Palatinate song
The Palatinate song is a folk song and, comparable to other German-speaking regional anthems , is considered to be that of the Palatinate , which is part of today's state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The text comes from the opera singer and writer Eduard Jost , the melody from the conductor and pianist Emil Sauvlet . It was written in 1869 (text) and 1877 (music).
history
Jost is said to have composed the Palatinate song during his time in Dürkheim (1867–1870). According to his own memories, in the summer of 1869 he often went for long walks with Hippolyt August Schaufert , who at the time was working as a police inspector in Dürkheim. In August of this year, on a beautiful day, during such a walk he came to the medieval ruins of Limburg monastery , which he had already seen many times; this time, however, he climbed the tower of the complex, which he had never done before. From there he could see the towers of the Worms Cathedral and the Speyer Cathedral , "in whose window the afternoon sun flashed as if a fire was raging inside the church". He also saw the heights of the Bergstrasse , the Rhine winding across the plain, and the ruins of Heidelberg Castle . Seized with enthusiasm at this view, he wrote the lines of the Palatinate song. A stone pyramid with a plaque commemorates the event in Limburg.
Jost sent the poem he had composed to the editors of the “Pfälzer Kurier” in Ludwigshafen am Rhein . It was printed a few days later in the newspaper's feature section, and afterwards Jost believed it had been forgotten. But eight years later, in the autumn of 1877, Jost, who meanwhile lived in Landau in the Palatinate , attended a concert there in the “Zum Schwan” hotel. During the performance, the Danish-born musician Emil Sauvlet accompanied a Swedish singer named Svendson on his harmonium . When an encore was requested after the concert, Sauvlet announced a “Pfälzer Lied”, whereupon the Swede sang the lines that Jost had published eight years earlier in the “Pfälzer Kurier” “in a simple, heart-winning melody”. When asked by Jost about the origin of the song, Sauvlet explained that he had given a concert in Speyer a while ago and bought a pair of white ice cream gloves there ; these were wrapped in newspaper on which he found the text of the Palatinate song by Jost. The text appealed to him so much that he composed a melody for it; The song was then performed by Miss Svendson at concerts in Speyer, Neustadt , Kaiserslautern , Zweibrücken and Pirmasens and was well received. After Jost had identified himself as the author of the text, Sauvlet gave him the original manuscript of the composition and Jost ceded all rights to it. Jost, in turn, later gave the rights to the song to the Mainz company B. Schott's Sons .
From its creation until the first third of the 20th century, the song was very popular in the Palatinate because it serves the stereotypes of Palatinate cosiness and a sense of home. Contrary to popular belief, however, the song did not become popular at wine festivals and similar events, but rather belonged to the repertoire of choirs and choral societies according to its origin . The reason for this is probably that it is written in Standard German and not in Palatinate dialect . It has always been more of a small group performance, e.g. B. on stages than sung by large crowds themselves.
After terms such as “home” had been misused during the Nazi era, post-war Germany largely refrained from dealing with it. a. in school lessons. The Palatinate song gradually fell into oblivion among the population. It is only since the end of the 20th century that it has increasingly returned to the songs of choirs that feel committed to tradition.
text
| The Palatinate Song |
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On the German river, on the green Rhine, you pull yourself, O Palatinate! |
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From your gentle hills the vine nods to me in the sunbeam, |
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And the gray ruins of your castles and the proud structure of your cathedral, |
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Yes, you are beautiful, oh little piece of earth on the German river, on the green Rhine, |
Explanations
Many of the advantages mentioned in the song are of an ideal nature or are named directly, so that only a few points require further explanation:
- The green Rhine does not mean that the river, which represents the eastern border of the Palatinate, has this color; rather, it refers to the fertility of the surrounding landscape, which is often referred to as Germany's Tuscany because of the mild climate . The name of the river as the “green Rhine” can also be found in the patriotic song “Between France and the Bohemian Forest” by Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben , written in 1824 and well known in the 19th century . The river itself is literally presented in the next line of Jost's lyrics as a “silver ribbon”.
- The mountain's summit is where the poet stood on the edge of the Haardt mountain range near Bad Dürkheim (see section “History”) . Since the 1990s, the Bad Dürkheimer Berglauf over 8700 m has taken place in this area every year since the 1990s , the 4th and steepest run of the Palatinate Mountain Run Cup with a cumulative slope of 510 m .
- With the of vine -covered hills are those of the 85-km long and since 1935 as designated German Wine Route meant. This runs in the middle of the roughly 10 km wide hilly fracture step between the low mountain range and the plain , which forms the main part of the Palatinate wine-growing region .
- The forests mean the Palatinate Forest , one of the largest contiguous forest areas in Germany and also one of the largest contiguous European forest areas. In 1998, this nature park became part of Germany's first cross-border biosphere reserve by UNESCO , namely the Palatinate Forest-Vosges du Nord biosphere reserve .
- There are numerous castles on the Haardt . The best known is the former Kästenburg ("Kastanienburg"), which later became the symbol of the German democracy movement under its later name Hambacher Schloss , because the Hambacher Festival took place there in 1832 .
- The praised cathedral is the largest and the only one belonging to the Palatinate of the three Romanesque imperial cathedrals on the Upper Rhine , namely that of Speyer, which served as a burial place for four German emperors and kings .
literature
- The Palatinate as a home - The Palatinate Song (original text)
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Günther: The Palatinate Song by Eduard Jost . Bad Dürkheim [u. a.] 1928, p. 20-24 .
- ^ Karl Heinz: The song of the Palatinate . In: The Palatinate on the Rhine . tape 44 , no. 6 . Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1971, p. 101-196 .
- ↑ a b Eduard Jost: How the Palatinate Song came about . In: The Palatinate on the Rhine . tape 38 , no. 8 . Neustadt an der Weinstrasse 1965, p. 145 ff .