Five wild swans once moved

Five wild swans once moved is a folk and anti-war song from West Prussia , East Prussia and the Memelland .

The song became known nationwide through the East Prussian folklorist Karl Plenzat , who added the song to his collection Der Liederschrein in 1918 . Based on the information provided by Plenzat, the song was classified as a Lithuanian folk song until 2005 . The publication of older manuscripts by a folk song researcher at the German Folk Song Archive in 2005 suggests that the song comes more from the German settlement areas around the Gdańsk Bay .

The catchy and, with its haunting repetitions, almost laconic text thematizes the decisive consequences of the war. After its publication in the last year of the First World War , the song met with the disillusionment and mood of the interwar period and was quickly picked up by the German youth movement and spread throughout Germany from the mid-1920s. From 1935 the National Socialists eliminated the song almost completely from the printed song repertoire. After the privations of World War II and the post-war period , the song hit the nerve of the times again. At the end of the 1970s, the peace movement picked up the song more and more and it was performed by various songwriters, for example by Hannes Wader and the folk duo Zupfgeigenhansel . The song plays an important role in the culture of remembrance of the expellees from West and East Prussia. It has been used as a song incipit in various book titles .

Text and melody

Text versions

The text was slightly changed several times. On the left the current text according to the folk song archive, which probably goes back to 1924. On the right is the text written down for the first time in the Putzig district (West Prussia) in 1908 by the teacher Johannes Patock.

Today's text, in 1924 five wild swans once moved, swans bright white and beautiful. “Sing, sing, what happened?” Nobody was seen anymore. Did five young birch trees once grow green and fresh at the edge of the stream "Sing, sing, what happened?" None of them were in flowers. Once upon a time five young lads went proud and bold to fight. “Sing, sing, what happened?” Nobody returns home. Five young girls once grew slim and beautiful on the Memel beach . “Sing, sing, what happened?” None of them wrapped the bridal wreath.

West Prussia, 1908 Once five wild swans, swans [,] bright white and beautiful [.] Sing, sing, what happened? Nobody was seen anymore. Five young birch trees once grew fresh and green on the edge of the brook. Sing, sing, what happened? None were in bloom. Five young lads once went boldly and proudly out to fight. Sing, sing, what happened? No one saw home again. Five young girls once grew up, slim and beautiful on the Baltic Sea beach. Sing, sing, what happened? No one wrapped the bridal wreath.

In a text version of the German youth movement from 1925, both the swans and the boys are proud and bold, and both the birches and the girls are beautiful and slim . This emphasized the parallels between swans - boys and birches - girls . Further versions are available for: East Prussia 1915 (Plenzat), from the 1958 expellees song book and under the title Draw the Wild Swans, a heavily modified text by Heini Prüfer from the 1983 anti-war song book.

melody

The traditional way ( Samples ) is in the ⁴ / ₄ -stroke maintained. The last two lines - occasionally also the first two lines - of each verse are sung in the chorus . A yes is appended to the last line of the chorus , which is omitted in the repetition. Using the example of the first stanza, the refrain is:

Sing, sing, what happened? - No one was seen anymore, yes!

Sing, sing, what happened? - No one was seen anymore.

The refrain begins with a diatonic interval , a minor seventh .

" Sing, sing, what happened? ..."

The singing is usually accompanied by a guitar or a lute , measured striding .

content

The catchy and, with its haunting repetitions, almost laconic text thematizes the decisive consequences of the war.

The two opening stanzas contain unusual occurrences in nature ( swans that have disappeared; birches that do not bloom), the third and fourth painful experiences of people (boys who stay at war; girls who remain celibate). The unusual processes in nature refer to the painful experiences of people. The swans of the first stanza that were no longer seen correspond with the boys of the third stanza who did not return from the war. The birches of the second stanza that were not in blossom correspond with the girls of the fourth stanza, none of whom wrapped the bridal wreath .

