Carriage song

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The coach song is a soldier song from the Franco-German War of 1870/71. It begins with the rhyme of a student song from Jena from 1814: “What is crawling around there in the bush? I think it's Napolium! ”, Which then refers to the French Emperor Napoleon III. was obtained. The songwriter was supposedly a " Fusilier Kutschke", so that the song became popular as a coach song .

history

Alleged cuneiform version of the carriage song
Hieroglyphic version

The song first appeared in the Mecklenburgische Nachrichten on August 22, 1870, in four stanzas. The Kölnische Zeitung published the text on September 6, 1870. It is unknown which melody the author used as the basis for the Kutschke song . Most of the time it was sung to the melody of Ich bin der Doktor Eisenbart ; later new compositions were created, but they did not catch on.

The song quickly spread and more verses were added. After the death of the alleged Kutschke - it was said that he had died of an injury - the public puzzled over the origin of the song. In the book Das Kutschkelied auf der Seelenwanderung published in 1871 . Research on the sources of the coach song in gray antiquity, along with old texts and translations into newer languages , with a humorous intention, Wilhelm Ehrenthal put together alleged evidence for the spread of the song since antiquity (Latin codices, cuneiform tablets, sources in Arabic and Sanskrit, etc.).

The Creator remained unknown for a long time. But since there were many new "coach songs", various people claimed the copyrights for themselves; an August Gotthelf Hoffmann (born November 11, 1844, † 1924) defended his claims so vehemently that from 1899 he even called himself Hoffmann-Kutschke.

An editor of the Kölnische Zeitung finally established that the actual author of the first version was Hermann Alexander Pistorius (1811–1877), field preacher in the Franco-Prussian War and pastor in Basedow (Mecklenburg) .

Later reception

The Dutch humorist Toon Hermans made his audience known with a Dutch translation of the song, "Wat ruist er door het struikgewas?" In one sketch he appears as a singer who wants to sing this song, but doesn't get any further than the first line because he can't remember what's going on in the bush.

literature

  • Wilhelm Ehrenthal: The coach song on the migration of souls. Research on the sources of the carriage song in gray antiquity together with old texts and translations into newer languages . Leipzig 1871 ( PDF from the Karl May Society ).
  • Hubert Havlicek: Fusilier meets world travelers: Kutschke and Karl May . In: Wiener Karl May Brief , issue 3/2007, p. 7.

Web links