Swear by these bare weirs
Swear by this sheer defense (also fraternity song or, since 1897, honor, freedom, fatherland ! ) Is an originally Austrian student song and the unofficial anthem of the German fraternity . The text was written by Rudolf Baumbach in 1879 ; the setting was done by Hans Treidler that same year.
Story of the song
Rudolf Baumbach, then a well-known poet, created the text of the song in 1879 for a competition organized by the Vienna student magazine Alma mater , which was to honor the three best Austrian student songs. The competition was intended to enable the creation of a purely Austrian Kommersbuch , and was directed against the fraternity in Austria, which had a German-free and Greater German attitude . Baumbach, himself a corps student , won the first prize with Schwört in this bare defense among 202 competitors, although the song is based on the fraternity's motto Honor, Freedom, Fatherland , and the poet was not an Austrian, but a Reich German . Hans Treidler, choir master of the Vienna Academic Choral Society and a member of the award committee, set the song to music in the same year with the tune that is still popular today.
In a first draft, the beginning of the third stanza was "Austria, you land of honor" . The seas mentioned in this stanza ("wet seas") were originally meant to be the Adriatic , which Austria bordered at that time ( see also: Austrian coastal land ). The final and award-winning text was, as it is today, “Fatherland, you land of honor” , although the judges took Austria as a matter of course.
After this song did not achieve the expected success in Austria and was also applicable to (all) Germany due to the change to Vaterland , the German Burschenschaft adapted it and used it as their association anthem since around 1885, but without ever making a decision about it . Since 1897, the song has been part of the General German Kommersbuch under the title "Ehre, Freiheit, Vaterland" .
melody
![\ relative c '{\ key c \ minor es4. d8 es8 g8 bes8 c8 | c4 bes4 r4 g8 f8 | es4. es8 aes4. aes8 | f2 r4 g8 aes8 | bes4 bes4 c4. bes8 | es4 g, 4 r4 g8 a8 | bes4. g8 a4. d8 | g, 2 r4 g8 g8 \ bar "||" | \ time 3/4 aes4 aes4 c8 c8 | b4 g4 a8 b8 \ bar "||" | \ time 4/4 c4 d4 es4 c4 | d2 r2 | \ bar "|:" es4. es8 es4 d4 | c4. c8 c4 bes 4 | aes4 c4 bes4 es, 4 | g2. f4 | es2 r2 \ bar ": |" } \ addlyrics {Swear by this blank | Woe - re, swear, brothers, all - to - | times: Flec - ken - | pure be our - sre | Eh - re like a | Shield of lich - tem | Steel. What we | swear be - | keep faithfully | to the last | Rest | Hear it, you boys, | hear it, you old people, | God in Heaven, | hear it too | you! }](https://upload.wikimedia.org/score/f/4/f4tuyksaft4hzvxavab1hdj7sk8mo4m/f4tuyksa.png)
text
1. Swear by this sheer weir, |
3. Fatherland, you land of honor, |
use
As the anthem of the German fraternity, Schwört is sung annually at the end of the negotiations of the boys' day as a “ fraternity song ” at these bare defenses . The frequency of use is very different in the individual member fraternities, but the song is always sung by members of the German fraternity while standing.
In its capacity as an Austrian student song , Schwört is still sung today by many Catholic-Austrian student associations in this sheer defense . Deviating from the official version printed in the Austrian Kommersbuch , many Catholic couleur students add the word “God” in the last line of the fourth stanza: God, honor, freedom, fatherland , in order to set themselves apart from non-Catholic corporations.
It is also the company song of the 6th training company of the Mountain Infantry Battalion 232 of the German Federal Armed Forces .
literature
- Harald Lönnecker : The fraternity song . Frankfurt am Main 2003. Online (pdf; 129 kB)