Workers song

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The worker's song primarily describes a song from the socialist workers' movement .

Sing along! Our fighting songs - a song book published in 1932 by the SPD Hamburg

But workers' songs in the general sense have a much longer tradition. It is the chants of slaves and convicts that were condemned to forced labor . Among other things, the blues is part of this tradition . They are among the work songs that were sung during physical work.

With the rise of Marxism in the 19th century and the founding of the First International , the labor movement 's anthem of the same name emerged . Building on this tradition, the classic workers' songs were created, which then experienced a renaissance in the 1970s, especially in Germany.

In addition to the German songs by Bertolt Brecht or from the resistance against National Socialism and Italian or Spanish fascism , there are also songs from the liberation movements of the Third World that are sung by the relevant interpreters.

variants

Arbeiterlieder emerged from the working musical movement that turn out to be part of the workers' education and working-class culture understood. The aim of this was to give the proletariat a comprehensive education and to develop its own proletarian culture, which should be the prerequisite for social change. Just as bourgeois music developed in the classical and romantic periods in connection with the bourgeois-democratic revolutions, the proletariat should also be given the task of developing its own culture , which should overcome the commodity character of bourgeois music under capitalist production conditions.

Record label: "United Front", 1950

Workers' songs can therefore be understood to mean different varieties that not only contain the well-known battle or tendency song, which especially in the present day shapes the image of the workers’s song. Another important aspect of the workers' music movement was the cultivation of bourgeois music, which was seen in the tradition of the bourgeois-democratic revolutions. During the division of the labor movement into a communist and a social democratic part, different views of workers 'songs and workers' music also developed. While the social democratic workers 'musicians concentrated more and more on the cultivation of bourgeois music and folk songs, new works were created in the communist section, especially from the pen of Hanns Eisler , which today determine the image of the workers' song . Social-democratic compositions from the time of the Weimar Republic - the heyday of the workers' song - are primarily characterized by a political harmlessness, while communist-influenced songs were determined by revolutionary and system-opposed content.

Known songs

Well-known copywriters

Well-known composers

Well-known artists and bands

German-speaking area

International

Intangible cultural heritage

In December 2014, the singing of the songs of the German labor movement was included in the nationwide directory of intangible cultural heritage . Together with 26 other traditions and forms of knowledge, according to the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage, it has thus become a lived national heritage that needs special care. In its justification, the German UNESCO Commission emphasizes the importance of the songs sung for the cohesion of peoples and the pursuit of peace. The workers' song remains an example of lived folk culture, which repeatedly adapts to contemporary circumstances and thus constantly keeps itself young. The workers' song describes the suffering but also the strong-willed opposing force and hope of the oppressed wage workers through time.

literature

  • Karl Adamek : Songs of the Labor Movement: LiederBilderLeseBuch. Extended new edition. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7632-2563-3 .
  • Karl Adamek: Political Song Today: On the Sociology of Singing Workers' Songs: empirical contribution with pictures and notes . Klartext, Essen 1987, ISBN 3-88474-600-6 .
  • Reinhard Dithmar: Workers' Songs 1844 to 1945 . Luchterhand, Neuwied / Kriftel / Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-472-01048-7 .
  • Jürgen Elsner: On the vocal solo performance of Hanns Eisler's combat music. Dissertation, Berlin (GDR) 1964
  • Axel Körner: The song from another world: Cultural practice in the French and German working class 1840-1890 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 1997, ISBN 3-593-35847-6 .
  • Inge Lammel : The workers song . 3rd, modified edition. Reclam, Leipzig 1980 (1970). License edition: Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-87682-477-X .
  • Inge Lammel: Workers song - Workers song: Hundred years of workers music culture in Germany. Hentrich and Hentrich, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-933471-35-4 .
  • Friedrich Waldmann: Workers' song - wind and marching music, hymns on records, "sound carriers" (DLK Erfurt) in the Soviet Zone, GDR (1946–1990) . 12th supplemented edition. Waldmann, Niederstetten 2006, ISBN 3-932040-88-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. "Dt. UNESCO Commission - Singing the songs of the German labor movement ”, accessed on January 16, 2015