Red wedding

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"Roter Wedding" is a song of the labor movement and was originally the performance song of the agitprop troupe Der Rote Wedding . The melody was composed by Hanns Eisler , the text is by Erich Weinert .

There is a clear allusion to the fact that the song was sung on a theater stage: “What we play is class struggle”, “We pull the curtain”, “This is how the game takes its course”. When the song took on a life of its own and was sung in other situations, these passages were repositioned. Therefore there are many different versions of the text today. Several of them were considered the unofficial anthem of the Red Front Fighter League until 1933 .

The content refers to the so-called Blutmai , where police officers shot at least 32 residents from May 1 to 3, 1929, mainly in Wedding and Neukölln , then known Berlin working-class district. Erich Weinert was sued for this song in 1931. He was accused of inciting class hatred , blasphemy and contempt for the republican form of government . Weinert was acquitted because of the statute of limitations.

The line "... so that Germany belongs to the Germans" was probably added by Ernst Busch after the Second World War . Like Ernst Busch's song Ami, go home , this line is directed against the American occupation forces.

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