Ralph Steitz

German guitarist, songwriter and composer, born January 14, 1950 in Grenoble, France; died July 14, 2024 in Berlin. He is best known as co-founder of German band [a=Ton Steine Scherben].

Steitz was son of a German father and a French mother. Born in France, his family moved to Rodgau, Germany during his childhood. He was brother of [a627426].

In 1966, he asked his friend [a813097] to join his Beat band "Beat Kings", where Steitz was drummer. Both became bandmates and later that year, they founded the Rock group "De Galaxis". In order to avoid military service in France, he moved to Berlin together with Möbius. There both joined the improvisational theatre group [a4940424], where two of Möbius' brothers, [a992430] and [a1083883] were in leading positions. When this group split in 1969, Steitz first stayed in that ensemble, but Möbius convinced him to join the accompanying band of the new group [a15115190] "Theaterband der Roten Steine".

In that period, he was first called "Fifi Lanrue", where the latter was an ironic form of "de la rue". The "Fifi" (based on a puppet, he played with before) disappeared and was replaced by his initials R.P.S.

With his new name [a607499] and the devellopment of the "Theaterband der Roten Steine" towards a new band called [a312358], Steitz became a leading figure in Germany's independent music scene starting in 1970.