Nazi songs
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Nazi songs are songs and
Background
There is often confusion between songs written specifically for the
In modern Germany, the public singing or performing of songs identified exclusively with Nazi Germany is illegal.[2] It can be punished with up to three years of imprisonment.
Sturmabteilung (SA) songs
Many pre-1933 SA songs were based on older German folk melodies, but there were also instances in which SA combat songs copied the melodies of rival Red Front Fighters songs, which were in turn based on Russian marches. An example of this is the fascist song Brüder in Zechen und Gruben ("Brothers in mines and pits"), which copied the melody of the communist Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit ("Brothers, to the sun, to freedom"), whose melody, in turn, belonged to the march Смело, товарищи, в ногу/Smelo, tovarishchi, v nogu ("Comrades, let's bravely march"), which was written in 1895/6 by Leonid Radin in Moscow's Taganka Prison.
Horst Wessel Lied
The
Public performances of the song are currently forbidden in Germany (StGB §86a) and Austria (Verbotsgesetz 1947), a ban that includes both the lyrics and the melody, which are only permitted for educational purposes.
Kampflied der Nationalsozialisten
Kampflied der Nationalsozialisten ("Battle Song of the National Socialists"), also known by its opening line Wir Sind Das Heer Vom Hakenkreuz ("We Are the Army of the Swastika"), was an early Nazi hymn. Its lyrics were written by
Die Hitlerleute (Kameraden Laßt Erschallen)
Kameraden Laßt Erschallen ("Comrades Let it Resound") was a Sturmabteilung arrangement of the Kaiserjägerlied written by Karl Mühlberger in 1924. The author of the lyrics of Die Hitlerleute was Horst Wessel himself, and the song originated from his unit, the Sturm 67/5 (Sturm 67, Standarte 5) of the Berlin Sturmabteilung, also known as the Sturm "Horst Wessel", named in honor of Horst Wessel, also known by its old name before Horst Wessel's death, "The Hitlerleute". The first recording of the song was published by the company Electrola around the early 1930s.
Auf, Hitlerleute, schließt die Reihen (Hitlernationale)
The Nazis were not reticent in employing songs and melodies previously associated wholly with
The lyrics were as follows:
Auf, Hitlerleute, schließt die Reihen,
Zum Rassenkampf sind wir bereit. Mit unserem Blut wollen wir das Banner weihen, Zum Zeichen einer neuen Zeit. Auf rotem Grund im weiβen Felde, Weht unser schwarzes Hakenkreuz. Schon jubeln Siegesignale, Schon bricht der Morgen hell herein. Der nationale Sozialismus
Wird Deutschlands Zukunft sein.
Arise Hitler men, close ranks,
We are ready for the racial struggle. With our blood we consecrate the banner, The symbol of a new era. On its red and white background, Shines our black swastika bright. Victory sounds are heard all over, As the morning light breaks through; National Socialism
Is the future of Germany.
Appropriating working-class songs such as the Internationale for their own political ends had a direct effect on the streets, as the Nazi composer Hans Bajer noted when giving this account of a march by the SA into working-class district of north Berlin one Sunday afternoon in 1930:
When the storm troopers broke into song, singing the Hitlernationale, residents threw open their windows, misled momentarily by the familiar tune. Realizing quickly that Nazis were trying to appropriate the melody of their revolutionary anthem, the socialist residents countered by singing the refrain from the original text Völker hört die Signale! Auf zum letzten Gefecht ("Comrades, listen to the Signal! Onward, to the final battle!"), while others pelted the storm troopers with bits of debris. Police promptly moved in to prevent serious trouble.[4]
Bajer’s account proves once more that song played a central role in the battle for control of the streets. No recorded version of the song survives today, only the lyrics.[5]
Hitlerleute ("Hitler's people")
That song had the same tune of the Italian fascist anthem Giovinezza.[6]
This is not to be confused with Die Hitlerleute, more commonly referred to as Kameraden Laßt Erschallen, which is a completely different song.
