Erika (song)

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Erika , also known as his song beginning Auf der Heide, a little flower is blooming , is the title of a well-known German marching song by Herms Niel , which was composed in the 1930s. The song sings about “the love of the homeland that is close to nature”.

Emergence

The lyrics and the melody come from the German composer for marching songs, Herms Niel (1888–1954). The exact year the song was composed is not known; “around 1930” is often given, although this cannot be proven by scientific sources. The marching song Auf der Heide blooms a little Blümelein (Erika) was first published in 1938 by the Louis Oertel publishing house in Großburgwedel .

Niel, who joined the NSDAP at the beginning of May 1933 and made it to the position of “leading” conductor in the Reichsmusikzug of the Reich Labor Service during the Nazi era , created numerous marching songs that were largely used for Nazi propaganda . In particular, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels , had, as Berszinski writes, recognized popular, simple songs as a useful means of propaganda. The more the hit escaped from the harsh reality into dreamy bliss and faked a cozy love affair and lust idyll, the better "the true face of Nazi Germany" could be hidden behind the many soft minor tones. The conscious use of new technical mass media during National Socialism , especially in film and radio , accommodated this and quickly ensured the popularity of the National Socialist songs and music.

The militaristic hits and the marching songs were the "answer to the approaching war". A total of around 15,000 Nazi musical works were produced between 1933 and 1945, as well as around one and a half million sheets of documents that relate to music alone.

text

Blooming bell heather ( Erica tetralix )

In the marching song Erika , both the blooming heather and a woman with this given name are sung about. In the first verse, the lyrics deal with the heather Erika :

A little flower blooms on the heather
And that means: Erika.
[...]

It is described as being “swarmed by a hundred thousand little bees”, because its heart is “full of sweetness / a delicate fragrance emanates from the flower dress”. The second stanza turns to the beloved far away at home, to whom the song of the "little flower" is dedicated:

[...]
A little girl lives in the homeland
And that means: Erika.

The last stanza finally brings together the motifs of the first and second stanzas by singing about a heather that also blooms in the little room far from home and reminds of the bride at home every morning and evening:

[...]
And then it seems to me as if speaking out loud:
Are you also thinking of your little bride?
At home a girl is crying for you.
And that means: Erika.

music

The composition is a marching song, a song that could also be sung by soldiers (mostly marching) without instrumental accompaniment. The independent march composition (also the melody part comes from Niel) has a concise detail , as it was disseminated in the recordings at the time of the Third Reich : The vocal part, otherwise completely arranged as march music, is counterpointed in all melody pauses with three rapidly successive steam hammer-like timpani beats (without instrumental accompaniment, this results from the sound of the marching feet), which stand completely on their own without accompaniment:

A little flower blooms on the heather (xxx) / and that means: (xxx) Erika (xxx).
Hot from a hundred thousand little bees (xxx) / is swarmed around (xxx), / Erika (xxx).
Because her heart is full of sweetness (xxx), / delicate fragrance emanates from the flower dress (xxx). [...]

This musical idea, which at first glance does not match the lyrical and melodic content of the song, makes the composition memorable and, through its sonic similarity to cannon hits, subliminally emphasizes the character of a war song.

Meaning and reception

The distribution and central integration of the song Erika in Nazi propaganda is illustrated by Gregor von Rezzori's autobiographical recordings of Reich German radio broadcasts from April 1945: “The days passed with radio reports. Victorious defensive and retreat battles. A little flower blooms on the heather, boom boom. Our submarine weapon had sunk tens of thousands of gross register tons again. Because we're driving, we're driving towards Engeland. ”The song also plays a role in numerous fiction texts that deal with the Nazi era . A prominent example is Walter Kempowski's novel Heile Welt .

The particular popularity of the marching song during the Second World War is sometimes explained by the fact that it was lyrically part of a series of popular songs with German female first names, in which Wehrmacht soldiers who had gone to war could sing of their loved ones and wives who had stayed at home. The portrayal of the woman (“Mägdelein”) as “waiting, crying, devoted, loyal and yet adored woman” corresponded to the role cliché of the “ loyal caring wife” propagated by the National Socialists . Some of the soldiers also circulated "repackaged" versions of the text that mostly contained direct (re) sexual allusions.

