Hail in the wreath
The song Heil dir im Siegerkranz was the Prussian national anthem from 1795 to 1871 . After the establishment of the German Empire in 1871, the song became the imperial hymn. It was heard on patriotic occasions related to the emperor, such as throne jubilees and birthdays and deaths, but usually also on occasions such as Sedan Day and the founding of the Empire . It was not a national anthem in the current sense, which was due in particular to the federal structure of the German Empire. Rather, it was one of several unofficial or semi-official songs, such as the Watch on the Rhine , which were intoned on such occasions. The southern German states in particular were skeptical of the song.
Origin and history
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The original version of the song comes from Heinrich Harries , who wrote it in the Flensburger Wochenblatt for Jedermann on January 27, 1790 under the title "Song for the Danish subject to sing on his king's birthday in the melody of the English folk song God save George the King " of the birthday of King Christian VII . She began with the words: “Heil you, the loving ruler of the fatherland! Heil, Christian, dir! ”In a version by Balthasar Gerhard Schumacher, which had been repositioned to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm II , it appeared on December 17, 1793 as“ Berliner Volksgesang ”in the Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und schehrte Dinge ( Spenersche Zeitung known) with the subtitle "God Save the King", which also indicated the melody here. The song, which soon became popular, became official in character after it was played in the Royal National Theater in Berlin on May 25, 1795 in the presence of the king. Throughout the 19th century it was only one of numerous German royal and state anthems based on the melody of the British royal anthem .
melody
During the First World War , the fact that it shared its melody with the British royal anthem prompted the Berlin composer Hugo Kaun, together with the publisher, Kommerzienrat and Reichstag member Julius Heinrich Zimmermann, to attempt to introduce a new melody on "Heil dir im Siegerkranz". However, this intention ignored the fact that "God Save the King" represents a prototype of solemn patriotic songs dedicated to monarchs, which is why other princely hymns were sung to this melody, such as Molitwa Russkich in the Russian Empire from 1816 to 1833 or the hymn Heil unserm in the Kingdom of Bavaria King, salvation! , and still will, according to the Liechtenstein anthem Oben am young Rhine . Apart from the princely anthems, national anthems such as the former Swiss anthem Heil Dir Helvetia and the US representative song My Country, 'Tis of Thee, had the same melody.
text
Heinrich Harries was a supporter of the Enlightenment . His love for Denmark and the Danish king was based on the conviction that nowhere in Europe would freedom, justice and prosperity have reached a level comparable to that in the territory of the Danish crown and that the demands of the French Revolution that he had just started and welcomed in Christian VII's Denmark. are already largely fulfilled. This included the abolition of the "Schollenband" (the bond between the serfs and the land of their landlord) in 1788, freedom of the press and freedom of trade. This attitude is particularly reflected in his second stanza, which, only slightly changed, was part of the core of Heil dir in the wreath until 1918 . According to Franz Magnus Böhme (1895), “this is the first time in German poetry that since the French. Revolution expressed the view asserted [...] that the people have a certain meaning towards the prince : "Horses and sticks do not secure the steep heights: the love of the free man establishes the ruler's throne."
The “wreath” inserted into Schumacher's song referred to the expulsion of the French revolutionary army from the Palatinate and the Rhineland during the first coalition war by the Prussian army led by Friedrich Wilhelm II. After the founding of the empire , which brought the Prussian king the title of German Emperor , the "Kaiser" replaced the "King" in the text.
song lyrics
The following text version was published by Friedrich Silcher and Friedrich Erk in Schauenburg's General German Kommersbuch .
1.
- Hail in the wreath,
- Ruler of the fatherland!
- Hail To Thee, Emperor!
- Feel the splendor of the throne
- the high bliss completely,
- To be the darling of the people!
- Hail To Thee, Emperor!
2.
- Not horses and sticks
- secure the steep heights,
- where princes stand:
- Love of the fatherland,
- Free man's love
- founds the ruler's throne
- like rock in the sea.
3.
- Holy flame, glow,
- never glow and never go out
- for the fatherland!
- We all stand then
- brave for a man
- like to fight and bleed
- for throne and kingdom!
4th
- Plot and science
- lift with courage and strength
- their heads up!
