THE FAREWELL SONG: LAST TIME THE DDR NATIONAL ANTHEM WAS BROADCAST
This Week in Berlin: 2 October, 1990
Regardless of political views and personal sentiments many people would openly admit that in terms of their national anthem, the former German Democratic Republic definitely managed to do something right.
Auferstanden aus Ruinen – “Risen from Ruins” – had a gripping melody and an intensely moving text. The song became the official national anthem of the GDR on November 5, 1949.
On that day the new state’s (the GDR itself was born only in October that year) chief executive body, the Council of Ministers of the GDR, announced its decision concerning the choice of the national anthem.
With music written by Hanns Eisler (in a record time of three weeks1!) and the lyrics by a poet, Johannes Robert Becher (who later became the East German Secretary for Culture), the song was melodious without being too complex, poignant without being overwhelming and focused on the most burning issue in German politics at the time: the unity of all Germany (something that would change along with the intensification of the conflict along the East-West line and the ensuing Cold War).
A day later, on November 6, 1949 the text and the notes were published in the big national newspaper the “Neue Deutschland” (still on the market today), and the anthem had its official premiere at the Deutsches Staatsoper, at the time still residing in the Admiralspalast in Friedrichstraße.
The choice of the date was not, mind you, random: November 7, 1949 would mark the 32nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Great Socialist October Revolution in Russia (the insurrection took place on October 25, 1917 according to the Julian calendar followed in Russia at the time, but corresponding to November 7 in the New Style calendar popular in Europe, hence the confusion).
Reactions were mixed: comrades in the GDR found it appropriate and fitting, not to mention quite pleasing to the ear. Meanwhile, Germans living in the sector occupied by the Western Allies responded with critiques which were not only heavy-handed but sometimes almost bordering on paranoid. Gullyrutscher-Hymne (“gutter-surfer’s anthem”) or Eislerpampe (“Eisler-sludge”) were just two of the many colourful terms of endearment created to disqualify the tune.
But that was not all: on top of the obvious disregard for the anthem’s musical qualities, the composer, Eisler, was accused of plagiarism.
He allegedly stole the melody from a 1939 hit “Goodbye Johnny” written by Peter Kreuder for a film Wasser für Canitoga (here sang by Hans Albers - the original song at 3’53’’). The similarity, however, was limited to the first eight notes and the very same pattern could be found in many other musical pieces. All of which might or might not have had Beethoven’s “Freudvoll und leidevoll” as their blueprint.
All this came to an end in the 1970s when the GDR authorities banned the text of the song from being performed in public as being “too conciliatory” and politically inconvenient. With the world caught in a whirlwind of the Cold War “unity” did not appear either significant nor, come to that, desirable.
And so until the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 only the instrumental version of the anthem could be heard. The text, although never replaced by a new one, was doomed to be forgotten. It was a bygone of a different time.
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Yet not all was lost - Auferstanden aus Ruinen returned together with the German unity it paid homage to. Until 1990, when the DDR accepted the West German constitution and per default gave up all of its own national symbols, it was again performed and sang on the top of the former comrades’ lungs.
Soon its place was taken by Das Lied der Deutschen, or what we know as the German anthem today (and whose melody is based on the Kaiserlied (or Gott erhalte Franz, den Kaiser ) von Joseph Haydn.
Shortly before that Lothar de Maziere, the first and the last democratically elected Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic, put forward an official proposal that part of the old East German anthem be incorporated in the anthem of the new, united Germany. The idea was swiftly rejected by Chancellor Helmut Kohl (Kohl never had much sympathy either for East Germany, East Berlin, or, come to that, Berlin as such - ironically, one of the main historic streets in Berlin’s Tiergarten is about to be re-named to Helmut-Kohl-Allee…)
But back to our story. The anthem of the DDR was last broadcast on October 2, 1990 - exactly 35 years ago yesterday. It served as a coda to the last day of broadcasting for the old East German radio station, “Radio Berlin International”. The version they played was a complete one.
