The name is taken from the German slang idiom tote Hose (literally "dead trousers"), which means "nothing happening"; "boring".

[citation needed] Die Toten Hosen formed in 1982 at the Ratinger Hof, a Düsseldorf bar frequented by punk musicians.

[4] At their first concert at the Bremer Schlachthof over Easter 1982, the compère mistakenly introduced them as Die Toten Hasen (The Dead Hares).

In July 1983, the band signed to EMI, who financed a video for "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder", directed by Wolfgang Büld.

[7] At the end of 1983, they released "Hip Hop Bommi Bop", a hip-hop version of "Eisgekühlter Bommerlunder", featuring New York rapper Fab Five Freddy.

EMI were displeased with the band's high travel costs and by Norbert Hähnel publicly parodying their million-selling artist Heino at a Toten Hosen concert.

The title explained the front cover of the LP, which carried a picture of the band members dressed as pirates aboard a ship.

The original back cover featured the skeleton of a dog sitting in front of a gramophone, a caricature of the His Master's Voice artwork used by EMI.

Legal action by EMI prompted the album cover to be changed to the skeleton of an eagle, which, along with the Jolly Roger, became a band logo.

Along with Herbert Grönemeyer, Udo Lindenberg, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, BAP, the Rodgau Monotones and many others, they performed at the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival in July 1986 to protest the construction of the nearby Nuclear reprocessing plant Wackersdorf.

The Damenwahl tour was sponsored by the northern German condom manufacturer Fromms, who arranged for free samples to be scattered amongst the crowd.

In 1988, the band released their commercial breakthrough, the album Ein kleines bisschen Horrorschau (A little bit of horrorshow).

[13] For this purpose they recorded a rock cover version of "Azzurro" by Adriano Celentano, accompanied by a video satirising the behaviour of German football fans when abroad.

The right-wing Republikaner party failed in its attempt to have the song banned for defamation and thereby unintentionally contributed to the success of the single.

On the cover the members of the band are naked, portraying pretentious millionaires from the music industry surrounded by nude women.

An extended tour followed under the slogan "Ewig währt am längsten" (Eternity lasts longest) through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In the same year the band released their second live album Im Auftrag des Herrn (on the Lord's behalf).

Die Toten Hosen have collaborated with numerous other musicians (like Bad Religion, AC/DC, U2, Rolling Stones); they are also one of the few German punk bands popular outside Germany, with a large following in South America, Australia and Eastern Europe.

Campino mentioned that the band lost significant CD sales in southern Germany after the release of the song.

The director, famous actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, was criticised for the play's unadventurous staging, but Campino was cheered by the audience.

British punk band UK Subs recorded an English-language cover of the song on their 1993 album Normal Service Resumed.

[23] Die Toten Hosen also have a special edition of SingStar for PlayStation 2, devoted exclusively to the band, featuring 24 tracks and videos from over the decades, which was released in 2007.

MC Frontalot, in collaboration with faux-German electronic musician KOMPRESSOR on the track "Rappers We Crush", rhymes "What did I do to deserve this?/What was my crime?/Was it because I sampled Die Toten Hosen that one time?"

Die Toten Hosen were mainly influenced by punk bands from the 1970s, to whom they frequently pay tribute in recorded work and live performances.

A few songs have elements that are lifted from jazz (e.g. "Warum werde ich nicht satt"), reggae ("Zehn kleine Jägermeister") or Yugoslavian gypsy music ("Das Mädchen aus Rottweil").

For the most part, The Toten Hosen have not departed substantially from their original style of music, choosing power chords,[28] straightforward lyrics, simple melodies and anthem-like choruses over long instrumental solos.

They turned down a request from Germany's SPD (Social Democratic Party) to write a song for their European election campaign in 1994.

In 1995 they supported Greenpeace, IPPNW, Aktion Atomteststop (an initiative for a nuclear test ban), the BUND (German Friends of the Earth chapter) and they were featured on the track "Tout Pour Sauver L'Amour" ("Everything to save love") on the Stop Chirac compilation album.

Over the course of the band's history, Die Toten Hosen have expressed their loyalty to their home town in various ways.

In summer 1995, the band staged an ice hockey game called Powerplay des Wahnsinns (Power-play of insanity), playing in a team alongside professional players from Düsseldorfer EG against a team composed of Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys and Finnish national ice hockey players.