Rising from the Ruins
| Rising from the Ruins | |
|---|---|
| country |
 German Democratic Republic
|
| Usage period | 1949-1990 |
| text | Johannes R. Becher |
| melody | Hanns Eisler |
| Audio files | |
_Hanns_Eisler.jpg)
The song Resurrected from Ruins was the national anthem in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). On behalf of the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the President of the GDR, Wilhelm Pieck , Johannes R. Becher wrote the text and Hanns Eisler the melody in autumn 1949 . Initially regarded as the German national anthem , the song later actually became the national anthem of the GDR . From around 1972 to January 1990 the hymn was officially only played in an instrumental version; the text was no longer sung.
text
The text was probably written in October 1949. No evidence can be found in his estate or in Becher's statements for the occasional suspicion that Becher used earlier poems from his time in exile in Moscow.
Becher wanted to compose a folk song-like "peace hymn", which "could be sung by all strata of our people [...] with passionate sympathy and [] should also appeal to the German people who live in the West". Therefore, he turned against suggestions and criticism that the anthem was not combative enough.
The text of the hymn was printed for the first time on November 6, 1949 in New Germany together with a facsimile of Eisler's music manuscript. Text variants can already be seen in this edition . So it says in the first edition in verse 7 of the first stanza:
- "And we will succeed"
and in verse 4 of the third stanza:
- "A new generation rises".
The facsimile of Eisler's handwriting of the first stanza (by Hanns Eisler) printed directly below it states as verse 7:
- "Because it must, it must succeed".
The title was given:
- "German national anthem".
On November 8, 1949, the text also appeared in the Berliner Zeitung and in the Neue Zeit , here with two changes. Verse 7 of the first stanza now read:
- “Because we will succeed” (Berliner Zeitung) , “because we must succeed” (Neue Zeit and the version with notes in the Berliner Zeitung) .
The fourth verse of the third stanza now read:
- "A free sex rises".
The following is the official version printed by Deutsche Zentralverlag and later by CF Peters Musikverlag . However, there were still uncertainties at the two points mentioned. Both text variants appear again and again; “We will succeed” for example in the songbook Leben, Singen, Fighting. Songbook of the German youth .
Risen from the ruins |
Happiness and peace be granted to |
Let us plow, let us build, |
The text of the hymn follows the meter of the Austrian imperial hymn in the first eight of the nine verses of each stanza . These eight verses can be sung on the melody of the Deutschlandlied , just as the eight verses of each stanza of the Deutschlandlied (without the repetition of the last two verses) can be sung on the first eight verses of the Eisler melody - which, however, does not result in a satisfactory conclusion.
music
.svg)
Hanns Eisler composed the music for the national anthem within a few days between the end of October and the beginning of November 1949. Eisler wanted to give his music a “really humanistic expression”: “There cannot be anything 'jagged' or military in this meaningful melody, it has to be A very dignified and very human tone can be found. ”This is also reflected in the tempo designation that is written above the facsimile of the autograph in the first publication:“ Moderate ”, followed by a quarter note in brackets, ie quarter notes should be struck when conducting .
While the key of the hymn in the first publication in Neues Deutschland on November 6, 1949 (facsimile of an autograph by Eisler with melody and the text of the first stanza) is E flat major , the version of the autograph dated November 7, 1949 (also with melody and text of the first stanza), which can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the German Historical Museum in Berlin, in F major . In addition, the melody in the first publication deviates slightly from the known version at one point.
Shortly after the first performance of the anthem, accusations of plagiarism were raised in West German newspapers , which were occasionally rumored until the 1990s . Eisler is said to have taken the first intervals of the hymn from the hit Goodbye Johnny by Peter Kreuder from the Hans Albers film Water for Canitoga from 1939. Kreuders Schlager actually has the same first eight notes, but this also applies to other compositions such as the song Freudvoll und Leidvoll from Ludwig van Beethoven's incidental music for Egmont .