SS marschiert in Feindesland
SS marschiert in Feindesland ("SS marches in enemy territory") also known as Teufelslied ("The Devil's Song")
In 2013, Stefan Gotschacher, press secretary of the
Es zittern die morschen Knochen
Es zittern die morschen Knochen ("The Rotten Bones Are Trembling") by Hans Baumann was, after the Horst-Wessel-Lied, one of the most famous Nazi songs and the official song of the Hitler Youth.[13]
The original song's refrain (1932) was Denn heute gehört uns Deutschland / und morgen die ganze Welt ("For today, Germany is ours / and tomorrow the whole world"). In a later version (1937) this was mitigated for the Hitler Youth to Denn heute da hört uns Deutschland... ("For today, Germany hears us...").[14]
Vorwärts! Vorwärts!
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! Schmettern die hellen Fanfaren ("Forward! Forward! Blare the Bright Fanfares") was a
Vorwärts! Vorwärts! was first performed in the 1933 propaganda film Hitlerjunge Quex. Motifs from the song are used throughout the film, underlying representations of the Hitler Youth, in contrast to The Internationale and jazz motifs in scenes from a socialist "commune".[15]
Erika
Erika is a
Panzerlied
Panzerlied ("Tank song") was a German military march of the Wehrmacht armored troops (Panzerwaffe), composed in 1933.[16] The NSKK (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps) also made their own take on the Panzerlied, but with a different variation called the Panzerwagenlied ("Armored car song"). In 2017, the Bundeswehr was banned from publishing songbooks containing Panzerlied and other marching songs by the Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen as part of new efforts at denazification.[17]
Other music
References
- ISBN 978-1584654377.
- ^ Strafgesetzbuch section 86a, German Criminal Code §86a
- ^ Halsall, Paul (July 1998). "Modern History Sourcebook: The Horst Wessel Song". Fordham University. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
- ^ a b https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/367356/1/Mark%2520Rose%2520PhD.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "The Internationale (Third Reich version!)". 27 November 2019.
- ^ "Hitlerleute (Lyrics)". May 10, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ One of many German military songs thus labelled, historically. Brockhaus, Friedrich Arnold, ed. (1814). "Über Deutsche Vaterländische Poesie Dieser Zeit". Deutsche Blätter. 5 (186): 181.
- ^ "Music of the Condor Legion - Axis History Forum".
- ^ "YouTube". www.youtube.com.[dead YouTube link]
- ISBN 0-912138-25-4.
- ^ "YouTube". www.youtube.com.
- ^ "FPÖ feuert Sprecher wegen Zitat von Waffen-SS auf Facebook" ("FPÖ fires spokesman for quoting Waffen-SS on Facebook"), Focus, 12 April 2013 (in German)
- ^ "Lieder der Hitlerjugend" [Songs of the Hitler Youth]. Demokratische Blätter (in German). 7 (78). 1935.
- ^ Bengelsdorf, Reinhold (2002). "Lieder der SA und deren unterschiedliche" [Songs of the SS and their various lyrics] (in German). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
- ^ "Prümm, K: Hitlerjunge Quex: Psychopolitik der Nazipropaganda durch das Medium Film" (in German). Archived from the original on 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
- ^ The music came before the lyrics, and the first recording of the Panzerlied was an instrumental was published by Telefunken under the name Die Eiserne Schar Nazi imagery from Taiwan stems from ignorance, not hate, analysts say, Los Angeles Times
- ^ ""Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss": Ministerium stoppt Bundeswehr-Liederbuch" ["Dark-brown is the hazelnut": Ministry withdraws Bundeswehr songbook]. Der Spiegel. 12 May 2017.
Further reading
- Frommann, Eberhard (1999). Die Lieder des NS-Zeit: Untersuchungen zur nationalsozialistischen Liedpropaganda von den Anfängen bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg [The songs of the NS era: Investigations on the National Socialist propaganda songs from the beginning to the Second World War] (in German) (1st ed.). PapyRossa. ISBN 3-89438-177-9.
External links
- Media related to Nazi songs at Wikimedia Commons