A Cent and a Dime

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Ein Heller und ein Batzen , first published in 1830 with the music of Franz Kugler
The song in the New Soldiers Songbook 1938

Ein Heller und ein Batzen is a German poem by Albert von Schlippenbach (1800–1886) from the 1820s. With various melodies, it was widely used as a student song and a soldier's marching song . During the Second World War it was perceived as an expression of National Socialist hubris in the areas occupied by the German Wehrmacht .

Origin and text

Franz Kugler (1808-1858) published his sketchbook as a student in Berlin in 1830 , which also contained songs. This contains the first print of Schlippenbach's poem with a composition by Kugler for bass and piano. Schlippenbach was then a trainee lawyer in Berlin. He probably wrote the poem as a student. The lyric self is a wandering young man. The old coins Heller and Batzen give the scene a romantic, old German flavor. The singer describes himself with self-irony as poor, but happy to drink, feared by the hosts, but loved by the girls:

   Wanderlied
   Mel. I stood on a high mountain.
A
penny and a lump were both mine;
The lighter became water,
the lump became wine.

The girls and the landlords
both call out: Oh, alas !
The landlords when I come,
the girls when I go.

My 'boots' are torn,
My 'shoe', they are in two,
And outside on the Haiden,
The bird sings freely!

And if there wasn't a 'country road'
anywhere, I would sit quietly at home;
And if there wasn't a hole in the barrel,
I wouldn't drink from it!
       Albert Count Schlippenbach.

A fifth stanza, which is only printed in more recent editions and sometimes in brackets there, reflects the change of the song to a pure drinking song :

Was it a great joy
when the Lord God created me / him,
a guy like velvet and silk,
just a shame that he suffers.

Reception and melodies

Schlippenbach's text quickly spread, but not the Kugler melody with its range of a tredezime , its demanding melisms and its minor character. In the yearbook of the useful and entertaining of 1835 the song is assigned a folk melody known at the time.

In 1843, Gottfried Wilhelm Fink assigned a melody to the text under the heading The Merry Brother , which he identified as his own composition. The Swedish translation En slant och en riksdaler is sung with this melody to this day .

In Franz Magnus Böhmes Volksthümliche Lieder der Deutschen von Deutschen im Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen des Deutschen der Deutschen aus der Deutschen (as 1895) items from, the title of Leichter Wanderer , Böhme calls it “New Way around 1855” and “which is now [1895] generally included in student songbooks”). In fact, it can still be found in the Allgemeine Deutsche Kommersbuch at the beginning of the 20th century, there with the indication "around 1885".

The melody with which Ein Heller und ein Batzen is only sung today did not appear until the 20th century and is often referred to as East Prussian . In the older version, the excessive dots in the second and fourth lines and the “Heidi-heido-heida” refrain are still missing.

The "final version" with the high-spirited refrain, which was sung by German soldiers to cheer themselves up while marching and which was used after the war and others. a. gained new popularity through Heino , z. B. in Franz Josef Breuer's New Soldiers Songbook (Mainz 1938).

Web links

Commons : A Heller und ein Batzen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wanderlied in Franz Kugler's sketchbook, Berlin 1830
  2. ↑ a b Text here after: Friedrich Wilhelm Gubitz (Hrsg.): Year book of the useful and entertaining , Berlin / Königsberg i. d. Neumark 1835, p. 165
  3. ^ The melody in Ludwig Erk 1843
  4. ↑ Gottfried Wilhelm Fink: Musical treasure of the Germans: a collection of 1000 songs and chants . Leipzig 1843, p. 24
  5. ↑ YouTube video . The statement that occasionally appears on the Internet that the Swedish song is the original and “probably from the 17th century” is based on an unsubstantiated claim by Anacreon Verlag ( 1 ).
  6. ↑ pp. 389-390
  7. ↑ No. 257
  8. ↑ cf. deutschland-lese.de
  9. ↑ The new soldier songbook. The best known and most sung songs of our armed forces . Mainz (Schott) 1938, p. 33 ( digitized version ).