Hans Baumann

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Hans Baumann (born April 22, 1914 in Amberg ; † November 7, 1988 in Murnau ) was a German poet , composer, elementary school teacher and National Socialist functionary. His best-known song, The rotten bones tremble , he wrote as a youth in a Catholic youth association. It became the song of the German Labor Front in 1935 and is now considered by StGB §§ 86 f. forbidden propaganda means of National Socialism. Baumann's successes and activities during the Nazi era continued to have an impact throughout his life. Nevertheless, after 1945 he became a successful and internationally recognized author and translator for children and young people, sometimes under a pseudonym .

Life

Early years

Baumann was the son of a professional soldier . He received his high school education in a teacher training institution , today's Max-Reger-Gymnasium in Amberg, and passed the Abitur in 1933. He was a member of the Catholic youth federation Bund New Germany , later in the Hitler Youth . Baumann's talent as a composer was discovered in 1932 when he performed some of his own songs during a retreat , including Es tremble the rotten bones, a song that became the song of the German Labor Front in 1935 . The Jesuit priest who led the retreat gave Baumann's songs for printing in 1933.

National Socialism

Baumann joined the NSDAP in April 1933 and was registered with the party number 2,662,179 with effect from May 1, 1933 . He became a young people leader and advisor in the cultural office of the Reich Youth Leadership. In 1933 Baumann became a teacher in the one-class elementary school in Voithenberghütte near Furth im Wald , and from spring 1934 he was an elementary school teacher in Berlin. There he worked as a writer and journalist in the Reich Youth Leadership , in 1935 initially as an employee of the amateur games department, later as a consultant for cultural work in Germany abroad. In 1935 he applied to SS Storm 11/75 and then served two years in the Wehrmacht in Potsdam . In 1937 he became an SS candidate. Baumann then began studying, but at the same time continued to be active in journalism and propaganda in the HJ leadership. From 1939 to 1945 he served as a company commander, mostly in Propaganda Company 501 on the Eastern Front . In October 1941 Baumann gave a lecture on the poet's probabilities at the Weimar poets' meeting organized by Goebbels . In the same year he received the Dietrich Eckart Prize for his work in the interests of National Socialism.

Baumann wrote and composed songs for the Hitler Youth and the Association of German Girls , including songs that were initially regarded as harmless, such as Only Our Life Belongs to Freedom , High Night of the Clear Stars and There goes a bright flute . In 1939 he published the song book Morgen wir marschieren - song book of the German soldier on behalf of the Wehrmacht High Command . His success as an author of books for young people, all of which were written after the war and many of which were translated, remained unaffected by this, as the international recognition also proved. In December 1942 Baumann returned to Passau to marry Elisabeth Zoglmann in the Veste Oberhaus . Hans Carossa was among his guests . He had a daughter with Elisabeth Zoglmann.

After the Second World War

In 1945 Baumann returned from the Eastern Front and became a French prisoner of war in Langres . There he got to know modern American literature , acquired extensive knowledge of the Russian language and learned various professions (including wood carver in Oberammergau ).

From 1949 Baumann was again active as a writer and translator. In the 1950s and 1960s Baumann became a successful author of novels and non-fiction for young people. In the 1970s and 1980s, the focus was on adapting classic sagas and legends for children as well as their own works for children. In addition, Baumann created compositions of children's poems and songs.

Baumann distanced himself from his role as a song writer under National Socialism. Some literary critics questioned his rejection, however, since Baumann tried to exonerate those in power at the time by assigning a more or less large part of the blame to the victims in the literary management of his work in the Third Reich. As an example of this, the drama Under the Sign of the Fish , which became popular in connection with the awarding of the Gerhart Hauptmann Prize in 1959, received public attention. This piece, submitted under a pseudonym , was honored by the Berliner Volksbühne , but the award was withdrawn in 1962 after Baumann's authorship became known.

In the Soviet occupation zone and in the German Democratic Republic , many of his writings were placed on the list of literature to be segregated.

When Baumann was commissioned by Piper Verlag in 1966 to translate poems by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who was persecuted under Stalin , the writer Ingeborg Bachmann terminated her collaboration with the publisher in protest. Bachmann, who had suggested Akhmatova's poems to the publisher, wanted to oppose the fact that Baumann, with his National Socialist past, was translating into German the Russian poet who wrote against totalitarianism .

Mental attitude

The defining themes of his early poetry were military obedience , comradeship at the front and honorable death for the fatherland . His ideological canon, which made him a National Socialist poet, included expansion to the east and the glorification of mothers as guarantors for the preservation of the people.

After the war, he focused on parabolic narratives of historical events and the confrontation of his main characters with temptation, seduction and destruction by power and the charisma of real people, as in I moved with Hannibal .

