You who are God's fighters

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The chorale You Who Are God's Warriors ( Czech Ktož jsú boží bojovníci , in the original spelling Ktoz jsu bozi boyownici ) from 1420 was the most important battle song of the Hussites and of great role model effect. In the form of an armor song, the chorale combines the early Reformation hymn with elements from the folk song and field sermon and points to later secular revolutionary songs and national anthems. As a new type of poetry at the time, the song is of great cultural and historical importance.

In 1963, the literary scholar Roman Jakobson provided a prime example of the analytical technique of structuralism in literary studies with his interpretation of the Hussite choir .

The Kanzionale of Jistebnice
Those who are God-fighters

Typological derivation

The European tradition of the armor songs leads back religiously to the Davidic psalm poetry and politically to the Greek battle parsons and paiane . The psalms, which were used in the course of the Reformation as a text basis for hymns in their own sense and in their own national languages, place the individual relationship between the believer and God in the foreground in times of warlike threat from neighboring peoples and supplement it with a plea for protection People of God and triumph over enemies. The Doric-Ionic battle lyric appears for the first time in the elegies of Kallinos during the attacks of the Cimmerians on Ephesus , as well as in the songs of Tyrtaios with which the poet supported the fighting morale of the Spartans in the Second Messenian War . In Greek poetry, in addition to the glorious sacrifice for one's own polis, the operational-tactical cohesion of the phalanx teams in direct combat is the topic. Both of these types of poems can be dated in their editorial versions to the 7th century BC.

The Hussite chorale of 1420 marks the beginning of a Reformation-Protestant argument-song culture. In the tradition of the Hussite songs, similar chorales were created in other countries in terms of their meaning, such as the chorale “ A strong castle is our God ” from Martin Luther (before 1529) and the chorale “Que Dieu” from the Geneva Psalter (before 1562) se montre seulement ”after the words of the 68th Psalm , which became famous as the“ Psaume de Bataille ”of the Huguenots . It is widely reported that the troops of Protestant partisans went into battle in the wars of religion between the 15th and 17th centuries to sing hymns and hymns. Some of the songs were created under the immediate impression of war. During the Thirty Years' War , the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf sent his court preacher Fabricius some text ideas, from which the song "Don't despair you heap small" was born. This chorale was given to the Swedish troops on the morning of the Battle of Lützen and sung by the army. Psalm songs also became the hallmark of the English Puritans . So let Oliver Cromwell 's New Model Army at the Battle of Dunbar with the song "Let God arise" (after the 68th Psalm) march against the Scots.

text

The chorale appeared for the first time in the Kanzionale (hymn book) of Jistebnice (Jistebnický kancionál). The contents are the hymns of the Taborites, together with texts by Jan Hus and Jan Čapek . It is assumed that the Hussite military leader Jan Žižka was involved in the text version.

The theological perspective and intertextual complexity of the chant shows that the author had a sound education in New Testament, philological, military tactics and folk music. The text thus ideally reflects the spirit of the Central European Renaissance .

The chorale is divided into nine stanzas, which are composed of three triple stanzas. Each triple stanza, comparable to the Meistersanglied , consists of two studs and a swan song. The rhyme scheme of the tunnel stanzas (stanzas 1,2,4,5,7,8) is ababc. The Abgesänge, in the course of the stanzas also intermediate chants, are shorter, more popular and more summarizing and stand out due to their rhyme variations: cross rhyme abab (verse 3), pair rhyme aabb (verse 6) and surrounding rhyme abba (verse 9). Stollen and Abgesänge differ not only in the number of syllables and accents, but also in the setting of melodies.

interpretation

In terms of form, the chorale is similar to the master song consisting of three master's angst stanzas or the Provencal canzone strophe .

The chorale was created immediately after the death of the reformer Jan Hus, when the Hussites formed a political power that reformed against the Catholic Church and politically against the emperor and the predominant stratum of German settlers and officials, especially in western Bohemia and the cities . In addition to the religious concern, the acts of war that began had the character of a national-Czech freedom struggle, which unified all social classes without distinction.

The first three stanzas of the chorale - corresponding to the master's angst strophe consisting of two tunnels and a swan song - establish the religious-Reformation reference and remind the believer of the certification by God (Boh), his duty to follow Christ. The Christian soldier is in a feudal relationship of loyalty to his master (pan). God promises confidence in victory and even the sacrificial death of the soldier is required through following Christ and charity , which is proven by corresponding biblical quotations.

