The anxious night

The fearful night is a German equestrian song from Vormärz . As it was included in numerous song collections, it became a well-known soldier's song. Anonymous versions appeared during the March Revolution of 1848/49 and in 1942 during the German-Soviet War .

Frames

Herwegh / Liszt, Herwegh / Lyra

Georg Herwegh , a writer exiled to Switzerland, wrote Die bange Nacht in 1841 as an equestrian song and published the text in an anonymous print. The desired "freedom" in the third stanza was an allusion to the police-state relations in the German Confederation at that time . The book was smuggled across the border and met with approval in German national circles who were critical of the regime.

The first musical version came from Franz Liszt in the spring of 1842. According to tradition, Liszt had found “a taste for the fiery wise men” and the equestrian song as a “poetic masterpiece”. The Liszt version was performed in Vienna in the following years. It also triggered criticism of a "fabulously baroque and, with the exception of a few ingenious passages, absolutely unsuccessful composition". Justus Wilhelm Lyra also provided the text for the Deutsche Lieder collection, published in 1843, with a melody. This version appeared in numerous other editions and developed into a popular soldier's song.

Mocking version of Voitus

An initially anonymous rewording by the conservative mocker Felix Voitus was amused in 1849 by the aborted trip of a deputation from Greifswald to Berlin in November 1848 . The symbolically armed, democratically-minded delegation was supposed to deliver an address of solidarity to the representatives of the Prussian National Assembly who remained in Berlin , but turned back discouraged when they learned that carrying weapons in Berlin was prohibited due to the state of siege .

Anti-fascist rewording

The anti-fascist version by an unknown author was published in 1942 in an illegal pamphlet with the innocuous title The New Soldiers Song Book and containing ten song parodies and anti-Hitler slogans interspersed. The booklet, apparently printed in the Soviet Union, was dropped with other leaflets on the Eastern Front from aircraft over the German lines. This version became known through the German folk group Zupfgeigenhansel , who released it on an album in 1977.

Texts

1841 (Herwegh)	1849 (Voitus)	1942 (anonymous)
1. The anxious night is now over. We ride quietly, we ride mute, We ride to ruin. How sharp the morning wind blows! Lady landlady, another glass quickly before dying, before dying. 2. You young grass, why are you so green? Must soon bloom like roses, My blood should color you. The first sip of my hand on the sword, I drink it , to die for the fatherland , to die! 3. And quickly the second, and that should be for freedom The second sip of the bitter! This scrap, well, who am I bringing it to? The remainder of you, O Roman Empire To die, to die! 4. To my darling - but the glass is empty, the ball rushes, the spear flashes; Bring the broken pieces to my child! Up into the enemy like a storm! O horseback riding , to die early in the day , to die!	The anxious night is over now. We drive quietly, we drive silently, And drive to doom. How sharp the morning wind blows! Frau Wirthin another glass quickly Before dying, before dying. So everyone complained in mind, And listened to what the heart advised him To save from destruction, Oh! thought many a bold hero, Oh! If only I hadn't put myself to die, to die.	1. The anxious night is now over, we drive quietly, we drive in silence. We're going to ruin! How fresh the morning wind blows, give me another sip before dying, before dying. 2. The first sip - you dear woman! I think of you with heart and soul of you and our heirs! Dear ones, alas, it is so difficult to die, to die for Göring's belly and Hitler's honor ! 3. The second sip - my German country, how do you live today in shame and shame ? In misery and ruin! The rich drink and eat happily, but our poor Germany is dying, dying! 4. The third sip - I'll say it aloud: Turn the cannons and smash the Hitler Reich to pieces! If we free the country from the enemy, then it should be an honor for us to die!

variants

Herwegh's title has often been changed to The Long Night . The quote “The long night is over now. We drive still, we drive in silence, we drive to perdition ”is contained in the novel Die Zeit dies by the writer Georg Hermann , published in 1934 . His Jewish protagonist Fritz Eisner, who is moving from the country to Berlin with his family, says these words when their train arrives in Berlin.

Web links

Wikisource: The anxious night  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reprinted in: Anonymous (= Georg Herwegh): Gedichte eines Lebendigen. With a dedication to the deceased. Zurich / Winterthur 1841, p. 34, books.google.de
2. ^ Andreas Nikolaus Harzen-Müller: Liszt, Wagner and Bülow in their relationships with Georg Herwegh. In: The music. Vol. 3 (1903/04), p. 356
3. ^ Wiener Allgemeine Musikzeitung. January 9, 1847, p. 19, books.google.de
4. ↑ Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. February 3, 1847, col. 73, online
5. ↑ Anonymous: German songs with their melodies. Leipzig 1843, p. 250 f., Online
6. ↑ In the folk song archive ( Memento of the original from December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. given: General German Kommersbuch (1858); Fireworks Songbook (1883); Songbook for the Germans in Austria (1884); New songbook for artillerymen (1893); We proudly go to battle (1915); World War II song collection (1926); The white drum (1934). 
7. ↑ Anonymous (= Felix Voitus): Grypsiads. Halle / Saale 1849, p. 9. Quoted from: Angela Bader, Ulf-H. Bader: From the Grypsiads to the democratic decree, or revolution as provincial farce and spectacle. In: Angela Bader u. a. (Ed.): Language game and laughter culture. Contributions to the history of literature and language. Rolf Bräuer on his 60th birthday. Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-88099-304-1 , pp. 403-424, text p. 409. The article does not mention Herwegh's original for the lyrics.
8. ↑ Inge Lammel: The workers song . Leipzig 1970, p. 209 (text), p. 248 f. (Comment). Text version online ( memento of the original dated August 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
9. ^ Zupfgeigenhansel: Volkslieder II , 1977, title 9 (sound carrier)
10. ↑ z. B. Gotthelf Huyssen: The poetry of war and the war poetry. 1883, p. 23; Ferdinand Knie: flashes of inspiration. The winged words and quotes of the German people. 1887, p. 454
11. ↑ Georg Hermann: A time dies. Chain II, third part. In: Works and Letters. Volume 8, part 3. Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-00906-1 , p. 173; first Berlin 1934, p. 150. See also Kerstin Schnoor: "What should we Jews do?" The writer Georg Hermann on the situation and the prospects of German-Jewish existence after 1933. In: Godela Weiss-Sussex (Hrsg.): Georg Hermann. German-Jewish writer and journalist, 1971–1943. Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-484-65148-2 , p. 132. The article contains no reference to Herwegh.