be linked to the song Mein Herz Brennt, the worktitle of which was actually “Sandmann.” I will here focus on other similarities between the story and the song, first the eye leitmotiv, then the fire and light imagery and finally the allusions to “ghosts” (Geister).

Die Augenlider zu erpressen

Even if MHB only alludes to stolen tears and eyelids the eye theme remains as important in the song as in Hoffmann’s story. At the beginning of the novella the main child character Nathaniel relates his fear of the sandman, whom his mother and the servant described as a hideous monster stealing the eyes of children who wouldn’t go to bed. Nathanael came to associate the monster with Coppelius, the lawyer who came late at night to carry out experiments with Nathanael’s father when the children were supposed to be asleep. At first, Nathanael ignored the identity of the nightly visitor and the voices that he heard through the walls can be compared with “the voice out of the pillow” (“die Stimme aus dem Kissen”) that resonates “till the break of dawn” (“bis der Tag erwacht”) in MHB. One night, Nathanael decides to slip through into his father’s office and spy on Coppelius.

When Coppelius finds Nathanael, the latter believes he is the sandman and wants to steal his eyes: “Eyes here! Eyes here! Give me your eyes for my owls who are hungry!”

Those owls were mentioned by the servant in her bedtime story to Nathanael, in which they are said to be creatures “nested in the moon” to whom the sandman gives stolen eyes to eat. The moon is also mentioned in MHB: demons, ghosts and fairies wait “until the moon appears” before injecting the tears into the monster’s veins. Moreover Coppelius’s horrifying appearance inspires only terror in Nathanael and his sister, and the « crooked nose » along with the allusion to owls on the moon reminds us of Flake’s mask in the explicit version of the music video. The eye leitmotiv is brought back with the character Olimpia, with whom grown-up Nathanael falls crazy in love, though he does not know she is just an automaton with fascinating eyes. Ein heller Schein am Firmament Olimpia’s eyes trigger Nathanael’s enthralled enthusiasm towards her and drive him insane. The terrified children’s “warm tears” may be compared with the shining tears on which Nathanael’s gaze lingers when he looks at her through the window: “But as he continued to look closer and more carefully through the glass he fancied a light like humid moonbeams came into them. It seemed as if their power of vision was now being enkindled; their glances shone with ever-increasing vivacity.” Olimpia’s vivid glance set the young man’s heart on fire – it “inflamed his heart” – he even felt the urge to scratch his chest when his friends reproached Olimpia’s for being dull, which reminds us of the monster’s gesture in MHB (“Hab es aus meiner Brust gerissen”). Nathanael’s heart, so to speak, also burns to ashes since he’s driven to madness then to death when he sees Olimpia’s eyes remaining on the floor after she was torn into pieces by her creators.

There are some other references to fire or light in the short story. When he goes back to his student room he discovers the house burnt down and no explanation is given about it. When the child Nathanael finds Coppelius in his father’s office near a fire: “Coppelius plied the red-hot tongs and drew bright glowing masses out of the thick smoke and began assiduously to hammer them. I fancied that there were men's faces visible round about, but without eyes, having ghastly deep black holes where the eyes should have been.” Dämonen Geister schwarze Feen Using fire for alchemical experiments can here be considered as demoniac: Coppelius seems to be the demon that brings chaos and vanishes as soon as someone dies. In the former quotation, Coppelius makes “men’s faces” with “ghastly deep black holes” over the fire, which remind us of evil spirits.

Besides, when Olimpia sings, Nahanael associates her with “ghosts” and while dancing with her imagines himself being “ grasped by burning arms.” Those ghosts or spirits can all be considered as Geister that slip through into Nathanael’s mind like the Geister in MHB slips through into the children’s dreams. As the short story focuses on Nathanael’s viewpoint, one may question the narrator’s reliability – is Coppelius really the Sandman in the end? The story could also be that of a madman. Similarly MHB focuses on the child’s nightmare full of imaginary monsters, among whom there is the Sandman who feeds on fear but who at the same time opens up his heart. The piano version video even offers us Till as he who “sings until day break.”