Die Tödliche Doris (The Lethal Doris; a pun on tödliche Dosis meaning lethal dose) was a performance art and music group based in West Berlin from 1980 to 1987 Founded by band members
Wolfgang Müller (born 1957) and
Nikolaus Utermöhlen (1958–1996) and later joined by
Käthe Kruse (born 1958),
Chris Dreier,
Dagmar Dimitroff, and
Tabea Blumenschein, the group was known for their anarchic performances and constantly changing sound, willfully attempting to move away from notions of organised music into something akin to what the Deconstructionist philosophical movement had done with writing and text.
After band member
Wolfgang Müller published the book Geniale Dilletanten (Ingenious Dilletantes, mind the dilettante spelling) for the MERVE publishing house, which focused on French and German postmodernist/post-structuralist philosophy, critics began to apply that title to the band (along with similar artists like
Frieder Butzmann,
Einstürzende Neubauten, and
Malaria!).