Rudy Ratzinger is the sole member of Wumpscut, occasionally employing the help of guest artists (such as Aleta Welling, P·A·L, Selene etc.), although such collaborations were minimal in scope. Ratzinger cites the influence of such bands as
Leæther Strip as his reason for making the transfer from DJing to recording music: "I was a DJ for several years and was tired of offering the audience only alien stuff. The first Leæther Strip works were responsible for trying something on my own." First works performed by Wumpscut dates back to the early 1990s when Rudy Ratzinger started to play music in Bavarian club houses and in Southern Germany. In a 1997 interview, Rudy Ratzinger reveals that "Pornography" and "War Combattery" were his first two songs in EBM, those two four-minute songs are to be found on
Defcon, the first demo issued by Wumpscut in late 1991. The release contained the song "Soylent Green", which is named after the
1973 movie and also contains
audio samples from the German dubbed version. The song first attracted attention to Wumpscut and became a frequently played song at events and clubs in the
goth and
industrial subcultures, in
Germany,
UK and the
United States. 1994 saw the release of two EPs,
Dried Blood and
Gomorra, the latter named in reference to
Operation Gomorrah, the code name used by the British for the bombing of the city of Hamburg in World War II. The following year saw Wumpscut's second full-length release,
Bunkertor 7. In 1999, Wumpscut released
Boeses Junges Fleisch ("Evil Young Flesh"), an album conceptually based on the life and events of German serial killer
Fritz Haarmann and themes of unrequited love, hate, lust, and violence more generally. The album reached No. 25 on the CMJ RPM chart (US) and No. 17 on the German Alternative Charts (DAC). The 2000 EP release of
Blutkind ("Blood child") reached No. 5 on the DAC Top 50 Albums of 2000 (Germany) and No. 17 on the CMJ RPM Charts in the US. In 2001, Wumpscut released
Wreath of Barbs, which reached No. 13 on the
CMJ RPM Chart in the US. Concurrent with the release, Ratzinger announced a remix contest for the track "Wreath of Barbs", providing samples through his Web site and encouraging any and all musicians to submit a remix for the chance of being included on the subsequent
Wreath of Barbs MCD. Ratzinger felt this was an opportunity to give unknown artists a chance at exposure in what otherwise had become an insular remix ecosystem. Beginning with
Bunkertor 7, He released a "best of" album titled Innerfire on 5 May 2017, while also announcing that Wumpscut would no longer be producing or making any new music on his Facebook and Twitter accounts. On 5 November 2020, a new album entitled "Fledermavs 303" was announced with the release of a teaser track through the Wumpscut page on Bandcamp, presumably implying that Rudy has returned to producing music again. On 2 April 2021, a new album entitled "Fledermavs 303" was released. == Record labels ==