You can listen to the lost anthem - text both in German and English - in the video below - it also contains some fascinating images of post-war East Berlin.
And here a little fun fact for all fans of cinematic arts: Hanns Eisler was not some obscure East German music-maker but a full-blown and well-respected artist and composer. While in Berlin, he co-operated, among others, with Bertholt Brecht and Slatan Dudov, providing music to their best known film production, “Kuhle Wampe oder Wem Gehört die Welt?”. The Solidarity Song featured in the film - one which became an anthem in its own right - to the public protests and political rallies in Europe - had Eisler’s melody at its heart.
During his stay in the USA in the 1940s, where Eisler fled to escape Nazi persecution, he composed music scores for as many as eight big Hollywood productions and was nominated to an Oscar twice (for Fritz Lang’s Hangman Also Die and None But The Lonely Heart). Working on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, in 1947 he also published a seminal book Composing for the Films, written together with another German heavy-weight of philosophy and musicology, Theodor W Adorno (from the legendary Frankfurt School of Critical Theory).
Again, rather ironically, in 1948 Eisler - who never made a secret of his leftist political leanings which had him persecuted in Nazi Germany in the first place - was deported from the USA after having been blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). And betrayed by his own sister who testified against him.
His friends and supporters - themselves big names of international film and music such as Igor Stravinsky, Leo Bernstein, and Charlie Chaplin, to name just a few - organised a series of benefit concerts to pay for his defence lawyers. It was all in vain.
Just before boarding a plane to Europe with his wife at La Guardia Airport in NY, Eisler said to the gathered reporters: “I leave this country not without bitterness and infuriation. I could well understand it when in 1933 the Hitler bandits put a price on my head and drove me out. They were the evil of the period; I was proud at being driven out. But I feel heartbroken over being driven out of this beautiful country in this ridiculous way.”
After a short stay in Vienna, Eisler and his wife moved to East Berlin.
Auferstanden aus Ruinen
und der Zukunft zugewandt,
laßt uns Dir zum Guten dienen,
Deutschland, einig Vaterland.
Alte Not gilt es zu zwingen,
und wir zwingen sie vereint,
denn es muß uns doch gelingen,
daß die Sonne schön wie nie
über Deutschland scheint,
über Deutschland scheint.
Glück und Friede sei beschieden
Deutschland, unserm Vaterland.
Alle Welt sehnt sich nach Frieden,
reicht den Völkern eure Hand.
Wenn wir brüderlich uns einen,
schlagen wir des Volkes Feind.
Laßt das Licht des Friedens scheinen,
daß nie keine Mutter mehr
ihren Sohn beweint,
ihren Sohn beweint.
Laßt uns pflügen, laßt uns bauen,
lernt und schafft wie nie zuvor,
und der eignen Kraft vertrauend
steigt ein frei Geschlecht empor.
Deutsche Jugend, bestes Streben
unsres Volks in dir vereint,
wirst du Deutschlands neues Leben.
Und die Sonne schön wie nie
über Deutschland scheint,
über Deutschland scheint…
English:
From the ruins risen newly,
to the future turned, we stand.
Let us serve your good will truly,
Germany, our fatherland.
Triumph over bygone sorrow,
can in unity be won.
For we shall attain a morrow,
when over our Germany,
there is radiant sun,
there is radiant sun.
May both peace and joy inspire,
Germany, our fatherland.
Peace is all the world’s desire,
to the peoples lend your hand.
In fraternity united,
we shall crush the people’s foe.
Let all paths by peace be lighted,
that no mother shall again
mourn her son in woe,
mourn her son in woe.
Let us plough and build our nation,
learn and work as never yet,
that a free new generation,
faith in its own strength beget!
German youth, for whom the striving
of our people is at one,
you are Germany’s reviving,
and over our Germany,
there is radiant sun,
there is radiant sun…
The first draft of the anthem was written during Eisler’s and Becher’s visit to Warsaw, at the Bristol Hotel where they were staying in October 1949, during the celebration of the 200th birthday of Goethe.
Enjoyed that. Very hummable tune.