The analogies are made by concise anaphors : the swans and boys once moved , the birches and girls once grew . In the Plenzat version of 1918, the birches were in the diminutive for clarity : birch - girl . The first two lines of each stanza arouse cheerful expectations with auspicious attributes. The swans, already a symbol of noble purity in Greek mythology , are wild, bright white and beautiful. The birch trees, young, green and fresh, make you think of their light green leaves and the light trunk and promise spring and joy of life. The boys go into battle young, proud and bold - in analogy to the swans, almost wildly determined and of shining disposition. The girls stand young, slim and beautiful on the beach - in analogy to the birch trees also in auspicious spring. When asked Sing, Sing, what happened? all expectations are disappointed. The answer does not tell you what actually happened, only the consequences of the events or the war: loss, destruction and separation.

Since it is unclear exactly when the text was written - certainly before the First World War - it cannot be said whether the content relates to a specific war. With his laconic melancholy he expresses the general disillusionment after many wars. At the beginning people go to war with confidence and a thirst for adventure (proud and daring), but in the end they usually end up with death and desolation and women who can no longer wind the bridal wreath and remain celibate.

Song history

Origin and writings

Probable area of ​​origin of the song: Danziger Bucht to Memel estuary

The origin of the text and the melody is not known. Until the beginning of the 2000s, Zogen was once considered a Lithuanian folk song, five wild swans . The classification was based on the writing of the East Prussian folklorist Karl Plenzat , who published the song in 1918 in his collection Der Liederschrein with German, Lithuanian and Masurian folk songs from East Prussia . According to Plenzat's statements, his father, Precentor Friedrich Plenzat, sang the song for him. He recorded it and translated it from Lithuanian into German. In a short biography from 2002, Plenzat was incorrectly referred to as the author of the song.

Research by the librarian and researcher at the German Folk Song Archive Barbara Boock in 2005 showed, however, that Plenzat's alleged translation from Lithuanian differs only very slightly from a text that the teacher Johannes Patock from the Putzig district in the West Prussian administrative district of Gdańsk in 1908 according to oral tradition in the Parishes Strellin , Schwarzau and Oxhöft had noted and designated as German-speaking. Another early writing - with melody - from Enzuhnen in today 's Kaliningrad Oblast suggests that the song originally came from the German settlement areas around the Gdańsk Bay . This is also supported by the fact that in the text of 1908 in the fourth stanza it still says Ostseestrand instead of later Memelstrand .

According to Frauke Schmitz-Gropengiesser, lecturer at the Musicology Department of the University of Freiburg , it is unclear whether there actually was a Lithuanian version of this song at the time. So far none have been proven.

distribution

Nothing is known about the meaning, function and distribution of the song in the East and West Prussian area of ​​origin. After Plenzat's publication in the last year of the First World War , the song encountered the disillusionment and mood of the post-war period and was quickly picked up by the German youth movement and spread throughout Germany from the mid-1920s. It was found in gymnastics song books and song books of the Bündische Jugend , the Wandervögel and Boy Scouts and in other hiking songbooks for young people. Before the National Socialists eliminated the song almost completely from the printed song repertoire because of its anti-militarist content, it was also represented in song books of the Hitler Youth and the Association of German Girls until around 1935 .

After the privations of World War II and the post-war period, the song hit the nerve of the times again. Its beginning spread now went far beyond the youth movement. In addition to folk and traveling song books, it found its way into children's, school and denominational song books.

The widespread reception of the song after the Second World War continues to this day. It experienced a high point in the peace movement at the end of the 1970s, when it was performed by various songwriters, such as Hannes Wader and the folk duo Zupfgeigenhansel . The baritone Hermann Prey recorded it in his album Kein Schöne Land - Deutsche Volkslieder . In the ceremony on March 18, the song was sung in 2009 after the speech by the President of the House of Representatives Walter Momper on the square of March 18 in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. It found its way into Our Songs as an anti-war song. Lieder aus Hessen (1980) and in programmatic songbooks like Let's create peace without weapons (Ed. Manfred Bonson, 1983) or the Antimilitarist Songbook (Ed. Norbert Gerbig, 1981). Since that time, the song is from the wild swans occasionally brought under Frauke Schmitz-Gropengiesser linked to Where have all the flowers gone ( Tell me where the flowers are ) by Pete Seeger . On the other hand, it should be noted that both songs - despite their motivic closeness - have nothing to do with each other in terms of song history.