“In fact, the first intervals of both melodies are the same, the gradually rising bass steps at the beginning of the first phrase and the associated sequence structure of the melody are also similar. It was overlooked, however, that Eisler did not depend on an invention by Peter Kreuder, but - if he should have consciously leaned on something at all - could fall back on the same model from his song 'Der Kirschdieb' or from the first Pascal setting, which were already made in the USA. "
During this dispute, which had a high point in a newspaper article in Welt am Sonntag in 1958, Eisler was referred to as "Pankow's musical propaganda chief", the hymn itself was referred to as the "Gully slide hymn" and the "Eislerpampe". What Eisler was actually inspired by can no longer be determined, since he did not comment on it himself. The request of the legal representative Kreuders to investigate the allegation of plagiarism did not pursue the Austrian Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers contacted. Kreuder himself has not made any statements on this matter. The historian Heike Amos describes the fact that the performance of Kreuders Schlager in the GDR caused those present to stand up because they believed the national anthem was being played as a rumor that appeared in different versions in the West German press.
Origin of the hymn
Even before the founding of the GDR on October 7, 1949, there were considerations about a national anthem for the state to be founded. On September 13, 1949 , the Politburo of the SED's Central Committee commissioned Anton Ackermann to speak to Johannes R. Becher and Hanns Eisler about creating a national anthem. However, when this happened has not been established. In a letter to Becher on October 10, Wilhelm Pieck made suggestions for the content of the three stanzas that he thought the hymn should have.
Two days later, on October 12, Becher sent a first version of the text to Ottmar Gerster with a request to set it to music. This version with four stanzas still resembled the later hymn in form and content, but Becher revised the text several times over the next few weeks. He sent Gerster a corrected version, and November 4th was set as the date for an audition in Berlin. At the end of October 1949, Becher met Eisler in Warsaw, who had come from Vienna for the celebrations on the occasion of Goethe's 200th birthday.
He asked Eisler to set the text to music and mentioned that he had already given it to other composers. In the afternoon of the same day they drove together to Żelazowa Wola to the house where Frédéric Chopin was born , where Eisler already played a first version for him.
“In the meantime I had found a melody and played it to him on Chopin's old piano. He was very astonished that it went so quickly and said: 'But we have to think about that in Berlin! [...] Such things can only be done very quickly or not at all. '"
On November 4th, the agreed audition took place in the “ Club of the Cultural Creators ” in Jägerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, with senior Kulturbund officials present . Both versions were played by the respective composer and sung by an improvised choir. The decision in favor of Eisler's melody was not made until the following morning at an extraordinary Politburo meeting in Pieck's apartment after both versions had been presented again, this time by opera singers. On the afternoon of November 5, the GDR Council of Ministers also decided to raise Becher's hymn with the melody of Eisler to the “German national anthem”. On February 8, 1950, the Provisional People's Chamber , in the presence of Becher and Eisler, made the hymn “Risen from Ruins” the national anthem of the GDR.
Popularization of the national anthem
On November 6, 1949, the text and melody of the hymn in New Germany appeared together with the announcement about the resolution of the Council of Ministers . The following day, the new national anthem was performed publicly for the first time at the state ceremony on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the October Revolution in the State Opera, which was then located in the Admiralspalast . In the months that followed, great efforts were made to make the national anthem known: it was to be played on all official occasions, all school children were to learn the anthem, and there were events in schools and companies. Since November 14th, all radio stations in the GDR have played the national anthem at the beginning and end of the program. Banners with lines of text from the hymn appeared in public. The "German National Anthem", as it was often called in publications of that time, became known to a large part of the population within a short period of time, and by the end of 1949 the students in the GDR had already mastered text and melody. The historian Heike Amos concludes in her study that “large parts of the population, especially the youth, viewed the new hymn positively and accepted it”.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the national anthem was part of everyday life in the GDR. In addition to performances on official occasions, individual verses of the hymn were often quoted in speeches. Newspapers and the radio continued to spread the word. The national anthem was integrated into the curricula of music and German lessons in schools from year 5 onwards. From 1961, the teaching of the national anthem began in 1st grade. After all, singing all three stanzas of the national anthem was an integral part of the youth consecration celebrations that the SED promoted from the mid-1950s to compete with confirmation .
"Germany, holy fatherland"
On an autograph sheet of music by Hanns Eisler, dated November 7, 1949, there are two text deviations. It is unclear whether these can be traced back to Eisler or to Becher himself. The autograph can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the German Historical Museum in Berlin. There the text of the first stanza reads:
Risen from the ruins and facing the future.
Let us serve you for the good Germany holy fatherland.
