Eichsfeldlied

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The Eichsfeldlied is the regional anthem of the Eichsfeld .

The text of the song comes from Hermann Iseke , a well-known Eichsfeld local poet. The hymn was first printed in the "Eichsfelder Marienkalender 1901" under the title "Eichsfelder Sang", together with another song. It should be sung according to the melody of the student song " O old lad gentlemanly ". The melody sung today, however, comes from the Heiligenstadt teacher and composer Karl Wisniewski and was composed in 1902.

The Eichsfeldlied is sung on many private, public and also church occasions and therefore has a strong identity-creating function for the Eichsfelders. This importance was strengthened by the experience of Eichsfeld being separated in the course of the division of Germany, as well as by the difficulties of the predominantly Catholic Eichsfelds in the GDR in preserving their regional identity in a historically Protestant , at the time atheistic and centralized state.

Initial release

backgrounds

The beginning of the song "Wohlauf, Kameraden, auf Pferd" in the General German Kommersbuch (around 1900)

In the "Eichsfelder Marienkalender 1901", Hermann Iseke published two songs in parallel print under the heading "Eichsfelder Sang", which were to be sung according to different melodies. The first part based on the melody of the well-known student song "O old Burschenherrlichkeit" and the second based on the melody of the well-known equestrian song "Wohlauf, Kameraden, auf Pferd" based on a text from Wallenstein's camp by Friedrich Schiller , probably set to music by Christian Jakob Zahn that could be found in the Kommers books of the time.

This calendar appeared in the 25th year with the subtitle "Yearbook for the members of the General Association of the Christian Family". Since this publication also contained a wall calendar for 1901 (compare the copy of the title page in Keppler), the calendar must have appeared at the end of 1900 or at the beginning of 1901 at the latest. If you include the editorial preparation time, the text must have been written by Iseke by the middle of 1900 at the latest and not until 1902, as can be read in most publications. A letter from Iseke to his publisher FW Cordier, in which he expresses his incomprehension on July 2, 1900 about a remark “Reprinting forbidden” provided by Cordier, may give further clues. In fact, the “Eichsfelder Sang” later appeared with precisely this remark below the heading.

However, the text and melody of the Eichsfeld song have not been protected by copyright since 1978, after the 70th calendar year since Iseke's death in 1907 .

The text of the Eichsfeldlied

The following is the full text of the first edition of Iseke's "Eichsfelder Sang", a copy of which is in the Heiligenstadt City Archives. Today's publications, however, usually provide an orthographically modernized version with changing punctuation and without the characteristic locking sentence of the word "Eichsfeld" and other words.

The first part of Iseke's "Eichsfelder Sang" is the text of the popular Eichsfeld song.

Eichsfelder Sang.
From Hermann Iseke. [Reprinting prohibited.]
I.
Mel .: "O old lad glory."
 II.
Mel .: "Wohlauf, comrades, on the horse."

   Have you wandered through the world,
on every path and path,
pitched your tent in the north and south,
on alp and seashore:
Have you not seen my  Eichsfeld 
With its castle-crowned heights
and cross- jolly seats ,
you may leave your boasting !

   Where the young line flows
The Unstrut surges to the valley,
The Hülfensberg the Werra greets,
The Ohmberg his Hahle ,
The Wipper flooded by the Au:
All over the country what a fine sight
on valley and hills
and pretty Siedelstätten!

   The plaice also loot its pay
Often sparse of effort, the sweat:
Only fresher through the veins
The blood rolls with happy diligence!
And isn't the world wide and long?
Out with reef and urge to work!  Foreign  earth
also pays homage to the domestic flock!    The hearth where the faithful wife rules in pious discipline And children, like the fruit of the olive tree , Who folds hands in prayer; The house where the Lord God still counts, And not only that which stills the stomach, Where rock-solid faith The eyes rise from the dust.    Eichsfelder with happy wandering blood And throat full of songs, home, home is all your heart and courage, your mind and soul, home, where the cross rises from the hill and tells you of God's love! Your last hour strikes


















It was on  Eichsfeld's  bottom!

