Spain's heaven
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Spain's sky , also Spain's sky spreads its stars and The Thälmann Column , is a song by Paul Dessau (music, under the pseudonym Peter Daniel ) and his wife Gudrun Kabisch (text, under the pseudonym Paul Ernst ) on the Spanish Civil War (1936– 1939). The song became particularly popular in its version by Ernst Busch as a "left campfire hit". It enjoyed decades of popularity. Later it was found in the repertoire of songwriters such as Hannes Wader or Georg Danzer , as well as in the songs of the National People's Army (NVA) and the music lessons of the GDR .
Emergence
Dessau composed the song near Paris in exile in France on the occasion of the Spanish Civil War. It is not Dessau's first political song , albeit one of the first, and the first in which he explicitly advocates the communists . The text presents the fight itself in comparison to other war songs in comparative detail:
Spain's sky spreads its stars
over our trenches;
And the morning greets from afar,
soon we will go out for a new fight.
Refrain
Home is far,
But we are ready,
We fight and win for you:
Freedom!
We will not give way to the fascist, if
he sends the bullets hail-proof.
With us stand comrades without equal.
And there is no going backwards for us.
Refrain
Home is far,
But we are ready,
We fight and win for you:
Freedom!
Stir the drum. Falls the bayonets.
Forward march. Victory is our reward.
Break the chain with the red flag.
The Thälmann Battalion to fight.
Refrain
Home is far,
But we are ready,
We fight and win for you:
Freedom!
At the same time, the text puts the struggle in a wider context: On the one hand, it is not about victory alone, but about the emphatically invoked “freedom”. On the other hand, Kabisch puts the current struggles in Spain in the context of the universal struggle against fascism and emphasizes in the refrain especially the situation in Germany during the time of National Socialism :
Refrain
Home is far, but we are ready.
We fight and win for you: freedom!
In a later version, in the refrain following the third verse, the word “win” was replaced by “die”, thus transforming the certainty of victory into self-sacrifice.
The Thälmann Battalion , the German-Communist part of the International Brigades that fought on the side of republican Spain, is the unit addressed by the lyrical I in the third stanza, to which the entire text is addressed, and to which the lyrical one I do the math myself.
In its function as a motivational and propaganda song, the song conceals the bloody and even civil war-like clashes behind the front, which the communists supported by Stalin's Soviet Union carried out in Spain as part of the Stalinist purges . Wolf Biermann therefore criticized it in later years in a general settlement with the “privileged Brecht mummy” Dessau as “militaristic, German national and fascist”. Even in harmony it still follows a “militaristic ' SA marching ' aesthetic”.
Musically, Spain's heaven follows the pattern of most combat and mass songs by being comparatively straightforward and simple in relation to Dessau's other compositions, so that even inexperienced singers and large groups that are not well rehearsed can sing it without any problems. The melody only includes a major ninth with a comfortable tessitura, even for the inexperienced singer. The accompaniment is homophonic and reproduces the melody. If the song generally has the characteristics of a marching song , it follows the pattern of a hymn, especially in the first half of the chorus . Compared to other propaganda songs, however, it turns out to be a lot of design. In addition to the diatonic typical of marching songs , it also uses seventh, non and undecimal chords , which are more typical of jazz and swing . It also has clear references to the Marseillaise .
In the Spanish Civil War
Various workers' singers brought it to Spain, the stay in the war zone, which Ernst Busch , member of the XI. International Brigade, graduated from March 1937 to July 1938. There he sang in hospitals and cities and had more than 50 radio appearances, especially on Radio Barcelona , where he said he "roared into the microphone" of his songs. According to Egon Erwin Kisch , he managed to hit the spirit of the brigades with his martial chants:
"When Paul Robeson , the American negro singer, when Ernst Busch, his white brother, sang at the front or in the hospital on a rapidly improvised podium - the refrain rang out from every throat and in every tongue."
Busch also put together his first songbook called “Spain Songs” under the title Battle Songs of the International Brigades , later published as “ Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales ”, which appeared in many editions and in 1938 already contained 150 songs in 15 languages, including Spain Heaven .
