Das Model

"Das Model" ("The Model" in English) is a song recorded by the German group Kraftwerk in 1978, written by musicians Ralf Hütter and Karl Bartos, with artist Emil Schult collaborating on the lyrics. It is featured on the album, Die Mensch-Maschine (known in international versions as The Man-Machine).

In 1981, the song was re-released to coincide with the release of the studio album Computerwelt (Computer World in English). It reached no. 1 in the UK singles chart. Both the German and English versions of the song have been covered by other artists, including Snakefinger, Hikashu, Big Black and Robert.

The lyrics were written by Emil Schult, who was in love with a model when he wrote the song. He also composed music for the song, though it was too guitar-heavy for the musical concept of Kraftwerk and it was rewritten by Bartos and Hütter to fit the sound of the band.

As with all of the songs on The Man-Machine, The Model was released in both German- and English-language versions. The lyrics are very close between two versions, with the exception of a guttural-sounding "Korrekt!" added after the line "Sie trinkt in Nachtclubs immer Sekt" in the German version. (The English lyric is "She's going out to nightclubs, drinking just champagne.") This was an in-joke by the band. In his autobiography, I Was A Robot, former Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür explains:

German rock band Rammstein covered the German version of "Das Model" in 1997 as "Das Modell". It was released as a non-album single. "Das Modell" is introduced by a French phrase spoken by film editor Mathilde Bonnefoy. The single contains three non-album tracks taken from the Sehnsucht recording sessions. In the special version of "Alter Mann", Bobo (Christiane Hebold) sings alongside Till Lindemann in the chorus.

Promo CD

Enhanced CD

• List of UK singles chart number ones of the 1980s

• "Das Model" at Discogs (list of releases)
• "Das Modell" covers (in Russian)