- Warrior and heroic deed
- find her bay leaf
- in good hands there
- at your throne!
5.
- Be here, Kaiser Wilhelm
- long adornment of your people,
- pride of mankind!
- Feel the splendor of the throne
- the high bliss completely,
- To be the darling of the people!
- Hail To Thee, Emperor!
Re-sealing, re-sealing, parodies
Due to the catchy, widespread melody, there were numerous re-works in various German kings and principalities, for example in Bavaria (Heil our König, Heil, long live be his part) , in Württemberg (Heil our König, Heil. Heil, our Prince , Heil) , in Saxony (God bless the king) and in Baden (Heil du mein Badnerland) . While Emanuel Geibel was composing national verses on Germany (Heil dir im Eichenkranz) , the creator of Struwwelpeter , Heinrich Hoffmann , wrote in his picture book King Nutcracker and Poor Reinhold (1851) a parody of the tribute song of the Prussian king, which led to the temporary prohibition of the Children's book led through the Prussian judiciary, presumably on suspicion of lese majesty .
Hail to you, you Knusperhanns!
Wood in splendor and shine!
Hail, geezer, you!
Bite like you, who can?
Nuts of the fatherland
You certainly won't leave it completely.
Heil crackers, you!
Against absolutist rulers and labor for starvation wages, Karl August Follen had already rewritten the song after an Irish freedom song in 1825:
Brothers, it can't go like that
Let's stand together
Don't tolerate it anymore!
Freedom, your tree is rotting away
Everyone on the beggar's stick
Bites the hunger grave soon
People at the gun!
Then it's going to be good
when you of goods and blood
Dare blood and good.
When you bow and ax,
Grab the hatchet and scythe,
Zwerherrn's head chopped up
Burn, old courage!
Brother in gold and be,
Brother in peasant dress,
Shake hands!
Teutschland's distress calls to everyone
All the Lord's commandments:
Kill your plagues
Save the country!
The following example is given here of the parodies of popular songs that emerged from war weariness and dissatisfaction with the adversities at the front during the First World War :
- Hail in the wreath!
- Potatoes with herring tail.
- Hail To Thee, Emperor!
- Eat in the glory of the throne
- The fat Christmas goose
- We're left with the herring tail
- In wrapping paper.
On a postcard from the time of the Weimar Republic there is another parody directed against the first Reich President Friedrich Ebert and thus intended to make the first German republic contemptible.
See also
literature
- Harry D. Schurdel: The Imperial Anthem . In: G - history: people, events, epochs . tape 2 , no. 3 . Sailer, March 2002, ISSN 1617-9412 , p. 53 .
Web links
- Melody as MP3 and midi file
- Heil dir im wreath (with unassigned text variant) : sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
Individual evidence
- ↑ Score and artificially performed recording of Hugo Kaun's alternative music for Heil dir im Siegerkranz
- ↑ cf. his Danes song from 1797
- ^ Lars N. Henningsen: Freedom friend and Danish state patriot. For the 250th birthday of the Flensburg poet Heinrich Harries . In: Grenzfriedenshefte. Journal for German-Danish Dialogue 4/2012, pp. 219–234 ( online )
- ^ Franz Magnus Böhme: Popular songs of the Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Leipzig 1895, p. 13
- ↑ General German Kommersbuch. 55th-58th Edition, Moritz Schauenburg, Lahr undated [around 1900], p. 47.
- ↑ Hail in the wreath | Folk songs archive (10,000 songs). Retrieved November 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Lukasch Peter: The Struwwelpeter. Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
- ↑ Brothers it can't go like that (1825) | Folk songs archive (10,000 songs). Retrieved November 5, 2018 (German).
- ↑ According to the seminar Liberty Movements - Liberty Songs (Gustav-Heinemann-Bildungsstätte, Malente, May 22-26, 1999) handed down from the war year 1918 .
- ↑ Niels Albrecht: The power of a smear campaign. Anti-democratic agitation by the press and judiciary against the Weimar Republic and its first Reich President Friedrich Ebert from the “Badebild” to the Magdeburg trial. Dissertation. Bremen 2002, p. 45–88 ( uni-bremen.de [PDF; 3.7 MB ; accessed on July 3, 2010]).
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