[1] The group consists of guitarist Farin Urlaub, drummer Bela B and bass player Rodrigo González.

Bela and Farin had previously played together in the punk band Soilent Grün, established in 1979 and named after the film Soylent Green.

In 1983 they won a rock contest in Berlin and with the prize money they recorded their debut EP Uns geht's prima... ("We're doing great...").

In 1987, the German Federal Centre for Media Harmful to Young Persons put the songs "Geschwisterliebe" ("Sibling love", a song about incest, from the album Die Ärzte), "Claudia hat 'nen Schäferhund" ("Claudia has a German Shepherd", about zoophilia, from Debil) and "Schlaflied" ("Lullaby", about a monster coming and eating its victim after falling asleep, also from Debil) on the German List of Media Harmful to Young People (often called "the Index").

They contained a drawing of a tied up and gagged woman called Gwendoline that was inspired by bondage artist John Willie and is the mascot of the band.

However, after the Hard Pop Days were played with these colorful editions and a houseboat at Popkomm in Cologne was adorned with them, they were recolored into classic black and white design.

In 1989, they released one last single from the Wahrheit LP and a compilation of early EPs and rare recordings (Die Ärzte früher!

Neither Farin's new band King Køng nor Bela's Depp Jones became successful, so they decided to reform in 1993.

They released the comeback album Die Bestie in Menschengestalt ("The beast in human form") and the single "Schrei nach Liebe" ("Cry for love"), their first song to have political lyrics.

The translation of the song's refrain is "Your violence is just a silent cry for love / Your combat boots are craving for tenderness / You never learned to express yourself / And your parents never had time for you / Oh oh oh asshole".

The album was more varied than previous releases, including ballads, punk, rock and even a song resembling Volksmusik.

In 2005 a new version of the album Debil was released under the name Devil containing the original track listings plus some B-sides and previously unreleased bonus material.

In April 2011, they toured under the pseudonym "Laternen-Joe" and, in December, they gave two special concerts at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, one only for women, and one only for men.

In 2012, Die Ärzte released their next record auch ("as well", "also"), preceded by the single "zeiDverschwÄndung" ("wÄste of time").

[2] Die Ärzte made a surprise appearance playing Schrei nach Liebe at Jamel Rock den Förster in 2015, an antiracist and antifascist music festival in Jamel, a small village in Northeastern Germany that is mainly inhabited by Neo-Nazis, as well as two married artists, who organise the festival every year.

Before these festivals, die Ärzte played a club tour in non-German speaking parts of Europe in May.

The comparisons are mostly drawn because of a similar origin as both bands were pioneers of the German punk rock scene and started around the same time in the early 1980s, in both cases evolving from earlier locally famous punk bands (Die Ärzte from Soilent Grün and Die Toten Hosen from ZK).

Both bands enjoyed a similar career trajectory and success (with the most notable difference being the 5-year hiatus of Die Ärzte).

Due to all of these similarities, multiple media outlets in Germany tried to establish a Beatles/Stones-style rivalry between both bands.

[5] The band name "Die Ärzte" was decided upon after Farin Urlaub and Bela B noticed that the folder with the umlaut "Ä" was empty in most record stores.

Since their 2003 album Geräusch, they have stylized their name with three dots over the ä in ärzte, intended as a play on the heavy metal umlaut.

The German cartoonist Schwarwel, who also directed music videos for famous pop punk bands including Good Charlotte and Unwritten Law, realized the idea.

"Die Ärzte", with two dots, is correct German orthography and not related to the heavy metal umlaut in any way.

By adopting new names, the band is able to avoid attracting large crowds, allowing them to hold small concerts.

On occasion (for example concerts in 2008, 2019, 2023), they also played non-German-speaking countries of Europe, such as Poland, Czechia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Russia, the Netherlands and Belgium.