What are wars for?

What are wars for? is a song written by Udo Lindenberg , which he sang in a duet with ten-year-old Pascal Kravetz . It was released as a single in Germany on October 5, 1981 , and it also appeared on Lindenberg's live album Intensivstation .

The lyrics ask about the necessity of wars from a child's perspective . With the song Lindenberg wanted to make a contribution to the peace movement against the NATO double resolution , which arose against the background of the Cold War .

description

The song consists of three main stanzas, each ending with a question, and a short closing stanza. Udo Lindenberg chose a naive, childlike form of expression for the song.

The first verse, sung by Pascal Kravetz alone, begins with the statement "Nobody wants to die, that's clear!" And the question "What are wars for then?", According to which the singer addresses an unspecified president and asks him to explain the necessity of wars, for example by denouncing that no mother wants to lose her child and no woman wants to lose her husband. The stanza ends with the title of the song.

Kravetz first sings the second stanza alone and from the middle of the stanza together with Udo Lindenberg. She denounces, among other stationing of nuclear warheads tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles on ( "I'm afraid in this nuclear missiles Forest"). At the end of the verse, the singers express their displeasure with the situation by asking: "I think it's so crazy, why does it have to be that way?"

Lindenberg sings the third stanza alone and addresses power (“A lot of money for the few bigwigs who build tanks and rockets”) and religion (“or is it about religious strife as well”) as possible causes of war. Lindenberg and Kravetz first sing the fourth and last verse together, before Kravetz, singing alone, comes to the conclusion: “I am probably still too small. I'm still a child. "

Lindenberg also sang the song alone in later years, together with Joan Baez , together with Alla Pugatschowa and accompanied by a children's choir.

reception

Jost Kaiser wrote in an article in The European magazine in 2011 about German pop-cultural anti-Americanism that when it comes to America, Germans “like to fall into baby talk ” and cited a large part of the first stanza of What are wars for as an example ? on, which he describes as an "anti-war punk"; He condemned Lindenberg's duet with Pascal Kravetz as "child abuse".

Nathan Nörgel judged in 2012 that the piece was “actually an almost unbearable snot. (...) But during the time of the peace movement you could find this song good even in the GDR . It was better and more soulful than the GDR bands' peace songs, which were sponsored by the party and the FDJ . ”Christina Mohr condemned What are wars for? as the “unforgivable mistake” of Lindenberg and “cheesy kitsch ballad”.

Web links

• song lyrics

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf Bothe: With Udo Lindenberg on a journey through time. Speech. In: Udo-Lindenberg.de. August 28, 1999, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Udo Lindenberg. Concert in Cologne 2012. Description of the arte broadcast on July 15, 2012. In: ARD.de. Retrieved September 5, 2012 . 
3. ↑ Udo Lindenberg & Joan Baez - What are wars for , accessed on September 5, 2012
4. ↑ Udo Lindenberg Alla Pugatschowa - What are wars for (Live 1987)
5. ↑ UDO LINDENBERG. Radio Eriwahn. "Polydor", 1985
6. ↑ UDO LINDENBERG Concert report by Holger Stürenburg: Udo Lindenberg & the Panikorchester - Hamburg - "o2 World" - March 13, 2012 - 8:00 pm!  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 5, 2012  
7. ↑ "Mr. President, I think that's crazy"  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: The European of May 27, 2011, accessed September 5, 2012  
8. ↑ I'll never get that cool - but otherwise everything is clear again  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 5, 2012  
9. ↑ Christina Mohr: At the Trallafitti counter. The work of Udo Lindenberg in his texts , in: satt.org, accessed on September 5, 2012