Jürgen Bartsch, founder of metal band Bethlehem, dead
Jürgen Bartsch, the founder and only constant member of the German extreme metal band Bethlehem, has died.
The current Bethlehem singer, Yvonne ‘Onielar’ Wilczynska, shared the news on Instagram. As translated from German, she wrote, “He has died many times… But death was only temporary. After a serious illness, perseverance, and great fighting spirit, our beloved friend and esteemed founder of Bethlehem – Jürgen Bartsch – passed away on August 27, 2025.”
She added, “In deep sorrow and with a broken heart, In the name of Bethlehem, We will never forget you, Jürgen. Rest in peace.”
Bartsch played bass in the band and also operated as their chief songwriter. He founded the outfit in 1991 and was subsequently credited with pioneering DSBM (Depressive Suicidal Black Metal).
Their debut, Dark Metal, released in 1994 and combined black and doom metal to offer a new, drearily charged sonic palette. In total, the band has released 10 studio albums, the last of which came in 2022.
Reflecting on their success in 2017, Bartsch recalled a time the band received plenty of negative reviews. He shared, “In the nineties, we were playing in front of ten people. People were saying: ‘This is shit! It’s not black metal, it’s about suicide, what kind of shit is this?’ So yeah, we were lucky that somehow some kids got interested in that.”
Before starting Bethlehem, Bartsch and bandmate Klaus Matton used to play in a German thrash metal band Morbid Vision. Over the years, Bethlehem faced censorship, and were even banned from playing in some German cities after sharing a demo with a 14-year-old boy.
Speaking previously of how the band changed his life, Bartsch said, “I believe today that the creation of a band like Bethlehem was the only chance to save our all lives. Not as a therapy or so, coz the therapy to that time were cigarettes and alcohol, more a promising path of light, completely born in the subconscious.”
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