   Where does Germany's  heart beat ?
Where does his best life live?
O look not towards the sea, not towards the Alps, just
look into the  middle  ,
|: Where between Harz and Werrastrand
my  Eichsfeld  rests, my homeland! : |

   Here north and south have wed
To a beautiful picture
In the country and people: power-hardened,
And yet so soft and mild;
|: The blood is so light, the marrow so firm,
the heart so good, the mind so strong. : |

   Rise to the heights with castle and forest,
Let your eyes wander, To suck the
country's glorious figure
into the happy heart:
|: After morning, noon, midnight
and evening - everything lives and laughs! : |

   Where the young leash flows narrowly,
The Unstrut flows to the valley,
The holy mountain greets the Werra,
The Ohmberg its hollow,
|: The Wipper runs through the meadows:
Heil you, you are  the child of the  country! : |

   The people who honor the king
And kneel before their god,
That does not go with every wind
And trots in every trot,
|: That often wrestles with the clod with difficulty
and yet sings its song of thanks so joyfully! : |

   And it also wanders through all the world,
up to the fence of the earth:
With a loyal heart it hangs and holds
on the Heim'schen flock,
|: And here in the shadow of the cross wants

It rest in his god. : |

It is also noticeable that the second stanza of the first part is very similar to the fourth stanza of the second part. This begs the question of the author's intended performance. It is hard to imagine that both songs should be sung one after the other because of the almost identical stanza.

Settings

The first part of the text was set to music in 1902 by Karl Wisniewski (1844-1904), a music teacher at the teachers' seminar in Heiligenstadt. He created the movements, which are still popular today, for one-part choir with piano accompaniment, four-part mixed choir, four-part male choir and two-part children's choir. The song also owes its growing popularity to the students of the teachers' seminar, who often led the choirs and choirs in the communities of Eichsfeld.

With increasing popularity, other composers tried Iseke's text; But no one could repeat the success of Wisniewski's melodies. Only the composition "Eichsfelder Sang" Opus 20 by Ernst Klages from 1909 achieved a certain level of awareness and is still sometimes performed by Eichsfeld choirs today. Von Klages has published arrangements for a voice with piano accompaniment, mixed choir, male choir, three-part women's or children's choir, and for two-part children's choir.

The second part was set to music for a voice with piano accompaniment in 1921 by Dr. Friedrich Mecke (1890-1965), a music teacher and composer from Duderstadt.

The additional sixth stanza

After Wisniewski was set to music, Hermann Iseke himself added another stanza as a new sixth stanza, which reflects contemporary patriotism.

Where the beloved emperor's picture
The wreath of honor moves
And for the defense and shield of the empire
The man's heart glows.
As far as Germany's sky stretches,
The high song of the fatherland
Is it louder where sung
Of the old and the young?

After the emperor's abdication in November 1918, the content of this stanza had become obsolete and when Ernst Mehler published the first edition of the later very popular “Eichsfeld songbook” in 1923, he modified a few lines in order to preserve the stanza. The new version read:

Where German custom, true and noble,
Still blooming according to father's custom,
And for the shield and defense of the empire
The man's heart glows.
As far as Germany's sky stretches,
The high song of the fatherland
Is it louder where sung
Of the old and the young?

In the publications after the Second World War, this verse is generally no longer reprinted and is no longer sung today.

Impact history

The stanza of the subfield

At the beginning of the 1950s, Matthias Gleitze , the senior district director of the Duderstadt district at that time , composed another verse of the Eichsfeldlied for the lower area . This is inserted as the third stanza in the Eichsfeldlied and is often sung in the lower field. "See" in the 2nd line refers to the Seeburg lake . The “tobacco scent” in the 6th line refers to the fact that the Untereichsfeld was the northernmost tobacco growing area in Germany for a long time.

It is:

The Gold'ne Mark around Duderstadt
With lake and Rhume spring
Do not forget when your path directs you
My journeyman in Eichsfeld.
The air plays with golden ears.
You will find a spicy smell of tobacco.
And grow under oaks
Proud Lower Saxony there .

New composition of the Eichsfeld song

In connection with the Eichsfeld songbook planned for West Germany in 1955 , a new version of the text by Ernst Mehler was published, owing to modern circumstances. This song, which consists of five stanzas, could not prevail over the original version by Iseke.

Individual evidence

  • This article is based on the essay by Josef Keppler.
  1. ↑ Keppler himself prints the original (p. 185); his own transcription (p. 183) has been modernized orthographically and has a different punctuation.
  2. ^ Josef Keppler: Hermann Iseke's "Eichsfelder Sang". In: Eichsfeld yearbook, 14th year (2006), printing and publishing house Mecke Duderstadt, p. 196 ff

literature

  • Eichsfelder Marienkalender 1901. 25th year. Yearbook for the members of the General. Christian family association. Publishing house FW Cordier, Heiligenstadt.
  • Josef Keppler: "Didn't you see my Eichsfeld ..." Hermann Iseke's "Eichsfelder Sang". In: Eichsfeld-Jahrbuch 14 (2006), pp. 179–201.