The Face of the Band. He was born in East Germany in 1963. He participated in Germany's swim team for the Moscow olympics of 1980, but was sacked. His musical career started with First Arsch, a Punk Rock band where he met his later bandmates Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers before Rammstein. He's also a poet and is the father of four children.
Abusive Parents: Apparently, he suffered from an abusive alcoholic dad, who would dish out serious beatings on him. This theme is revisited in many of their songs.
Dyeing for Your Art: If not played to the letter, the spirit's played straight. He got a hole pierced into his cheek to run a LED light through it for most of the "Ich tu dir weh" video. (The hole healed up during filming.) Of course, this is nothing new for him. How many times has he beaten himself up with a microphone, or set himself on fire, now?
Evil Chef: He dresses up as one during "Mein Teil" in the Volkerball tour/DVD.
Large Ham: During live performances he's known to overact.
Man on Fire: He used to wear a jacket that was on fire during live performances of the song "Rammstein". Now he just wears flamethrowers on his arms, but that still counts. He upgraded this to fire wings for performances of "Engel" in the newest tour.
Overshadowed by Awesome: First Arsch, a band he was with Richard and Paul before Rammstein. It scarcely gets a footnote in The Other Wiki these days.
Perpetual Frowner: In all the pictures of him floating out there in music magazines, sanctioned official pictures, and candid shots from fans, he's seen cracking a smile a handful of times.
Slasher Smile: He is prone to unleashing smiles of this sort in some music videos and photoshoots.
Take That: If you believe the interpretation that the other band members did try to murder him, the postcard he sends to them at the end of "Haifisch" is this, sort of a 'nyah, nyah, you didn't kill me'. Roughly translated, said postcard reads "Greetings from the arse of the world!". He sent that from Hawaii.
"You simply know that there is a certain role for you to play in life. You receive certain signs and then take on that role. That's normal."
The band's main guitar player. Born as Richard Zven Kruspe in 1967. He was living with his future bandmates Oliver Riedel and Christoph Schneider, and left his first band, "Orgasm Death Gimmicks", when in the mid-nineties he co-founded Rammstein with both of them, Till Lindemann and Paul Landers.
Badass Longcoat: It's his signature clothing item. He wears a new Badass Longcoat in almost every tour. And two different ones in Emigrate videos "My World" and "New York City".
Do Not Call Me Paul: His birth name is Sven Kruspe. The Z stands for "Zven".
Dye Hard: A natural blonde who kept it that way in the band's early days, tends to keep his hair dyed black nowadays.
Fan Nickname: He's referred to as "Reesh" a lot by some fans, with some also refering to him as "Fly Boy".
Overshadowed by Awesome: First Arsch, a band he shared with Till and Paul before Rammstein. Emigrate, his side project, was fairly successful in its own right, but it has a fanbase pretty much limited to the already established Rammstein Richard fanbase.
Yoko Oh No: Caron Bernstein, his ex-wife. Other significant others have gotten this treatment too, but not to the extent Caron had.
Paul Landers - guitars
The Big Guy: Even him, the shortest member of the band, is around 5'9".
Do Not Call Me Paul: His full name is Heiko Paul Hiersche. He took his first wife's (now divorced) last name and now just goes by his middle name.
Fan Nickname: "Paulchen", and, to a lesser extent "The Littlest Rammstein".
Overshadowed by Awesome: Feeling B, the band he shared with Flake and Schneider before Rammstein. They were a moderately successful punk rock band in East Germany, but got nowhere near the international acclaim Rammstein did. And also First Arsch, where he played with Till and Richard.
Butt Monkey / The Chew Toy: He was blown up in "Ich Will", jumped off a building in "Benzin", played a hermaphrodite in "Pussy" (hardly the most flattering role) and was left standing and unable to return to his wheelchair at the end of "Keine Lust". And in live performances, he has been sodomised, cooked, faux-sodomised, and God knows what else. Ironically, this is exactly why Flake is a fan favorite. Not in the schadenfreudeic sense, of course.
Cool Shades: Often wears them during live performances.
Death By Gluttony: His intended method of murdering Till in "Haifisch". Almost definitely a shoutout to Se7en.
Interrupted Suicide: In the video for "Benzin", he plays a jumper and the other five, firemen, who get out a trampoline to try and save his life, but ultimately fail when the tarp tears just as he jumps.
It's Pronounced Tro-PAY : His (nick)name is actually pronounced "Flah-kuh", not "Flay-ke", as some believe.
Not That Kind of Doctor: Sometimes, he's been credited as Doktor Christian Lorenz. He has no known degree; the moniker came about because at one point he had wanted to be a surgeon, but was unable to enter school to become one because he was a conscientious objector, at a time when conscription into the East German army was mandatory.
