Hamburg anthem

The Hamburg hymn City of Hamburg on the Elbe Auen , also called Hammonia , is the hymn of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg .

The song, written in 1828, is also used as a national anthem on official city-state events. Like most other national anthems, however, it is not legally regulated or protected, so it is legally unofficial. The chorus ends with Hammonia , a Latinized form of the name Hamburg.

history

Composer Albert Methfessel . Portrait relief in the birthplace Stadtilm ( Thuringia )

Based on a text by Georg Nikolaus Bärmann , Albert Methfessel composed a cheerful but worthy melody , which he presented for the first time on April 19, 1828, to the Hamburg Liedertafel , which he founded . The male choir, today the oldest in Hamburg, existed for just five years at the time. On September 29, 1828, the later Hamburg anthem was performed publicly for the first time in the new Hamburg City Theater . The song formed the final chant in the play Bürgerertreue , a patrician play by Georg Nikolaus Bärmann, which was performed on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in Hamburg and the civil constitution (Langer Rezess 1529). Unlike the patriotic epic, which was soon forgotten, the final song fared. In particular, a redesigned version shortened from seven to four stanzas prevailed as a hymn on official occasions and was used as such since 1890. The change was partly due to political reasons, and a shorter playing time was considered more practicable.

The song in contemporary history

In the film Große Freiheit No. 7, Helmut Käutner had Hamburg songs sung in a round of bars, and when everyone finally started singing the Hammonia anthem, Hans Albers bitterly broke it off after “how handsome you are to look at”, which happened after Operation Gomorrah - the British Air raids on Hamburg in 1943, which largely reduced the city to rubble beyond recognition - can be assessed as a political statement, which nonetheless passed the censorship of the time .

Alexander von Schlippenbach took the anthem in 1974 as the starting point for a composition for the Globe Unity Orchestra and the radio choir of the NDR . To do this, he dismantled Methfessel's hymn “into all its components” in order to “extract elements from it that were suitable to serve as a form-building and driving force for the piece”.

2006 Achim Reichel published the hymn with a modern interpretation of the text on his LP Volxlieder .

A 16-part carillon from 1938 on the facade at Ida-Ehre-Platz 12 has been playing the hymn three times a day since 2009 after being damaged by fire.

Texts

Urtext

City of Hamburg , print version 1831

Orthography , punctuation and typography , including in instead of on the Elbe, correspond to the first print of the original version in the song book of the Liedertafel (page 130/131 the song 73. City of Hamburg etc. ).

City of Hamburg etc.

City of Hamburg in the Elbe floodplains,

How handsome are you to look at!

With your towers high and noble

Do you look beautiful and lovely!