Westerwaldlied

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Westerwaldlied in the New Soldier Songbook , Mainz 1938

The Westerwaldlied (also under the name O du Schöne Westerwald and Westerwaldmarsch ) is a German folk and marching song in which the low mountain range Westerwald is sung and whose origins go back to the 19th century.

Emergence

The text of the song was written in November 1932 in a camp of the voluntary labor service in Emmerzhausen around Willi Münker and contains elements of several older folk songs. According to Heinz Rölleke and Otto Holzapfel, the melody of the song comes from an old folk tune to which Joseph Neuhäuser composed a march in 1935. As a result, Neuhäuser sold the rights to his march to the Mainz Schottverlag .

reception

The Westerwaldlied was a popular soldier song in the Wehrmacht and was made famous throughout Europe by German soldiers during the Second World War . Due to the large number of Germans in the French Foreign Legion after the World War, the marching song became known there and is still sung in German by the legionaries today.

After the Second World War, the song was initially frowned upon, but soon regained great popularity as a folk and native song in the Westerwald and neighboring regions, as it is still viewed today. It was sung by Willy Millowitsch , Heino and Mickie Krause, among others . The song is still sung in the Bundeswehr . In singing comrades! , the songbook of the Bundeswehr, the following comment refers to the historical background:

"This song is probably the most famous song of the former German Wehrmacht [...] It should therefore always be carefully considered whether and where this song is sung by members of the Bundeswehr."

-

In May 2017, the next edition of the Bundeswehr songbook Comrades sings! stopped by the Federal Ministry of Defense. In addition to other songs, the Westerwaldlied came under criticism. Instead of a songbook, the Bundeswehr is now publishing a collection of songs on its intranet that still contains the Westerwald song, albeit with a modified third verse.

The refrain of the Westerwaldlied also found its way into an edition of the Asterix comics. In The Son of Asterix , a Roman legionnaire disguises himself as a wet nurse and sings various marching songs to a child to calm them down, including O du schö-hö-höner Wä-hä-hesterwald, eucalyptus bonum .

National language adaptations of the Westerwaldlied are sung in Chile (called himno de la sección there ) and South Korea.

text

Today we want to
march'n Try a new march
In the beautiful Westerwald
Yes, the wind whistles so cold

Refrain:
 O you beautiful Westerwald
 The wind whistles so cold above your heights
 But the smallest sunshine
 penetrates deep into the heart

And the Gretel and The Hans
likes to go to the dance on Sunday
Because dancing is fun
And the heart laughs

Refrain

Is the dancing over then
Is there mostly a fight
And the guy who is not happy is
said to have no cutting

refrain

Modified third verse of the Bundeswehr:

Freedom, justice and unity
We guard in arms.
If the enemy does not like it,
we protect it in the woods and fields

A well-known corruption of the lyrics is created by inserting the interjections "Eucalyptus candy", "Great ladies panties" or "Throw the spit off the bike" after the first line of the chorus. This fills the long three-beat pause to the next line.

References and comments

  1. ↑ http://emmerzhausen-westerwald.de/Downloads/Westerwaldlied.pdf
  2. ↑ a b German songs. Bamberg anthology: What was once the third most famous song in the world: "O, you beautiful Westerwald" , accessed on January 14, 2020
  3. ↑ Malte Kerber: A hike over the Rothaargebirge and through the Westerwald: notebook of notes . Engelsdorfer Verlag. July 12, 2017.
  4. ^ German songs. In: Germans in the Foreign Legion , accessed on April 24, 2017, from planet-wissen.de
  5. ↑ https://www.ww-kurier.de/artikel/57942-westerwaldlied-ist-in-der-diskussion
  6. ↑ https://fwrlp.de/das-westerwaldlied-ist-teil-unserer-regionalen-identitaet/
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMYIlGXVm3Y
  8. ↑ Federal Ministry of Defense (ed.): Comrades sing! Songbook of the Bundeswehr. 2nd edition, Bonn 1991, p. 67.
  9. ↑ Ministry stops Bundeswehr songbook. Spiegel Online, May 12, 2017
  10. ↑ a b Richard Drexl , Josef Kraus : Not even partially ready for defense. The Bundeswehr between elite troops and reform ruins, Finanzbuch-Verlag, Edition Tichys Insight, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-95972-180-6 [1]
  11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlMRAyRS8jI
  12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DniLu1nIdmA