How many so-called Spain fighters actually heard the song in Spain is unclear. It only reached its greatest popularity after the war in Spain. Busch released it on several records, in 1940 the American company Keynote Records released the song in the USA, which made it internationally popular.
Significance in the GDR
In the GDR in particular, the song was an important part of political songs. It was standard in military music , as well as at party and state events. In terms of popularity and symbolism, it competed “at most with the national anthem ”. Often it was one of the few songs that everyone present could sing on political occasions. It was one of the most popular songs in marches and surpassed all later new creations written specifically for the NVA .
Together with an exaggerated image of Busch as a “Spanish fighter” at the front and the military and political overvaluation of the international brigades, it contributed significantly to making the Spanish civil war a founding myth of the GDR. In the words of a former FDJ official :
"Busch has, so to speak, restored a bit of national honor, he has shown, so to speak: There was not only fascism, but people also come from our country who have done something about it."
Thanks to the popularity of this song about the Thälmann column, Busch was able to consolidate his status as an unofficial state singer:
“And Busch was the Spanish fighter! Although he wasn't a Spain fighter at all. The bush was the symbolization of the Spanish fighter. The most popular and best known were not his pieces and all that, but his Spanish songs. Busch was the man of 'Spain's Heaven Spreads Its Stars'. [...] Everyone knew 'Spain's heaven'. If a song was started anywhere, it was 'Spain's Heaven'. And 'Spain's Heaven' was Bush. […] In our circles it was known that there was all sorts of shaking with him, but that was all deleted and they said: 'The bush is so big - it doesn't change anything'. "
Importance in other countries
In addition to its prominent importance in the GDR, the song also gained popularity in other countries, for example with communist movements in Western European countries. In Portugal the work of Ernst Busch, especially his Spain songs, was common property of the communist party, but also in countries like France Busch was part of the communist party for the GDR. In the Federal Republic of Spain's heavens, with its clearly anti-fascist, but still comparatively open text design, managed to reach large sections of the left, especially the K groups .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jochen Voit: Spain song book. Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales ( Memento of October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) popular. On: Redeemers.de, August 29, 2006.
- ↑ Heinz Josef Herbort: The Prophet's Singer . In: Die Zeit No. 28 of July 6, 1979.
- ↑ a b c Michael Hix: The Thälmann column . In: Michael Hix: The Lieder of Paul Dessau ( Memento from February 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). Tallahassee 2006, pp. 30–32 (Treatise on a musicological doctorate, PDF , 459 kB).
- ↑ Thomas Phleps: "Left where the heart is" - Socialist musicians on the run . Written version of a lecture at the International Symposium "Banned and Expelled - Austrian Composers in American Exile", October 27-28, 1997 in Vienna.
- ↑ Eckhard Roelcke: The athletes. “Music and Politics” - a congress in Vienna . In: Die Zeit No. 7 of February 8, 1991.
- ↑ a b Lothar Brümmer about Ernst Busch appearances at FDJ and SED events and the special significance of the Spanish songs in the GDR ( memento from October 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). Interview by Jochen Voit, Berlin, September 6, 2004. On: Redeemers.de.
- ↑ Peter Fauser: Pete Seeger, Folk, Wolf Biermann . In: Eckhard John: The discovery of the socially critical song , Waxmann Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-8309-1655-8 , p. 101f.
- ↑ a b Klaus Steiniger on the anti-fascism bonus in the GDR, on left-wing songs as a distinguishing mark and the Ernst Busch song 'Ami go home!' ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Interview by Jochen Voit, Berlin, January 18, 2005. On: Redeemers.de.
- ↑ "We said at the time: A lot has been achieved when a man like this is introduced to an audience of millions on Western television!" Klaus Volkenborn on Maoist fashions at the DFFB in the 1970s, his film "Implacable Memories" and the Perception of the left icon Ernst Busch in the Federal Republic ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Interview by Jochen Voit, Berlin, April 21, 2005. On: Redeemers.de.
