"" ("Encouragement") is a poem and song by the German
Liedermacher
A singer-songwriter is a musician who Lyricist, writes, Composer, composes, and Performance, performs their own musical material, including lyrics and Melody, melodies. In the United States, the category is built on the folk music, folk-Acoustic ...
and
lyricist
A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment.
Royalties
A lyricist's income derives ...
Wolf Biermann
Karl Wolf Biermann (; born 15 November 1936) is a German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident. He is perhaps best known for the 1968 song " Ermutigung" and his expatriation from East Germany in 1976.
Early life
Biermann was ...
. It was first published in 1968 in the poetry collection ''Mit Marx- und Engelszungen'' by , which also released the poem set to music as part of the
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
"" ("4 New Songs"). Biermann later released the song on his 1974
LP album ''aah-ja!'', released by
.
The text of "" warns the listener/reader not to become hardened or embittered. The final verse ends with the optimistic image of a coming spring. Biermann dedicated the poem to his friend
Peter Huchel, who was under house arrest and surveillance by the
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
at the time. It also reflected on his own resignation as a blacklisted East German artist. The song version was popular in both East and West Germany and remains one of Biermann's most famous songs.
Content
The text begins with the following verse:
Du, laß dich nicht verhärten
in dieser harten Zeit.
Die allzu hart sind, brechen,
die allzu spitz sind, stechen
und brechen ab sogleich.[Wolf Biermann: "Ermutigung". In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki (ed.): ''Hundert Gedichte des Jahrhunderts''. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000, , pp. 413–414.]
You, don't let yourself become hardened
in these hard times.
Those who are overly hard will break
those who are overly pointed will pierce
and break off immediately.
In the following three verses, the listener is addressed in a similar manner and told not to become embittered, terrified, or worn down, stating that the goal of "those in power" is for the listener to give up fighting before the final conflict happens, which is what the people in power secretly fear.
The fourth verse ends with the lines:
Du kannst nicht untertauchen,
du brauchst uns, und wir brauchen
grad deine Heiterkeit.
You cannot go into hiding,
you need us and we need
your cheerfulness right now.
While the first four verses begin
anaphorically with "You, don't let yourself be...", the fifth and final verse switches from "You" to "We", which had already surfaced in the third and fourth verses.
The poem ends with the following verse, calling the listener to action:
Wir woll'n es nicht verschweigen
in dieser Schweigezeit!
Das Grün bricht aus den Zweigen,
wir woll'n das allen zeigen,
dann wissen sie Bescheid.
We don't want to keep quiet about it
in this age of silence!
The greenery is bursting from the branches
we want to show that to everybody,
then they will understand.
Background
Wolf Biermann dedicated the poem "" to his friend
Peter Huchel. Since 1949, Huchel had been the editor in chief of the literary publication ''
Sinn und Form
''Sinn und Form'' () is a bimonthly literary and cultural magazine. It was launched in East Berlin, East Germany, in 1949 and is still in circulation. The magazine describes itself as one of the definitive cultural journals in Germany.
History ...
'', which enjoyed an international reputation as a platform for East German literature. His undogmatic views repeatedly brought him in conflict with the East German government, culminating in his forced resignation in 1962. For the following nine years, Huchel lived under surveillance by the
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
, isolated in his house in
Wilhelmshorst
Michendorf is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.
Geography
Michendorf lies in a vast wooded area about nine kilometers south of Potsdam. The civil parishes ("Ortsteile") Fresdorf, Stücken and Wildenbruch l ...
from much of the outside world aside from a small number of friends who were permitted to visit. He was forbidden from travel and his mail was confiscated; he was only allowed to emigrate in 1971. Andreas M. Reinhard described the poem as a "declaration of solidarity from the younger and stronger ... meant for the older and disillusioned".
After the publication of his book of poetry ' (The Wire Harp) in 1965 through the West German publisher Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Biermann had been forbidden from performing or publishing by the
Central Committee of the
Socialist Unity Party
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...
and described himself as having achieved the status of an "officially recognized
enemy of the state" In a 1973 interview with
Franz Hohler, he stated that did not write the song just for his friend and honorable colleague Peter Huchel, but "also for myself". After his forced emigration, he stated in an interview in 1981 "I wrote this red 'church song' as I myself was in danger of hardening. I had at first in East Germany not yet learned, under the hammer of being completely blacklisted, to conquer my distress with vital serenity."
Structure and score
The poem consists of five verses. Aside from the first verse, all follow the
rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
An example of the ABAB rh ...
A–B–A–A–B. The rhythms have been compared by Birgit Lermen and Matthias Loewen to those of the earlier works of
Bertolt Brecht
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
, as well as the form of a
Volkslied
Volkslied (literally: folk song) is a genre of popular songs in German which are traditionally sung. While many of them were first passed orally, several collections were published from the late 18th century. Later, some popular songs were also i ...
