I am a soldier, but I don't like to be
I am a soldier, but I don't like it is a German folk , soldier and workers 'song that comes from the socialist workers' movement . The text, printed for the first time in 1870 and often attributed to Max Kegel , deals with the senselessness and foreign determination of being a soldier and ends with a call for the reconciliation of peoples and the overthrow of tyrants.
The melody is that of the popular French song "Te souviens-tu?", Which was written by Joseph-Denis Doche (1766-1825) and used in Germany a. a. with Karl von Holtei's text "Do you think about it, my brave Lagienka" and as a student song "Do you think about it, comrade happy hours" was sung. The melody of Ich bin Soldat that is used today differs in part from the original.
Emergence
The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July gave the song a certain popularity. After the capture of the French emperor Napoléon III. and the surrender of the French troops at the Battle of Sedan in 1870 had fulfilled the war objective for the representatives of the labor movement. The members of the North German Reichstag , August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht , therefore advocated an immediate end to the acts of war. Because of the turn of the war from defensive to aggressive war, the song gained high popularity, especially through the lines
You brothers all, whether Germans or French
and
Let's march back home
free our people from the tyrants (...)
The working-class poet Max Kegel was presumed to be the author of the text . In the song books contemporary folk songs and poems , the newest proletarian song book by various worker poets and social democratic songs and declamations , in which the song was first printed, no author's name appears, which Wolfgang Steinitz interpreted as protecting the author from reprisals. In the new edition of the Social Democratic Songs in 1887, in the London reprint of 1889 and in later song books, Max Kegel is named as the author, which is probably due to his popularity in the labor movement.
In fact, the song first appeared on March 11, 1870 in the Zwickauer Tageblatt and was reprinted as a soldier's song in Der Volksstaat and in Crimmitschauer Bürger- und Bauernfreund shortly after the war broke out , making Max Kegel's authorship unlikely. Carl Hirsch , who was the editor of the Crimmitschauer Bürger- und Bauernfreunds in 1870 and wrote the parody “I am a soldier and I am there with pleasure”, is also possible as the author .
effect
After 1891 the song was no longer printed in any song books, not even in those published abroad. Only after 1905 did it appear again in song books of the workers' youth movement , for example in the song book Free Sounds. Song collection for the working youth . During the First World War , the song was sung in different versions adapted to the changed situations. Exemplary the last verse of a song sung during the First World War:
Drum brothers all, whether Germans, whether French,
whether Russian or whether from Engeland,
whether black, whether white, whether green, whether yellow
your trousers, come together and shake hands!
And let's march back home
and free our people from the tyrant,
because only tyrants can wage wars,
I would like to be a soldier of freedom!
In the 1970s, the song experienced a renaissance in the folk scene in both the FRG and the GDR , as injustice was felt in the drafting practice when recruiting conscripts . For example, the group Liedehrlich was able to get border guards to think about it with the song in the garden of the House of Young Talents in Berlin in 1980.
text
I am a soldier, but I don’t like it.
When I was, no one asked me.
I was torn away into the barracks,
I was captured like a game.
Yes,
I had to get away from home, from my darling's heart , and from the circle of friends.
If I think of it, I feel the pain of melancholy, I feel
the embers in the chest of anger so hot.
I'm a soldier, but only reluctantly,
I don't love the blue king's coat.
I don't love the bloody gun
life, to defend myself, a stick would be enough.
O tell me, what do you need soldiers for?
Every people only loves peace and quiet.
Out of lust for power and harming the people,
let them trample, alas, the golden hallway!
I am a soldier, I have to march day and night,
instead of at work I have to stand guard,
Instead of being free I have to salute
and have to see the arrogance of cheeky fellows.
And
when it goes into the field, I have to murder brothers, none of whom did me harm,
For that, as a cripple, I wear ribbon and medals,
And then , starving, I cry : I was a soldier!
You brothers all, whether Germans, whether French,
whether Hungarians, Danes, whether from the Netherlands,
whether green, whether red, whether blue, whether white trousers,
give your brother's hand instead of lead in greeting!
Up, let's march back to
our homeland, Free our people from the tyrants,
Because only tyrants have to wage wars,
I want to be a soldier of freedom.
Web links
- “I'm a soldier, but I don't like it” in the folk song archive.
- “I am a soldier, but I don't like it” in the working class archive.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Te souviens-tu?
- ↑ from the Singspiel Der alten Feldherr
- ↑ cf. General German Kommersbuch
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Steinitz : German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries . Volume 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954. p. 401.
- ↑ Gustaf Linke (editor): Contemporary folk songs and poems . Dresden 1872. p. 5.
- ^ Johann Most (editor): The latest proletarian songbook by various worker poets . Chemnitz 1873.
- ^ Social Democratic Songs and Declamations . 3rd edition, Zurich 1875.
- ↑ Wolfgang Steinitz : German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries . Volume 1, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1954. P. 401. and Volume 2, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962. P. 336f.
- ↑ a b Wolfgang Steinitz : German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries . Volume 2, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962. pp. 336f.
- ↑ "I am a soldier and I am there with pleasure" ( Memento of the original from March 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the folk song archive.
- ↑ Central Committee for Youth Agitation: Free Sounds. Song collection for the working youth . Mannheim 1908.
- ↑ Wolfgang Steinitz : German folk songs of a democratic character from six centuries . Volume 2, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1962. pp. 344 - 348.
- ↑ Barbara Boock: “Schiller and Steinitz. On the political dimension of soldiers' songs ”. In: Eckhard John, Wolfgang Steinitz : The discovery of the socially critical song: for the 100th birthday of Wolfgang Steinitz . Waxmann Verlag, 2006. pp. 81-96.
- ↑ Peter Fauser : "Peace Issues and Soldier Characteristics. On the political song in the GDR ”. In: Eckhard John, Wolfgang Steinitz : The discovery of the socially critical song: for the 100th birthday of Wolfgang Steinitz . Waxmann Verlag, 2006. pp. 97f.
