Pierre Degeyter

Pierre Degeyter

Facsimile (title page) of an autograph after 1906 by "Die Internationale"

Pierre Chretien Degeyter (born October 8, 1848 in Gent , Belgium , † September 26, 1932 in Saint-Denis , France ) was a Belgian-French socialist , later communist , and songwriter . He composed the music of the workers' song Die Internationale in Lille , France, in 1888 . Degeyter's parents moved to Ghent from France, where they worked in the textile industry. When he was seven years old, the family moved back to France and settled in Lille. At the age of 16 he attended drawing lessons at the local academy and then worked as a wood carver . He later took music lessons and became a member of the workers' choir La Lyre des Travailleurs , founded by Gustave Delory, a leader of the socialists in Lille.

On July 15, 1888, Delory asked Degeyter to compose melodies for various revolutionary songs that were popular with the socialists of Lille. Among them was a text by Eugène Edine Pottier , which until then had always been sung to the melody of the Marseillaise . On a Sunday morning Degeyter created the new tune for the "Internationale", which the Lyre des Travailleurs choir performed at the annual newspaper sellers' celebration. In order to secure his job, the composer's first name was not mentioned; however, he was blacklisted and lost his job. He made his way through life with odd jobs until he moved to Saint-Denis near Paris in 1902 with his wife and daughter .

Degeyter had not had his copyright secured, so that later (1904) his brother Adolphe claimed to be the composer and he received no royalties for a long time . In 1928 he and Käthe Kollwitz were invited to the Soviet Union , which at that time used the International as a hymn, as a guest of honor. He now received a small state pension, which - like a vacant apartment in Saint-Denis and the meager royalties for further compositions for the songs "L'Insurgé" and "En avant la Classe Ouvrière" - could not improve his living conditions.

literature

• Jaap van der Merwe: Gij zijt kanalje! heeft men ons used. Utrecht 1974, ISBN 90-229-7191-0 , pp. 350-353.
• Inge Lammel : On Monday he took the song to the factory and sang it to his colleagues. Pierre Degeyter, model maker, composer of the "Internationale". In: Iron Lark. Notebooks for a democratic music culture. Issue 4, Verlag plans, Dortmund 1982.

Web links

Commons : Pierre De Geyter  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Creve, Piet: Lille-Fives and Pierre De Geyter. In petitesbelgiques.be , February 17, 2011.