The three middle stanzas emphasize the spirit of the national-Czech liberation struggle. The various branches of arms of the Hussite army and their class origins are described in detail: the mostly urban riflemen, armed with crossbows and guns, the Bohemian nobles armed with lances as cavalry, and finally the peasants and petty bourgeoisie, with simple pikes and thrashing (war -Flegeln) acts as a mass and heap of violence. The quotations in the corresponding verses refer to the own Czech national literature and vernacular. Beyond class barriers, the equality of believers and Czechs is emphasized.

The final three stanzas describe the behavior during battle. They reflect the combat tactics of the Hussite wagon castle , which was initially intended as a defensive position against an attacking army of knights. The attacker was repulsed by a quickly formed ring of wagons with combat teams, which also contained gun emplacements. After the deployment of their own cavalry, it was reserved for the mass of infantrymen breaking out of the interior of the wagon castle to rub off the enemy. Accordingly, stanza 8 reflects the strict military order of the first army commander Jan Žižka . High discipline and mobility make the Hussites the most effective army of their time.

An increasing number of imperatives run through the stanzas , which defines the appellative character of the chant. The three stanzas are built up in parallel in increasing intensity: the first stanza contains the salutation of the teams present, the second stanza is enriched by intertextual references to biblical passages, own national literature and military service regulations, the third stanza of the swan song contains verbatim quotations that move from the religious level of the Jesus word over the secular and popular level of the proverb to the concrete battle cry. The initially somewhat vague address in the first stanza (who are God's fighters) is answered by the soldiers present by the active field shouting ("Ran!") In the last stanza. The stanzas of the chorale thus close themselves to form a circle, similar to a castle of wagons, with the tunnel stanzas symbolically corresponding to the wagons and the swan verses corresponding to the cannon positions.

effect

The willingness to fight and to make sacrifices, which was martially presented while singing, had intimidating psychological effects on the opponents. Before the battle of Taus, the imperial troops are said to have fled when they heard the Hussites sing their chorale. A similar example is reported from the Cevennes Wars around 1700, when the Huguenots succeeded in the same.

Musical use

The chorale melody was often quoted as a motif in classical music and recorded in popular musical versions:

literature

  • Winfried Baumann: The literature of the Middle Ages in Bohemia. German-Latin-Czech literature from the 10th to the 15th century (= publications of the Collegium Carolinum. Volume 37). Oldenbourg, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-486-49071-0 .
  • Jiří Daňhelka: Husitské písně (= Národní klenotnice . Volume 60). Československý spisovatel, Praha 1952 , OCLC 2829168 .
  • Roman Jakobson : Poetry of grammar and grammar of poetry. All poetry analyzes. Annotated German edition. Edited by Hendrik Birus , Sebastian Donat. 2 vols. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-018362-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman Jakobson. In: International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics. Volume 7 (1963), ISSN  0538-8228 , pp. 108-117. For reprint, see Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry in the Bibliography .
  2. ↑ Jiří Daňhelka: Husitské písně. P. 183; For the full text of the song from Jistebnický kancionál see Wikisource / Wikizdroje: Ktož jsú boží bojovníci .
  3. ↑ Boris Preckwitz: God's fighters. In: militanz-der-mitte.de, accessed on March 2, 2017.
  4. ↑ Quotes the St. Wenceslas Song from the 14th century: "Blaže tomu, ktož tam pojde, v život věčny" - "Blessed is he who enters into eternal life".
  5. ↑ Cf. Matthew 19.29  LUT : (Jesus to Peter :) "And whoever leaves houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my name's sake will receive it a hundredfold and inherit eternal life." the synoptic parallel Mark 10,29-30  LUT : “Jesus said [to Peter]: Truly I say to you: There is no one who leaves house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the gospel sake that does not receive a hundredfold: now at this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields in the midst of persecution - and in the world to come, eternal life. "
  6. ↑ Cf. Matthew 10:28  LUT : “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; But fear him much more of him who can destroy body and soul in hell. "
  7. ↑ Cf. John 15:13  LUT : “No one has greater love than that he gives up his life for his friends.” 1 John 3:16  LUT : “We have recognized love by this, that he left his life for us ; and we are also to give life for the brothers. " John 10:11  NIV :" I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. "
  8. ↑ Allusion to Břecislav sayings from Chapter 44 of the Czech Dalimil World Chronicle from the early 14th century.
  9. ↑ Popular saying.
  10. ^ Citing loan from the Hussite military order by Jan Žižka.
  11. ↑ The battle cry of the Hussites as they storm out of the wagon castle: “To them! Just go ahead!"