Old misery has to be forced and we beat them together;
Because we must succeed in making the sun shine
over Germany more beautifully than ever, shine over Germany
"Germany United fatherland"
After the GDR officially withdrew from the reunification of Germany at the latest in the 1970s , the line of text "Let us serve you for the good, Germany, united fatherland" became uncomfortable, and so the SED leadership decided that the text should no longer be sung should be. From around 1972, only the instrumental version was heard and the text disappeared from the public.
Turning time
After the opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989, the East German citizens announced their wish for reunification at large demonstrations such as the Monday demonstrations by shouting "Germany united fatherland" and " We are one people ".
In January 1990 a press release appeared in the GDR that television and radio would broadcast the anthem again with the text by Johannes R. Becher. The press and information service of the government of the GDR announced that the instruction not to sing the text on official occasions would be canceled. The national anthem was sung again at the end of the broadcast .
During the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, it was suggested that Bertolt Brecht's poem "Anmut sparet nicht sparet nicht noch Mühe" ( children's anthem ), for which Eisler was set to music, should be made the German national anthem. This text also follows the meter of the Austrian imperial hymn. During the negotiations on the unification treaty , Lothar de Maizière , Prime Minister of the GDR, suggested adding the text `` Auferstanden aus Ruins '' to the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied . None of the suggestions were implemented.
Mix-ups
When Federal President Roman Herzog came to Porto Alegre on his state visit to Brazil on November 23, 1995 , the band of the Police Academy erroneously played the hymn Risen from the Ruins . It was accidentally heard at the awards ceremony for Markus Wasmeier in the giant slalom at the 1985 World Ski Championships in Bormio and the doubles at the 2015 Luge World Championships in Sigulda, Latvia .
reception
The film title And facing the future by Bernd Böhlich (2018) quotes the second verse of the first stanza .
See also
literature
- Heike Amos: Resurrected from ruins ... The national anthem of the GDR 1949 to 1990. Dietz, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-320-01939-2 .
- Jürgen Schebera: Eisler - a biography in texts, pictures and documents. Schott, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-7957-2383-3 .
- Manuel Ruoff: Risen from the ruins. How the "National Anthem of the GDR" came about 60 years ago. In: Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung , No. 44, October 31, 2009.
- Gerhard Müller: Songs of the Germans. Brecht's “Children's Hymn” as an alternative to the “Deutschlandlied” and the “Beaker Hymn”. In: Dreigroschenheft , issue 1/2010. - Slightly expanded typescript by the author (PDF; 886 kB) ( Memento from July 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
Web links
- Print of the hymn (text and sheet music) at the Leipziger Musikverlag Peters im LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
- Gisela Probst-Effah: The 20th Century in Songs ( Memento from April 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Hans Hielscher: GDR anthem "Risen from the ruins": Turbulence around a German song. In: spiegel.de. 5th November 2019.
- "Rising from the Ruins". (MP3 (32 kbps)) Archived from the original on May 3, 2012 ; Retrieved October 17, 2013 .
- "Rising from the Ruins". ( MIDI ) Retrieved October 17, 2013 .
- "Risen from the ruins" as MP3 (128 kbps)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Amos, pp. 31-32, 84-85.
- ^ Verlag Neues Leben Berlin, 1954, pp. 8–9.
- ↑ Amos, pp. 46-47.
- ↑ Amos, pp. 72-76.
- ↑ Letter to Karina Awanesowa in Moscow on September 3, 1974 HEA. (Hanns Eisler Archive)
- ^ Welt am Sonntag , Hamburg, November 9, 1958.
- ^ In: Der Abend , Berlin (West) , November 28, 1958.
- ↑ Amos, pp. 74-75.
- ^ Sense and Form , special issue Hanns Eisler, Berlin / GDR 1964.
- ↑ Amos, p. 69.
- ↑ SWR2, SWR2: November 5, 1949: “Resurrected from Ruins” becomes the GDR national anthem. Retrieved November 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Germany, united fatherland. In: Chronicle of the turning point .
- ↑ GDR anthem again with text. In: Freie Presse , January 6, 1990.
- ↑ On this, Helmut Kohl : Memories 1990–1994. Droemer 2007, ISBN 978-3-426-27408-8 .
- ↑ Amos, p. 170.
- ↑ Caught ice cold , spiegel.de of June 2, 2005.
- ↑ German gold tobogganists honored with GDR anthem , focus.de from February 14, 2015.