Abroad, the marching song Erika was and is perceived as “typical German songs”, although to this day mostly inseparable from the German Wehrmacht ; For example, in 1983 on the junta's tenth anniversary in Chile, it was part of the repertoire of the musical train of a Chilean military battalion in “familiar field gray with an original Wehrmacht steel helmet”, which was still in the tradition of “former German military aid”; and by "violent German fans" and rioters it was repeatedly "shouted" at the European Football Championship in France in 1984 with "common chants" during the march to the stadium. The Russian composer Andrei Jakowlewitsch Eschpai quoted the song in his symphony No. 5 from 1985, whereby the quoted marching music in his work 40 years after the end of the war and probably for this occasion could represent the "invasion of the Wehrmacht".

Tony Marshall sang Erika in 1977 for an album of folk songs (recorded in 2003)

In post-war Germany, on the other hand, the marching song Erika remained popular, especially when it was removed from its original context, and after rearmament it was also sung on marches by the Bundeswehr and the Austrian Armed Forces ; As a folk song, it was re-recorded for recordings, including by Tony Marshall , who published it in 1974 on his LP Out in the Distance together with old folk songs such as Muss i denn zum Städtele addition .

Today the title Erika is considered a folk song by many, although the origin of the song was well known for a long time.

Erika was finally also in u. a. the following films are used:

  • The captain of Cologne , political satire from 1956, at a meeting of former members of the Wehrmacht
  • Outbreak of 28 , war film from 1970
  • during a short opening scene of Steven Spielberg 's 1993 feature film Schindler's List (the protagonist meets a German military column on his way to the Krakow Judenrat ).
  • In the Japanese anime series Girls und Panzer , from 2012, the song was recorded several times during the battle between the Ōarai Prefecture Girls 'School and the Black Forest Summit Girls' School.

There are also versions of the song in Afrikaans under the same name. The best known is the interpretation of the tenor Gé Korsten. There is also a version in Finnish with the same content as Kaarina .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cf. Michael Jung: Song Books in National Socialism . Volume 1: Presentation . Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1989, p. 130 (university thesis; also dissertation).
  2. ↑ See information on the marching song "A little flower is blooming on the heath" in: Leonore Böhm: "When I went lonely yesterday ..." . In: Der neue Tag , October 17, 2008; Retrieved June 16, 2009
  3. ↑ a b c d e Cf. Sabine Berszinski: Modernization under National Socialism? A Sociological Category and Developments in German Schlager 1933–45 . Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau 1999/2000 - University thesis; at the same time master's thesis; Digital version (PDF; 389 kB) accessed on June 16, 2009.
  4. ↑ a b Cf. information about the song in the review: Stephan Göritz: Vergessen und displacement. Volker Kühn on the role of artists and cabaret artists in the Third Reich . Deutschlandfunk , December 4, 2006; Retrieved June 16, 2009.
  5. ↑ March music in the III. Rich . A documentation part 9; Publisher John Jahr, undated
  6. ↑ Cf. Gregor von Rezzori: On the trail of me . 3. Edition. Bertelsmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-570-00124-5 , p. 269.
  7. ↑ Cf. Gregor von Rezzori: On the trail of me . 3. Edition. Bertelsmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-570-00124-5 , p. 269.
  8. ^ Walter Kempowski : Heile Welt . 1st edition. Knaus, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-8135-0051-9 , p. 224.
  9. ↑ Cf. Karl-Heinz Strehlke: Under the burden of total war. Life situations between 1942 and 1945 . Heimatverein Garbsen, Garbsen 1995, p. 12: “There are no little flowers on the steppe, see something - steppe grass! That is fun! What scratches you? "
  10. ↑ Siegfried Kogelfranz: The main thing is that you protest . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38 , 1983, p. 139-142 ( online ).
  11. ↑ Hans-Joachim Nesslinger: Now comes your first front experience . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1984, pp. 147-149 ( online ).
  12. ↑ See articles on Russian composers of the 20th century >> Andrei Eshpai at the Internet platform Tamino Klassik-Forum ; Retrieved June 16, 2009.
  13. ↑ See germancharts.com at Germancharts.com; Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  14. ↑ See recording of the song (as a love song) at Volksliederarchiv.de (see web links).
  15. ↑ Cf. online catalogs at the database network of the Volksliedwerke Austria and South Tyrol ; Retrieved June 16, 2009
  16. ^ Franz Barsig: A lot of shouting and no program. An NPD assembly in the German province . In: Die Zeit , No. 8/1967