Rainer Maria is a three piece emo band from Madison, Wisconsin, later residing in Brooklyn, New York, originally active from 1995 to 2006. Named after the German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Caithlin De Marrais, Kyle Fischer and William Kuehn formed the band in late summer of 1995. They released five full length albums, a live DVD, numerous live recordings, and EPs. In its earlier days, the band had a dual male and female vocal line-up; later, De Marrais would become the lead vocalist in a majority of their songs. The gender ambiguity of the name Rainer Maria paralleled this and was one of the reasons it was selected as the band's name.

The band's many tours and intimate live shows at venues such as Brooklyn's North Six (which lead singer Caithlin De Marrais referred to as "home" during her final show because it also served as the band's rehearsal space), Washington, D.C.'s The Black Cat, the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, and Chapel Hill's Cat's Cradle helped to grow its fan base and fuel album sales.