"The rotten bones tremble"

The creation of Baumann's best-known song, "The rotten bones tremble", was presented by the Amberger Zeitung as follows:

According to Ms. Elisabeth Baumann, the song 'The rotten bones tremble' with the infamous verses 'Today Germany belongs to us and tomorrow the whole world' was written in 1932 during a pilgrimage by Hans Baumann to Neukirchen near the Holy Blood . At that time he was a member of the catholic union 'New Germany' . From 1934 this text made a great career in the organizations of the NSDAP. It was one of the standard texts of the Hitler Youth and the SA and became a compulsory song for the Reich Labor Service. Baumann himself used it very effectively because of his influential, professional position in the Reich Youth Leadership. "

- Lied poet for the National Socialists ; Amberger Zeitung from April 15, 2005

To this day, it is still controversial whether, before 1945, “today, there hears…” or “Germany belongs to us today and the whole world tomorrow” was sung. In LTI - notebook of a philologist (1947), Victor Klemperer reports that in an edition of 1942/43 after the battle of Stalingrad he was surprised to find the line modified as follows: and today, Germany hears us, and tomorrow the whole world. Klemperer comments: That sounded more innocent. Baumann himself admitted in 1956 that when the song became "a nuisance",

“Immediately in the sentence 'Because today Germany belongs to us and tomorrow the whole world', the word 'belongs', to which an imperialist meaning could be underlaid, replaced by the phrase 'Germany hears us and tomorrow the whole world', for no doubt to let go of how the song was meant from the beginning. "

According to Hubertus Schendel, a Canadian who emigrated from Germany as a child, who is passionate about German songs and who has a large archive, 68 percent of the song books from 1933 to 1945 are in his archive: “Today, Germany hears us, and tomorrow the whole world ”, which includes all of his party, SA and SS song books. Without a doubt, in the years of the Third Reich many sang "Germany belongs to us and the whole world tomorrow" and so it is in the remaining 32 percent of his songbooks, which, with one exception, were only published from 1934 onwards. In two song books from 1936, compulsory songs by the HJ (SV158a) and Singen im NSKK (SV209), there is even an additional stanza with a modified refrain, which should actually prevent misinterpretation: “You don't want to understand the song, / you think of bondage and war, / while our fields are ripening - / you flag of freedom, fly! / We will march on / when everything falls to pieces / freedom rose up in Germany / and tomorrow the world will be hers. "

Awards and honors

Works

Poetry

  • Make no noise , 1933
  • The light tone , undated
  • Our drum boy , 1934
  • Drum of the Rebels , songbook, 1935
  • Listen to comrade , 1936
  • We light the fire , 1936
  • Battle for the Karawanken , 1938
  • The bright day , undated (around 1938)
  • (Ed.) Tomorrow we march. Songbook of the German soldiers , 1939
  • Breath of a Flute , 1940
  • Letter poems , 1941
  • The converter war. Letter poems , 1942
  • The bright flute , 1948
  • 3 × 13 small fish , 1964
  • Passport , 1978/1985

Dramas

  • Rüdiger von Bechelaren
  • Alexander
  • The Nehaj Tower , 1941
  • In the sign of the fish , 1960

Books for children and young readers

  • Monkey babble, 100 of the most beautiful fables from around the world
  • Bombo does magic differently
  • Mountain farmers Christmas
  • Burning springs
  • Sell ​​letters
  • The unicorn and the lion
  • The Everl and the Aff
  • The offended crocodile
  • The big family book for the Advent and Christmas season
  • The secret house
  • The carousel on the roof
  • The carousel to the wide world
  • The carousel secret
  • The child and the animals
  • The song boat
  • The giant rhino (with Reiner Stolte)
  • The rocking sheep
  • The swing ship
  • The bear and his brothers
  • The wreathed mirror
  • The dragon next door
  • The great Alexander train
  • The big elephant and the little one
  • The green donkey. Seven old fables retold
  • The boy from the bird's nest
  • The children's moon
  • The lion and the mouse
  • For the mother's sake
  • The red pull
  • The treasure on Dragon Island . With pictures by Manfred Schlueter .
  • The mold from the picture
  • The son of Columbus
  • The way to the cape. From the time of Henry the Navigator
  • The wonderful ball Kadalupp
  • The circus is here
  • The brothers' boat
  • The three in the blue balloon
  • The fire department always helps
  • The caves of the great hunters
  • The children and the great dragon
  • The city of animals
  • The world of the pharaohs
  • Dimitri and the false tsars
  • Three bears in the bear house
  • Three donkeys and an elephant
  • A letter to Buxtehude
  • A fox is going to America
  • A compass for the lion child
  • One star for everyone
  • Fenny
  • Grand piano for Ikaros
  • Gold and gods of Peru
  • Little boy in the pit
  • Rabbit race, but honestly
  • Count me in
  • I moved in with Hannibal
  • Hedgehogs have right of way and 2 other stories
  • In the land of Ur
  • In my house
  • Kasperle has a lot of friends
  • Katzimir the greatest
  • Little sister swallow
  • Pillow book for children
  • Crocodile bird and monkey child
  • Lion gate and labyrinth
  • Misha and his brothers
  • Pony Purr makes big jumps . With pictures by Manfred Schlueter. Arena Verlag, Würzburg 1985
  • penny
  • Redleg. The pirate boy in the tartan skirt
  • Schorschi the dragon slayer
  • Steppe sons
  • Tina and Nina
  • And who is going ahead?
  • And where do you live?
  • From the golden light
  • Advance to the Pacific
  • Why Fiffi is called Fiffi
  • Whoever has wings can fly
  • Who will save Eirene?
  • How does the cat get on the roof?
  • Sleep like baby animals
  • How child animals play
  • Cloud journey for the king