(folk song), where the simple and repetitive form contrasts with the subject of intellectual resignation. The simple style is at times both colloquial and
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...
matic. The first lines of the first four verses use the verbs ', ', ', and ' ("harden", "embitter", "terrify", and "wear down" respectively); each following line uses a word derived from the same root to describe the current times. The fifth and final verse breaks away from the repetitive form of the first four verses and the diction of the text becomes more encouraging.
[Birgit Lermen, Matthias Loewen: ''Lyrik aus der DDR'', 1987, pp. 356–357, .]
Biermann's musical arrangement of "" alternates between a and
time signature
A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...
. Georg Friedrich Kühn noted that the equal emphasis on the
quarter note
A quarter note ( AmE) or crotchet ( BrE) () is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually ...
s is reminiscent of a
chorale
A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran chorale:
* Hymn tune of a Lutheran hymn (e.g. the melody of " Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme"), or a tune in a similar format (e.g. one o ...
work. Lermen and Loewen point to the lack of
accents, such as lengthening or ironic emphasis throughout the first four verses; the rhythm only becomes more upbeat in the fifth and final verse.
observes that the key remains firmly in the
Aeolian mode
The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale also called the natural minor scale. On the piano, using only the white keys, it is the scale that starts with A and continues to the next A only striking white keys.
Its a ...
(natural
minor scale
In Classical_music, Western classical music theory, the minor scale refers to three Scale (music), scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending).
...
), while the final chord changes to the
subdominant
In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...
chord of the parallel major scale. The rhythm provides a feeling of impatience and pressing forward, while the descending lines of the melody suggest a feeling of mourning. The final verse is sung a
perfect fourth
A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...
higher, leading to a more pressed tone of voice that emphasizes the metaphor of the budding green branches of a coming spring. The performance underscores the discrepancy between the clichéd image and the desperate wish for its fulfillment.
Interpretation
Peter Rühmkorf
Peter Rühmkorf (25 October 1929 – 8 June 2008) was a German writer who significantly influenced German post-war literature.
Rühmkorf's literary career started in 1952 in Hamburg with the magazine ''Zwischen den Kriegen'' ("Between the Wars"), ...
summarized the content in ': "Whoever does not allow themselves to be worn down, embittered, hardened, or used will ultimately break free from the circle of terror, pressure, and racketeering to participate in a new comradely or community spirit." Rühmkorf highlights the allusion to
Pentecost
Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...
, which is typical for the religious allegories often found in Biermann's work, labeling the poem as "
Good News".
Jürgen Haupt investigates in particular the role of nature, the winter metaphor of the "hard times", and the spring metaphor of the budding branches, with which Biermann wishes to give himself encouragement to survive the winter in resistance. He warns against an overly stark individuality, which has the danger of hardening and breaking, against the lack of prospects of
subjectivism
Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth.
While Thomas Hobbes was an early proponent of subjecti ...
, as well as against isolated resignation. The poem evokes friendship with the
familiar "Du" and the liberating "we" of
solidarity
Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...
in the community. The defiant and hopeful spring metaphor can be interpreted as a counterexample to the nature poetry of Peter Huchel, whose works take a drearier and
elegiac
The adjective ''elegiac'' has two possible meanings. First, it can refer to something of, relating to, or involving, an elegy or something that expresses similar mournfulness or sorrow. Second, it can refer more specifically to poetry composed in ...
tone.
considered the poem a celebration of "the art of living and survival", as it harkens back to
Romantic poet
Romantic poetry is the poetry of the Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. It involved a reaction against prevailing Neoclassical ideas of the 18th c ...
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a Germans, German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticis ...
's resolution to bring "cheerfulness into suffering" from his novel ''
Hyperion''. The poem's plea is not to become accustomed to one's own unhappiness, but instead to resist any creeping embitterment and hardening with a "lighthearted confidence and cheerful composure in the middle of cemetery peace", delivered with the soft voice of
subversive
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to sabotage the established social order and its structures of power, authority, tradition, hierarchy, and socia ...
art and an "attestation of determined solidarity".
Biermann in the Bundestag 2014
Biermann appeared in the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...
on 7 November 2014 to perform the song in a memorial event 25 years after the
fall of the Berlin Wall
The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...
.
"Germany marks 25 years after Berlin Wall's fall"
''Daily Nation
The ''Daily Nation'' is a Kenyan newspaper. It was founded in 1958 and is published in Nairobi.
History
The ''Daily Nation'' was started in the year 1958 as a Swahili weekly called ''Taifa'' by the Englishman Charles Hayes. It was bought in 1 ...
'', Kenya, 7 November 2014
References
External links
"Der Drachentöter im Bundestag", video of Biermann in the German federal parliament
''Tagesschau
(German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, se ...
'', Das Erste
Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...
, 7 November 2014
"German and English text"
babelmatrix.org
*, Cologne 1976
{{authority control
German poems
German songs
Protest songs
Political songs
1968 songs
20th-century German literature
German literature