Kinderhymne

"Kinderhymne" (Children's Hymn) is a poem by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1950 and set to music by Hanns Eisler in the same year.

The hymn was Brecht's response to the "Deutschlandlied", which he believed to be corrupted by the Third Reich and whose third stanza became the national anthem of West Germany in 1950. There are several allusions to the "Deutschlandlied": "From the Meuse to the Memel, / From the Adige to the Belt" vs. Brecht's "From the ocean to the Alps, / From the Oder to the Rhine", or "Germany, Germany above all" vs. "we desire to be not above, and not below other peoples". East Germany already had an anthem by the time Brecht wrote the poem and West Germany was in the process of re-adapting the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied as the national anthem by then – Brecht's writing of the text was a reaction in part to West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer having the song played at official functions in 1950.

The verse form and the rhyme scheme are similar to both the "Deutschlandlied" and "Auferstanden aus Ruinen", the national anthem of East Germany. Accordingly, the three lyrics can be combined with the melodies.

In order to create a new all-German national anthem during the German reunification, several public campaigns supported the use of the "Kinderhymne". However, those suggestions were overruled; the hymn remained the same. While the Basic Law of Germany establishes a coat of arms and flag, the constitution is silent on the national anthem. The anthem was decided upon and reconfirmed not by the usual legislative process but by an exchange of open letters between chancellor and president (Konrad Adenauer and Theodor Heuss in the early years of West Germany, and Helmut Kohl writing to Richard von Weizsäcker following reunification). It is therefore unclear which act – if any – could make the children's hymn Germany's national anthem.

Note that the English translation is poetic, not literal.

• 1950 in poetry

• Text, ingeb.org (in German)
• Kinderlieder: "2. Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe (Kinderlied)" (Hanns Eisler): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Sung by Hanns Eisler on YouTube
• "Kinderhymne", piano and children's choir on YouTube

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Bertolt Brecht

Dramatic
works

• Baal
• Drums in the Night
• A Wedding
• Driving Out a Devil
• Mysteries of a Barbershop
• In the Jungle of Cities
• Edward II
• Man Equals Man
• Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer
• The Elephant Calf
• Little Mahagonny
• The Threepenny Opera
• The Flight Across the Ocean
• The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent
• Happy End
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
• Der Jasager / Der Neinsager
• The Decision
• Saint Joan of the Stockyards
• The Exception and the Rule
• The Mother
• Kuhle Wampe
• The Seven Deadly Sins
• Round Heads and Pointed Heads
• The Horatians and the Curiatians
• Fear and Misery of the Third Reich
• Señora Carrar's Rifles
• Life of Galileo
• How Much Is Your Iron?
• Dansen
• Mother Courage and Her Children
• The Trial of Lucullus
• Mr Puntila and His Man Matti
• The Good Person of Szechwan
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
• Hangmen Also Die!
• The Visions of Simone Machard
• The Duchess of Malfi
• Schweyk in the Second World War
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle
• Antigone
• The Days of the Commune
• The Tutor
• Die Verurteilung des Lukullus
• Report from Herrnburg
• Coriolanus
• The Trial of Joan of Arc at Rouen, 1431
• Turandot
• Don Juan
• Trumpets and Drums

Poems, songs

• "Reminiscence of Marie A."
• "Alabama Song"
• "Pirate Jenny"
• "What Keeps Mankind Alive?"
• "Solidaritätslied"
• "Einheitsfrontlied"
• "Kinderhymne"
• "Die Lösung"

Theories and
techniques

• Epic theatre
• Lehrstücke
• Non-Aristotelian drama

• Complex seeing
• Defamiliarization
• Demonstration
• Fabel
• Gestus
• Historicization
• Interruptions
• Not / But
• Refunctioning
• Separation of the elements

• Messingkauf Dialogues
• The Modern Theatre Is the Epic Theatre
• A Short Organum for the Theatre
• Street scene

Category