East Prussian Song

The East Prussian song (also song on East Prussia or Land of Dark Forests ) was considered the national anthem of East Prussia .

Emergence

In the early 1930s, the Königsberg composer Herbert Brust (1900–1968) composed his oratorio der Heimat . The four-stanza closing chorale of this oratorio was composed by the Königsberg writer Erich Hannighofer , who disappeared in East Prussia in 1945 .

The song met with great enthusiasm among the population, so that it was soon called the East Prussian song and the older national anthem, They all say you are not beautiful, was replaced by Johanna Ambrosius . After the expulsion of East Prussia (1945–1948), this song became the epitome of their longing for their old homeland . This is how the fifth stanza emerged: "Home well-protected ...".

The title Land of Dark Forests and Crystalline Lakes has become synonymous with the East Prussian landscape, which has been used countless times as a title for illustrated books, documentaries, etc. over the past decades.

text

Land of dark forests
and crystal lakes, bright wonders walk
across wide fields
.

Strong peasants walk
behind horse and plow, bird migration sweeps
across the fields
.

And the seas rustle
the chorale of time,
moose stand and listen
into eternity.

Day has risen
over the lagoon and moor,
light has started,
rises in the east.

literature

• Gerhardt Seiffert: Land of dark forests and crystal lakes: The East Prussian song, its origins and its composer Herbert Brust . Romowe, Bremerhaven o. J.