Danube song

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The Danube song , after the beginning of the song often also I once walked on the banks of the Danube , is a German song that, depending on the text variant, can be characterized as a folk song . The song is about a man who finds a girl on the banks of the Danube and, depending on the text version, rapes her in her sleep or, after she wakes up, practices consensual sexual intercourse with her.

origin

The Danube song has a large number of previous versions, the interdependencies and relationships between them are difficult to understand. A possible forerunner is seen in the aria Once a young knight went strolling on the river beach , which comes from the musical play Das Donauweibchen , which was premiered in the 1790s, based on a Viennese folk tale (libretto: Karl Friedrich Hensler , music: Ferdinand Kauer ). A connection of the text tradition to the Danube song is basically conceivable, but not proven. In Erk - Böhmes Deutschem Liederhort there are three texts with the incipit "Once I walked along the banks of the Danube" or "... around", but all three versions are told from the perspective of the girl who is looking for her lover, so that she Lyrics may belong to a different type of song. Other versions of the song are also regionally located differently, for example I once walked on the banks of the Rhine .

The song can be found in the records of folk song researchers Johann Lewalter and Christian Vorteilel , among others . Lewalter describes the song under the title Once I walked on the banks of the Danube with the signature “I did not find this song recorded anywhere” and gives Guntershausen in North Hesse as its origin . The bibliography of the German folk song in Bohemia names the origin of the song as “before 1828”.

A version in which the girl is stung by a flea , which metaphorically stands for the sexual act ( see also → Flea literature ), has come down to us from the time of the First World War. The text version that is mostly sung today, on the other hand, explicitly refers to the sexual intercourse with a sleeping person. The cultural scientist Michael Fischer suspects that this version was created after the Second World War.

song lyrics

The lyrics are handed down in different versions.

Version based on Johann Lewalter (1894)

Once I was walking on the banks of the Danube and found
|: A sleeping girl in a white robe. : |

There I stood very still and didn't
move |: And always looked into her beautiful face. : |

Suddenly my little heart became so heavy for
me, : |

And when the girl wakes up from sleep,
|: The sacrifice of love was done. : |

That you will be my wife and I will be your husband!
|: And by the way, it's none of their business. : |

I'm so happy that you are my bitch,
|: We both owe that to a jumping flea. : |

Version after Tobias Krummschnabel (approx. 1870)

Once I was walking on the bank of the Danube and found,
in the shade of the willow trees, not far from the beach,
a cozy little girl, slumbering softly,
all alone in the cool shade,

her bosom swayed, which was only slightly covered,
it seemed as if she were falling off Dream god teased,
the eyes of the listener showed a lot,
as the wind played with the clothes.

I wanted to wake her up and didn't dare to,
I wanted to leave her, so my duty tells me,
but firmly as if enchanted, I stood very still,
the lovely sight firmly entranced me.

I didn't want to disturb her, the
calm was too gentle, then the nightingale whistles a
little song, no sooner had the sound reached her ear
than her slumber was suddenly gone.

I saw her, she saw me with a languid look,
from her eyes I only read joy and happiness,
soon I was sitting by her side, delighted,
I don't know where she was all the time.

And what was happening on the green bank
only saw the smiling sun,
the smiling sun, she didn't
talk , I plowed her flowers and tied a bouquet.

I put the little flowers on her bosom, white red,
she then, blushing, took what I offered her now,
I then gave her a little more,
but folks, what was it, don't ask me too much.

The evening, it fell on the field,
the moon, it looked at us
so gently here, we have to part, so she lisped
she gave me something else, but what do I never say.

The separation was difficult and yet it had to happen,
I felt as if I shouldn't see it again.
The blessed hour, it was, oh, there,
but it will never get out of my mind.

On the banks of the Danube I go every day to
look at the place where it once lay,
my happiness has fled, the dream was beautiful,
because I, I have not seen her again.

On the bank of the Danube I lost my luck,
there I wander and wander with tears in my eyes,
because what I found there is gone forever,
only there my mind rests on them.

A rose blooms on the cozy beach,
the waves kiss the golden-yellow edge,
the winds
lisp , the nightingale greets while my love has already disappeared.

O young man,
if you go about on the Danube, true your heart, because soon you won't have it any more,
and if you meet a girl, so lonely,
don't look into her eyes so deeply.

Other versions

Other variants can be found in the folk song collections of Alexander Treichel (1895, West Prussia), Alfred Leonz Gassmann (1906, Lucerne), Georg Heeger and Wilhelm Wüst (1909, Rheinpfalz) and Sigmund Grolimund (1911, Aargau). The song was published around 1820 under the title Donauweibchen .

Defused text versions without rape

There are a number of modern versions with modified, sometimes explicitly shabby texts and up to 24 stanzas. More recently, the song appeared in 1992 in the song collection Die Arschgeige. Songly songs by Erich Schmeckenbecher published by Eichborn Verlag . In most of the versions published before 2012, sexual intercourse with the “sleeping girl” takes place, or, more correctly, a rape. In the party version by Mickie Krause , published in 2012, the song has eight stanzas and is defused in that the girl wakes up and calls on the man. This converts rape into consensual sexual intercourse. Krause also performs the "defused" text version when performing live.

Version with rape: "I went about the sleeping woman"
Defused version (Mickie Krause, 2012): "Then she woke up and she said 'Come here!'"

With music played from sound carriers in discos and bars, the defused version of Mickie Krause can usually be heard, while many brass bands and party bands often perform live a text version with rape.

