Ludwig Rahlfs

Ludwig Rahlfs (born May 1, 1863 in Bruchhausen-Vilsen ; † July 2, 1950 in Windsheim , Middle Franconia ) was a German composer, music teacher and teacher. In 1912 he composed the melody of the world-famous song Auf der Lüneburger Heide , the text of which comes from Hermann Löns . This song was used in the German homeland films Grün ist die Heide , which were produced in 1951 and 1972 .

Life

Rahlfs was born in (Bruchhausen-) Vilsen in 1863 as the son of the cantor and teacher Heinrich Rahlfs. In 1867 he was transferred to the Lower Saxon village of Düshorn (now part of Walsrode ), so that Ludwig spent his youth in the large cantor's house there.

Ludwig was the most musical of the eleven children. At the age of 7 he received his first music lessons in piano , violin and flute from his father . He was able to replace his father on the organ bench at the age of 13 .

At the age of 7 he put his first melody on paper, as a setting of a lyrics by Klaus Groth . At the age of 10 he set the text Das Vaterhaus by F. Wiedemann to music. The actual period of his song compositions, for which Franz Schubert and especially Friedrich Silcher were the great models, began around 1886 after his time in seminar .

In 1888 he was accepted into the school service after training to be a teacher. In addition to his work as a teacher at girls' schools in Hanover , he worked as a trade instructor for drawing. In 1928 he retired as rector and lived with his family in Hannover-Linden until his house was destroyed in 1943 . On November 25, 1945, he moved again near his beloved home village on Hannoversche Strasse in Walsrode.

He found his final resting place in Düshorn in 1950.

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  Rahlfs grave in Düshorn

plant

Rahlfs was a very productive composer who often composed several sets of songs in one day. So far, well over 1200 compositions have been found, recently (around 2000) 172 manuscripts in Nordhausen . Of these, 100 songs were earmarked for publication; but it did not come about after the Second World War. In the 1920s, however, only about 160 songs were printed, including 50 songs from Lower Saxony under the title Plattdeutscher Liederborn . After 1933 there was probably no interest in his songs; Rahlfs was not a member of the Reich Music Chamber . During the war, Rahlfs created a number of soldiers' songs , which, however, were probably not published due to a lack of paper. Much of his work was possibly lost in that fire bombing night in 1943, which also did not spare his house in Hanover. His literary works, which he listed in his will, have also been lost.

Rahlfs was the first of the poems of the little rose garden set to music by Hermann Lons and published as a book for voice and piano. Later he made these and many other of his songs for choral singing and sang them with choirs in Hanover, which he directed.

• Fifty songs from the little rose garden. (1916; texts: Hermann Löns)
• 60 songs from the little rose garden. (1925; texts: Hermann Löns)

Awards / honors / appreciations

• 1943 Awarded the Löns badge by the "German Hermann Löns Society"; 1950 for the second time on the occasion of his 87th birthday
• The primary school in Düshorn was named "Ludwig-Rahlfs-Schule" in 1973.
• In the entrance area of ​​this elementary school, a permanent exhibition by the local museum association commemorates Ludwig Rahlfs.
• There is a Ludwig-Rahlfs-Straße in Düshorn.

literature

• Ulrich Scheer: “One school bears the name Ludwig Rahlfs. The 'singer of the heath' died 50 years ago ”. In: Hermann-Löns-Blätter , III / 2000 ( online version ).

Web links

• The Ludwig Rahlfs memorial on the website of the city of Walsrode