"Erika" is a German marching song. It is primarily associated with the German Army, especially that of Nazi Germany, although its text has no political content. [1] It was created by Herms Niel and published in 1938, and soon came into usage by the Wehrmacht. It was frequently played during Nazi Party public events. According to British soldier, historian, and author Major General Michael Tillotson, it was the single most popular marching song of any country during the Second World War. [2]
"Erika" is both a common German female name and the German word for heather. The lyrics and melody of the song were written by Herms Niel, a German composer of marches. The exact year of the song's origin is not known; often the date is given as "about 1930", [3] but this has never been substantiated. The song was originally published in 1938 by the publishing firm Carl Louis Oertel in Großburgwedel, but it had been popular prior to the war. [4]
The song begins with the line "Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein" (On the heath a little flower blooms), the theme of a flower (Erika) bearing the name of a soldier's sweetheart. [2] After each line, and after each time the name "Erika" is sung, there is a three beat pause, which is filled by the kettledrum or stamping feet (e.g. of marching soldiers), shown as (xxx) in the text below.
1. Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein (xxx) | On the heath, there blooms a little flower fine (xxx) |
Emil Erich Kästner was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including Emil and the Detectives and The Parent Trap. He received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1960 for his autobiography Als ich ein kleiner Junge war. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in six separate years.
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen is a song cycle by Gustav Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four lieder for medium voice was written around 1884–85 in the wake of Mahler's unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter, whom he met as the conductor of the opera house in Kassel, Germany, and orchestrated and revised in the 1890s.
Nazi songs are songs and marches created by the Nazi Party. In modern Germany, the public singing or performing of songs exclusively associated with the Nazi Party is now illegal.
Heinz Georg Kramm, known professionally as Heino, is a German singer of Schlager and traditional Volksmusik. Having sold a total of over 50 million records, he is one of the most successful German musicians of all time.
Hermann Löns was a German journalist and writer. He is most famous as "The Poet of the Heath" for his novels and poems celebrating the people and landscape of the North German moors, particularly the Lüneburg Heath in Lower Saxony. Löns is well known in Germany for his famous folksongs. He was also a hunter, naturalist and conservationist. Despite being well over the normal recruitment age, Löns enlisted and was killed in World War I and his purported remains were later used by the German government for celebratory purposes.
Hans Philipp August Albers was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.
Walter Ritter/Reichsritter von Molo was an Austrian writer in the German language.
Charlotte Ander was a German actress.
Karl Julius Marx was a German composer and music teacher.
Schindler's List: Original Motion Picture Soundtrackis the score album for Steven Spielberg's 1993 film of the same name. Composed and conducted by John Williams, the original score features violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Heinrich Strecker was an Austrian composer of operettas and popular Viennese music.
Theo Lingen, born Franz Theodor Schmitz, was a German actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1929 and 1978, and directed 21 films between 1936 and 1960.
Es war ein Edelweiss is a march, with music and lyrics composed by Herms Niel in 1941 for the German Army.
Paul Oskar Höcker was a German editor and author, who also wrote under the pseudonym Heinz Grevenstett. He was one of the 88 signatories of the 1933 proclamation of loyalty to Adolf Hitler, the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft.
Georg Alexander was a German film actor who was a prolific presence in German cinema. He also directed a number of films during the silent era.
Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock, known as Herms Niel, was a German composer of military songs and marches.
Gerhard Max Richard Bienert was a German stage and film actor.
Klaus Pohl was an Austrian stage and film actor.
Josef Dahmen was a German stage, film and television actor.
Casimir von Pászthory was an Austrian composer. His music, which is stylistically rooted in the Wagner-Strauss tradition, without renouncing elements of his own style, has largely fallen into oblivion today. It experienced at least a partial renaissance in 2004 with a revival of the opera Tilman Riemenschneider on the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the city of Würzburg.