The ditch
Der Graben is a poem of the genre Chanson , written by Kurt Tucholsky under his pseudonym Theobald Tiger in 1926. In it Tucholsky shows the futility of war and criticizes social and societal grievances.
Emergence
In the year this poem was first printed (1926), Germany joined the League of Nations . Only two months later, on November 20, 1926, “Der Graben” was printed in the newspaper Das Andere Deutschland . For Tucholsky it was clear that the reconciliation between peoples is not just a matter of politics, but above all concerns the actual people. In “Der Graben”, which deals with the First World War , he shows, among other things, the futility of war. When Hitler came to power, a lot of censorships were made, which also displaced this chanson, which had previously been very popular with the population.
text
Mother, what did you raise your son for?
Have you tormented you with him for twenty years?
Why
did he fly into your arms and you quietly told him something?
Until they took it away from you.
For the ditch, mother, for the ditch.
Boy can you still think of father
Father often took you in his arms.
And he wants to give you a penny,
and he played robbers and gendarmes with you.
Until they took it away from you.
For the ditch, boy, for the ditch.
Over there the French comrades
lay close to England's workman.
They have all shed their blood,
and shot to pieces today rests man by man.
Old people, men, many a boy
in the one large mass grave.
Do not be proud of medals and clinkers!
Don't be proud of scars and the time!
The Junkers,
Staatswahn and the factory envy sent you into the trenches .
You were good enough to eat ravens,
for the grave, comrades, for the ditch!
Throw away the flags!
The military bands play your death dance.
Are you there: a wreath of immortelles -
that is then the thanks of the fatherland.
Think of death groans and groans.
Fathers, mothers, and sons stand over there,
toiling hard, like you, for a little life.
Don't you want to shake hands with them?
The brother's hand reaches
over the ditch as the most beautiful of all gifts , folks, over the ditch -!
shape
The moat is divided into five stanzas, four of which have the same rhyme scheme . Each of the four stanzas begins with two cross rhymes . The last two lines each have a pair of rhymes and are indented as refrain lines. He expanded the last stanza to a six-line refrain , which is in the form of a pair of rhymes. This expansion also shows that this stanza will reach a high point in terms of content and is significant for the author. The irregularity of this genus type can be seen at the foot of the foot . This dominates as a six- accented trochaeus with twelve syllables, but is in some places replaced by five accents with ten syllables. The author benefits from this flexibility because he can design the poem more freely. The repetition models are often used by Kurt Tucholsky as they are ideal for setting to music.
interpretation
With the title of the work Tucholsky already indicates that the war does not take place in the heads of generals and politicians, but directly in the trench and on the battlefield. The first stanza also makes it clear that he wants to address simple people, i.e. family members of war victims. In the first stanza the mother is addressed, in the second stanza he addresses the son who is losing his father. Typical of Tucholsky's poetry is the awakening of feelings through memories. In the second stanza he speaks of events from childhood and thereby awakens an image of peace and connectedness, which brings the reader closer to the action.
In the third stanza the transition from the individual to the general takes place. While it is aimed directly at the ditch, the author implies a generalization of the people: They all shed their blood / And shot to pieces today rests man by man. Kurt Tucholsky gives these two lines multiple meanings. The insignificance of the individual in war is emphasized and at the same time he refers to the numerous victims that the First World War claimed.
This stanza is also noticeable because of its changed closing lines. With this changed refrain it is made clear again that ordinary citizens fall victim to war and neither young nor old are spared. The terms “boy” and “mass grave” are upscale, old-fashioned expressions that reveal the author's high regard for the dead. In the penultimate stanza, which is introduced with an anaphora, a dictating tone emerges for the first time. The negative appeal calls for the omission of national pride, while the following lines declare the culprits. The refrain calls for resistance against the aristocracy and the state, which Tucholsky also points to those interested in war. In the last stanza the demands are dramatized with the aim of ending militarism and remembering that war is only followed by the dead and that there is no other point in it. In the following six-line chorus one recognizes the motif of the third stanza, as Tucholsky calls for the memory of the opposing side and for reconciliation. The fact that he speaks of fathers, mothers and sons shows the connection to the first stanza, but this time with a positive statement.
With this conciliatory gesture, at the end of this chanson, Kurt Tucholsky revives the possibility of overcoming war.
literature
Axel Maximilian Speith: The importance of the chanson in Kurt Tucholsky's lyrical oeuvre . Mainz 2005.
Dirk Walter: Interpretation: Tucholsky, Der Graben . Reclam. Stuttgart 2003. p. 5ff
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dirk Walter: Interpretation: Tucholsky, Der Graben . Reclam. Stuttgart 2003. p. 5ff
- ↑ Death dances in world literature, German
- ↑ Axel Maximilian Speith: The importance of the chanson in Kurt Tucholsky's lyrical oeuvre . Mainz 2005.
- ↑ Dirk Walter: Interpretation: Tucholsky, Der Graben . Reclam. Stuttgart 2003. p. 5ff
- ↑ Axel Maximilian Speith: The importance of the chanson in Kurt Tucholsky's lyrical oeuvre . Mainz 2005.
- ↑ Axel Maximilian Speith: The importance of the chanson in Kurt Tucholsky's lyrical oeuvre . Mainz 2005.
- ↑ Dirk Walter: Interpretation: Tucholsky, Der Graben . Reclam. Stuttgart 2003. p. 5ff
- ↑ Axel Maximilian Speith: The importance of the chanson in Kurt Tucholsky's lyrical oeuvre . Mainz 2005.