Translations

  • The Rainbow Gate (Russian Nursery Rhymes)
  • The Sunflower Garden (Russian Nursery Rhymes)
  • A dance around the world - poems from 75 languages
  • Rooster and Witch House (Russian Folk Verses )
  • Russian poems
  • Russian poetry
  • All of life and one day
  • The mosquito collector
  • There, far beyond the river
  • In the middle of the world
  • Volodya's brothers
  • The potato dog
  • Arctic fox Napoleon III
  • Wasja buys the dog in a poke
  • Five pigeons and six crooks
  • The box
  • The quartet
  • The monkey mirror
  • The ruler
  • The inquisitive
  • Fish soup at Demjan
  • Small world mirror
  • Waterfall and spring
  • The Tsar's brothers
  • The Easter candle
  • Three wreath cakes and a donut. Stories for children
  • God's earth

literature

  • Agnes Biedermann: Hans Baumann under the spell of the Hitler Youth. Group song under the swastika. State examination thesis. Karlsruhe University of Music 1997.
  • Winfred Kaminski: Heroic inwardness. Studies on youth literature before and after 1945 (= youth and media; 14). Dipa, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-7638-0127-8 .
  • Sonja Kröger: Shadows of the Past. Life and work of Hans Baumann. Master's thesis, University of Kiel, Kiel 1994.
  • Winfried Mogge: "And today Germany belongs to us ..." Career and aftermath of a song 1933–1993. In: Peter Ulrich Hein, Hartmut Reese (Hrsg.): Culture and society in the Federal Republic of Germany. A commemorative publication for Arno Klönne's 65th birthday . Frankfurt u. a. 1996, ISBN 3-631-30246-0 , pp. 101-109.
  • Marcel Reich-Ranicki : The Baumann case. In: ders .: Literary life in Germany. Comments and pamphlets. Piper, Munich 1965, pp. 63-68.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 32.
  2. ^ A b c Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 , CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 260.
  3. ^ A b Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945. CD-Rom-Lexikon, Kiel 2004, p. 259.
  4. ↑ Tomorrow we march - song book of the German soldier . 2nd, modified edition. Voggenreiter, Potsdam 1939 ( archive.org ).
  5. ^ Anna Rosmus : Hitler's Nibelungs . Samples, Grafenau 2015, ISBN 978-3-938401-32-3 , p. 272 ​​f.
  6. ↑ Hinrich Jantzen: Names and Works. Biographies and contributions to the sociology of the youth movement. Manuscripts and questionnaires Volume 6: Abetz - Cornelius. Verlag für Bibliotheken, Hollabrunn 2018, ISBN 978-3-7460-5979-2 , p. 116 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. ↑ polunbi.de
  8. ↑ polunbi.de
  9. ↑ polunbi.de
  10. ↑ polunbi.de
  11. ↑ WRITER / BACHMANN / BAUMANN: Crossed rainbows . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1967, p. 95-96 ( online - 24 July 1967 ).
  12. ↑ Hans Baumann: The rotten bones . In: Der Spiegel . No. 34 , 1956, pp. 6-7 ( online - letter to the editor).
  13. ↑ Hubertus Schendel ( Delta (British Columbia) ): A home for the German song (PDF; 1.7 MB): Globus 1/2009.
  14. ↑ Hubertus Schendel: More about the song "The rotten bones tremble" ; (PDF; 51 kB) July 6, 2009, deutscheslied.com.
personal data
SURNAME Baumann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet, songwriter, author of books for children and young people
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH On the mountain
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 1988
Place of death Murnau am Staffelsee