Culture of remembrance and use as a book title

In addition, the folk song plays an important role in the culture of remembrance of the expellees from West and East Prussia and was used as a song incipit in various book titles:

“In this context, the song 'once pulled five wild swans' is inextricably linked to the former settlement areas in the east, which is why the song incipit is occasionally used in book titles: for example in the song book' Der wilde Schwan. Lieder aus dem Nordostdeutschen Kulturraum '(1990) - which means here the area from Pomerania to the Baltic States - or in the new publication of the novel' Urte Kalwis' (1917) by Clara Ratzka in 1978. This novel takes place in the period before First World War in the landscape of the Memel estuary and the lagoon . In the new edition, the publisher published the book in 'agreement with the poet's grandson' under the title 'once pulled five wild swans' (Leer: Rautenberg 1978). The well-known song is thus functionalized as a specific carrier of memory - the publisher, formerly based in East Prussia, 'sees its old tradition as an obligation to keep memories of the German eastern territories alive' - even if the song itself is not in Ratzka's 'Urte Kalwis' novel occurs. […] How strongly the swan song is associated with the theme of war is made clear by another book title that uses its incipit: 'Five wild swans once moved. Novel of a youth by Eva Wolf (Berlin 1988); This is about students from a grammar school who have to go to the Eastern Front or the 'Home Front' in autumn 1944. "

- Frauke Schmitz-Gropengiesser : once raised five wild swans . Historical-critical song lexion, 2010.

The ballad poet and writer Agnes Miegel performed the song at a reading to Mother East Prussia . In 2001, the author and publisher Werner Boschmann wrote a chapter in Sternke's inne Augen - love stories from the Ruhr area with five wild swans once pulled .

literature

• Barbara Boock: The Patock Collection in the German Folk Song Archive. A small collection of German folk songs collected near Kashubia in 1908 . In: Heike Müns (Ed.): Music and Migration in East Central Europe . Oldenbourg, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-486-57640-2 , pp. 319-331.

Web links

Commons : Once Bred Five Wild Swans  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Frauke Schmitz-Gropengiesser: once raised five wild swans (2010). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive

grades

• Notes in the Alojado song archive: Five wild swans once moved .

Audio samples

• Anja & Bernd on YouTube
• Tre Sorelle on YouTube ( a cappella )
• Trumpet solo with string orchestra (Buschfried) on YouTube
• Click on a short audio sample by Hermann Prey in the radio kiosk , track 3 on CD 3.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Frauke Schmitz-Gropengiesser: Once upon a time, five wild swans raised (2010). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
2. ↑ ^{a b} Historical-critical song lexicon: once pulled five wild swans . Edition A, West Prussia 1908. (For exact source, see there.)
3. ↑ Historical-critical song dictionary: once moved five wild swans . Edition C, youth movement 1925. (For exact source, see there.)
4. ↑ Historical-critical song dictionary: once moved five wild swans . Edition B, East Prussia 1915 (Plenzat). (See there for the exact source.)
5. ↑ Historical-critical song dictionary: once moved five wild swans . Edition D, Expellees Song Book 1958. (For exact source, see there.)
6. ↑ Heini Prüfer: The wild swans are already pulling . In: Josef Singldinger (ed.): Songs against the war. Artist for Peace . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1983, pp. 200f. Here linked from: Historical-critical song dictionary. Edition E, anti-war song book 1983.
7. ^ Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich: Karl Plenzat . In: Rolf W. Brednich u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research. Vol. 10. de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-016841-3 , Sp. 1077-1079.
8. ^ Hermann Prey: No beautiful country - German folk songs (CD 3, An der Saale bright beach ).
9. ^ Program for Friday, March 18, 2009.
10. ↑ Eva Wolf: Once raised five wild swans. Novel of a youth . Ullstein-Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 1991; ISBN 3-548-22504-7 .
11. ↑ Agnes Miegel : East Prussia - It was a country. CD.
12. ↑ Werner Boschmann : Sternkes inne Augen - Love Stories from the Ruhr Area ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2012 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. , (Pseudonym Wernfried Stabo). Henselowsky Boschmann, Bottrop 2001, ISBN 3-922750-41-9 .