United front song
The united front song ("And because man is a man ...") is one of the most famous songs of the German labor movement . It was written by Bertolt Brecht (text) and Hanns Eisler (music). It became known through the interpretation of Ernst Busch .
background
The song was written against the background of the conditions of the workers 'movement in the Weimar Republic and the first years after 1933. Since the separation of the German workers' parties in 1917, there has been a profound contrast between the SPD , which represented a leading position in the Weimar Republic, and the KPD , who fundamentally rejected this form of government. According to the strategy prescribed by the Comintern , the social democrats were defamed as “ social fascists ”. After the National Socialists came to power and the SPD and KPD were banned, voices grew louder - including from Bertolt Brecht - that only a united front made up of communists and social democrats would have a chance to achieve anything against National Socialism.
The song was written at the end of 1934 at Erwin Piscator's request for the First International Music Olympiad in Strasbourg in 1935 , where it was premiered and performed by 3,000 working class singers. It was first printed in Madrid in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War as the song of the united front , edited by Ernst Busch. The Music Olympiad was marked by clashes between communists and social democrats, despite the expressed will that is expressed in this composition.
song lyrics
The lyrics consist of four stanzas and a refrain of four lines each. In the text, Brecht recalls the basic position of the proletarians under capitalist production conditions and emphasizes the unifying interests (“And because man is a man”). Communist and social democratic oriented workers should be dissuaded from years of trench warfare against one another and recognize a common enemy, fascism , which can only be defeated together in the united front.
- Drum left, two, three! Drum left, two, three!
- Where is your place, comrade !
- Join the workers unity front
- because you are a worker too.
composition
Compared to other Eisler compositions, the united front song is kept quite simple, so that it can also be sung by people who are not musically trained without great problems. The first version has features of typical tendency songs, such as the march-like beat and mass singing. In 1948 Eisler wrote a second, symphonic version with which he wanted to distance himself from the march, which had a negative connotation due to fascism . Ernst Busch used this version for the recording as part of his Aurora project. This can be seen as a reference to the classical myth that emerged in the early days of the GDR . Eisler wrote to Marcel Rubin in 1935 : “ This song should be sung very simply. No screams, no fake militant shouting !!! Not too quickly! Not too slow! "
Cover versions
A cover version of this song is included on the 1977 album Hannes Wader singt Arbeiterlieder by the artist of the same name. In 1973 Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink recorded a free jazz version.
The left-wing alternative rock band Ton Steine Scherben also played the united front song, in a slightly different version in the appendix to the piece Macht kaputt, what makes you broken on the album Why am I so dirty? (1971). There are also numerous other cover versions from the punk rock area, including Tut das Not ( Fremdwelt ) and Commandantes ( songs for the working class ).
The united front song was released in an instrumental version under the title Song of the United Front on Charlie Haden's jazz album Liberation Music Orchestra (1969) .
Web links
- 1967: Jericho united front songon YouTube (in symphonic version, sung by Ernst Busch in Spanish, English, French and German)
- Hannes Wader - The united front songon YouTube (Hannes Wader sings workers' songs)
Individual evidence
- ^ Bertolt Brecht: Selected works in 6 volumes . tape 3 . Suhrkamp, 1997, p. 472 .