Richard Kruspe (born Sven Kruspe; 24 June 1967) is a German musician. He is the lead guitarist of the Neue Deutsche Härte band Rammstein, as well as the lead singer and lead guitarist of the US-based industrial metal band Emigrate. Early life Sven Kruspe was born in Wittenberge (then part of East Germany). He later changed his first name to Richard, saying that anyone should be able to change their own name. He has two older sisters and an older brother. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother remarried; Kruspe did not get along with his stepfather. The family moved to the village of Weisen when Kruspe was young. Because of his poor relationship with his stepfather, Kruspe often ran away from home in his early teens, sleeping on park benches. In a 2014 interview with Metal Hammer, he commented on life in East Germany, stating: "The thing about East Germany is that it was great to grow up there, until you were 12. You were presented with the illusion of a very healthy society, which worked unless you asked questions – and you don't ask questions until you're 12." At the age of 16, Kruspe and some friends visited Czechoslovakia, where he bought a guitar, originally planning to sell it at a profit, but then started playing it. Career In 1985, bored with the apathetic music scene in his hometown, Kruspe moved to East Berlin and lived on Lychener Straße, where he "made music all day". For two years, he lived in an apartment with a drum kit and a guitar and made music by himself as he did not know anybody there. "It was a lonely time", according to Kruspe, but he used it to explore music. On 10 October 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Kruspe was riding on the subway. After coming back above ground, he found himself in the middle of a political demonstration. He was hit on the head, which caused moderate damage to his right eye, and arrested just for being there and thrown in jail for six days. Once out of jail, he decided to leave East Germany. Because of the Eastern Bloc, he entered West Germany by traveling through Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria. When the Berlin Wall came down, he moved back east of Berlin. Kruspe's first band, Das Elegante Chaos, was formed in the late