Sascha ... an upright German

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Sascha ... an upright German
The dead pants
publication 1992
length 2:34
Genre (s) Punk , rock
text Campino and Hanns Christian Müller
music Campino and Hanns Christian Müller

Sascha… an upright German is a song by the German band Die Toten Hosen from 1992. Text and music are a collaboration between Campino and Hanns Christian Müller . Sascha , who is mocked in this song , represents all right-wing extremist German skinheads .

Emergence

Cover of the single Sascha ...

The song was written after the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen as a protest against xenophobia and racism. Die Toten Hosen presented the song Sascha… an upright German on November 14, 1992 in Bonn at the demonstration event It is time and again on December 13, 1992 at the festival Heute die! Morning you! in Frankfurt am Main .

The song was released as a single for Christmas 1992; On the B-side there are interpretations of the songs every year again , the snow falls softly and the music title Frohes Fest . The single immediately placed in the German top ten .

All those involved in the production of the single, such as graphic designers, music publishers and record labels, waived their fees. The entire sales proceeds were donated to the Düsseldorf Appeal against Xenophobia and Racism . The single brought in over half a million German marks.

The song Sascha… an upright German is also part of the studio album Kauf mich! which was released on May 10, 1993.

text

According to Campino, the whole song is “a series of clichés . The language is kept emphatically stupid. "

The three stanzas of the two and a half minute song each consist of eight lines that rhyme at the end with monosyllables. The four-line refrain always begins with the following sentences: “Sascha, he's German, and being German is difficult. And as German as Sascha ... “, but varies with each of the three repetitions in the last sentence.

In the first stanza, Sascha becomes a neo-Nazi solely because of his unemployment, "Sascha, he's unemployed, what does he do without work?" : "He cuts his hair and pees on a Jewish grave". In the second stanza Sascha is identified as a fool: “He even knows the alphabet, knows where the Führerbunker is.” In the third stanza, Sascha becomes an arsonist on asylum seekers' homes: “Then he sets fire to the booth, everyone does what he can. ”The third refrain underlines the cynical statement with the sentence:“ Anyone who is as German as Sascha is nothing else. ”

The three-line coda contains a cross rhyme and refers to Adolf Hitler : “A good 50 years ago someone tried it. The matter went wrong, Sascha didn't get it. "

Sascha is the Russian pet form of the first name Alexander. Die Toten Hosen had already made reference to a character with this first name with their song Here comes Alex : Alexander Delarge , the leader of a violent youth gang from Anthony Burgess ' novel A Clockwork Orange .

music

The two and a half minute song is written in 4/4 time and in C major . The simple, memorable and happy melody is whistled as a variation of a verse in the interlude. In addition to the usual instruments in rock music, electric guitar , electric bass and drums , a tuba accompanies the singing from the second verse. The musicians involved in the first edition of the piece were: singer and frontman of the band Campino, Andreas von Holst and Michael Breitkopf on electric guitars, Andreas Meurer on electric bass and drummer Wolfgang Rohde .

resonance

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Sascha ... an upright German
  DE 4th 01/11/1993 (22 weeks)
  AT 23 02/28/1993 (2 weeks)
  CH 14th 02/14/1993 (12 weeks)

Die Toten Hosen appeared with the song Sascha ... an upright German in various television programs, including on January 30, 1993, moderated by Günther Jauch , in the current sports studio . Many newspapers printed the text of the song free of charge, sometimes over a full page. The band received increased support, also from people who otherwise had no access to punk rock . The single reached fourth place in the charts in Germany, 23rd in Austria and 14th in Switzerland.

But there were also bomb threats against television and radio stations that played the song. The band and their relatives received some anonymous death threats. The district chairman of the District Association of the Republicans Düsseldorf, Richard Staginus, filed a complaint against Die Toten Hosen with the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office for insulting and inciting people, misdemeanors and crimes according to § 130, § 185, § 52 StGB. Staginius felt mainly addressed by the sentences: "No, this man, this is no idiot, Sascha is a German REP". “In connection with the rest of the text” it would give the impression “that we are peeing on Jewish graves or that negroes set fire to the booth”. The lawsuit was dismissed on the grounds that the song was designed to "positively influence young people" and "contribute to de-escalation".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bertram Job : Until the Bitter End ... Die Toten Hosen tell their story . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-462-02532-5 , p. 267.
  2. ↑ Andrea Müller: Die Toten Hosen - Punkrock made in Germany. Econ Verlag Düsseldorf 1996, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-612-12006-9 . P. 78.
  3. ^ Text accompanying the single Sascha… an upright German
  4. ^ Zillo , May 1993 edition.
  5. ^ Kai Jessen: Forever Punk , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-12889-3 , p. 72.
  6. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH
  7. ↑ Fryderyk Gabowicz : Die Toten Hosen. Live backstage studio: photographs 1986–2006 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89602-732-8 , pages 118-119.
  8. ↑ Jan Weiler : Children, how time flies… Die Toten Hosen tell - Jan Weiler listens to 1982–2007 . Booklet for the new edition 2007, part 9: Buy ME! .
  9. ↑ Hollow Skai : The Dead Pants. Hannibal, A-Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-281-2 , p. 134.
  10. ↑ press release
  11. ↑ Hollow Skai: The Dead Pants . Hannibal, A-Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-281-2 , p. 41.

Web links