The music cabaret artist and winner of the Bavarian dialect prize Sara Brandhuber from Zusatzorf near Landshut also thought that the text should no longer be sung like this; at the same time she wanted to keep the melody of the traditional song. She provided the Danube song with a humane, contemporary new text and made the Danube song the Isar song, also to pay homage to her homeland.

Despite the new lyrics, it was important to Sara Brandhuber to preserve the original character of the song because it is always better to fix unsightly things instead of throwing them away. Therefore, as a woman, she sings the song in a first-person form.

reception

The folk song has been sung at festivals in southern Germany at least since the 1970s and has been in the popular samplers and music books of the so-called "Wies'n hits" since at least 2013, which were very popular in the beer tents of the Munich Oktoberfest and correspondingly often and not only played at Oktoberfest, but also at other beer tent events.

The student Corinna Schütz started an online petition on May 16, 2020, the aim of which is to be handed over to the Mayor of Passau , Jürgen Dupper , with 1,800 signatures in order to protest against the performance of the song in “Passau beer tents and pubs”. On June 7th, the petition already had over 30,000 supporters, and the campaign was well received by the press nationwide.

The authors and rights holders of the defused version sung by Mickie Krause (see above), Dirk Wöhrle and Klaus Hanslbauer, have meanwhile declared that they can understand the concerns about the rape version and are resisting being associated with it. The media had previously falsely reported that the petition was directed against the Mickie Krause version.

In June 2020 the counter-petition Rettet das Donaulied started , the initiators of which argue that the song simply belongs “to the beer tent and pub atmosphere”. In comments, the initiators were accused of having dealt insufficiently with the content and history of the song.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Otto Holzapfel : Song index : The older German-language popular song tradition : song file - songs A to K. As of May 2019, pp. 516-518.
  2. ↑ Das Donauweibchen: A romantic and comical folk fairy tale with singing in three acts based on a saga from the past by Karl Friedrich Hensler. The music is by Ferdinand Kauer. o. O. 1800, p. 10 ( digitized in the Google book search)
  3. ↑ Ludwig Erk, Franz Magnus Böhme (Ed.): Deutscher Liederhort. 2nd volume. Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig 1893, pp. 508–510 ( digitized version )
  4. ↑ a b deutscheslied.com
  5. ↑ a b Johann Lewalter (Ed.): German folk songs. Collected in Niederhessen from the mouths of the people, with simple piano accompaniment, historical and comparative notes . Issue 5. Fritzsche, Hamburg 1894, p. 84 f. ( Digitized version ).
  6. ↑ Gustav Jungbauer: Bibliography of the German folk song in Bohemia . Calve, Prag 1913, p. 251. Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1975, ISBN 3-487-05766-2 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  7. ↑ a b c “The question is: Do we as a society want to hear songs like this today?” Interview with Michael Fischer. fr.de, accessed on June 19, 2020.
  8. ↑ Tobias Krummschnabel: The first: On the banks of the Danube. An old song reworked. In: Three songs . Kahlbrock, Hamburg undated [approx. 1870] ( digitized by VD Lied digital - Freiburger Liedflugschriften ).
  9. ↑ Alexander Treichel (ed.): Folk songs and folk rhymes from West Prussia , Theodor Bertling, Danzig 1895, p. 22, 17. Deprived of the Kränzleins.
  10. ^ Alfred Leonz Gassmann (Ed.): The folk song in the Lucerne Wiggertal and hinterland. Collected from the people's mouth , Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1906, pp. 43–44, 52. I used to walk along the banks of the Danube.
  11. ^ Georg Heeger , Wilhelm Wüst (Ed.): Folk songs from the Rheinpfalz. Collected with songs from the folk tongue, Volume 2, Hof-Buchdruckerei Hermann Kayser, Kaiserslautern 1909, pp. 51–52, 185. It is nobody's business.
  12. ↑ Sigmund Grolimund (Ed.): Folk songs from the canton of Aargau , Basel 1911, pp. 81–82, 98. Der Flea.
  13. ↑ Four beautiful new songs , according to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek catalog around 1820, The Third.
  14. ↑ Erich Schmeckenbecher : The ass violin. Dissolute songs. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-8218-1798-4 .
  15. ↑ hitparade.ch
  16. ↑ youtube.com Youtube: Mickie Krause with the Danube song live in 2015.
  17. ↑ youtube.com Youtube: The Danube song in a recording by the band "Javelin", before 2008.
  18. ↑ youtube.com Youtube: The Danube song in the defused version by Mickie Krause.
  19. ↑ Samuel Stanley: Will "Danube Song" become "Isarlied"? Musical attempts at mediation. Retrieved June 7, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Sara Brandhuber's Danube song without beer tent sexism. June 3, 2020, accessed June 7, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Student starts petition against sexist "Danube song" , Spiegel Online, May 29, 2020
  22. ↑ #Bierzeltsexismus Aktion gegen das Danube Song - online petition. Retrieved June 7, 2020 .
  23. ↑ debate Danube song, folk song expert calls for renunciation hit. pnp.de, May 30, 2020, accessed June 1, 2020.
  24. ↑ dispute over Danube song rights-holders defend themselves. pnp.de, June 11, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020.
  25. ↑ Trouble about Danube song: Mickie Krause song causes horror. t-online.de, May 31, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020
  26. ↑ Save the Danube Song - Online Petition. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  27. ↑ counter-petition will receive Danube song for beer tents . donaukurier.de, June 9, 2020, accessed June 20, 2020