Bruno Kramm, Gothic Musician and Political Figure, Dies at 58

Bruno Kramm, the German gothic musician who also built a career in politics, has died at 58, according to a report identifying him as one of the defining figures of Germany's dark electronic scene.

Kramm was best known as a member of Das Ich, the band he co-founded and which became one of the founding groups of a movement known as the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst — the New German Art of Death. The movement fused German-language lyrics with dark electronic and industrial sounds, and Das Ich stood at its origins.

A photograph from 2023, published alongside the announcement of his death, shows Kramm late in his career, still active as a performer. He remained associated with the gothic and darkwave scene that Das Ich helped bring to prominence from Germany across Europe.

Kramm's public identity rested on two pillars. The first was music: Das Ich's role in establishing the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst placed the band among the foundational acts of German-language dark electronic music. The second was politics, where Kramm maintained a parallel career unusual for a musician of his stature — a double life noted directly in the headline announcing his death.

His death at 58 closes a career that spanned music and public life, and leaves Das Ich's legacy as a founding voice of the New German Art of Death firmly fixed in the history of German gothic music.