Commercium songs are traditional academic songs that are sung during academic feasts: commercia and tablerounds.
"De Brevitate Vitae", more commonly known as "Gaudeamus igitur" or just "Gaudeamus", is a popular academic commercium song in many European countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song is thought to originate in a Latin manuscript from 1287. It is in the tradition of carpe diem with its exhortations to enjoy life. It was known as a beer-drinking song in many early universities and is the official song of many schools, colleges, universities, institutions, student societies and is the official anthem of the International University Sports Federation.
Joseph Victor von Scheffel was a German poet and novelist. His novel Ekkehard (1855) became one of the most popular German novels in the 19th century.
The Frankfurter Wachensturm on 3 April 1833 was a failed attempt to start a revolution in Germany.
The Badnerlied is the unofficial hymn of the former state of Baden, now part of Baden-Württemberg.
Black whale is a vernacular name for certain whales. It may be encountered as a colloquial or as a quasi-scientific term.
Der Trompeter von Säckingen is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Viktor Nessler. The German libretto was by Rudolf Bunge, based on the epic poem, Der Trompeter von Säkkingen [sic], by Joseph Victor von Scheffel.
Carl August Reinhardt was a German author, painter, graphic artist, and caricaturist.
The "Sturmlied" was the de facto anthem of the SA until it was gradually supplanted by the "Horst-Wessel-Lied".
Michael Weiße or Weisse was a German theologian, Protestant reformer and hymn writer. First a Franciscan, he joined the Bohemian Brethren. He published the most extensive early Protestant hymnal in 1531, supplying most hymn texts and some tunes himself. One of his hymns was used in Johann Sebastian Bach's St John Passion.
"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" is a Christian hymn, a paraphrase of the Te Deum.
The ceremonial Landesvater is a German college custom developed in the 18th century, where student caps are pierced with the blade of a sword, during the recital of a particular song. The song that accompanies this event is also called 'Landesvater'. The word Landesvater is also used as a name for the prime ministers of the individual German states, or Länder.
"Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet" is a Lutheran hymn of 1524 with words written by Martin Luther who used an older first stanza and melody. It is a song of thanks after communion. Luther's version in three stanzas was printed in the Erfurt Enchiridion of 1524 and in Johann Walter's choral hymnal Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn the same year. Today, the song appears in German hymnals, including both the Protestant Evangelisches Gesangbuch, and in a different version in the Catholic Gotteslob.
Raoul Retzer (1919–1974) was an Austrian actor. Retzer was a prolific film actor appearing in more than a hundred and forty productions between 1952 and 1975 generally in small or supporting roles. He appeared in the 1955 film The Last Ten Days.
The Whale House is a late Gothic bourgeois house in the old town of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and is under conservation. The building is currently used by the Sparkasse Freiburg-Nördlicher Breisgau bank. It is part of a complex which, in the past, was made up of 17 separate buildings. The front wall of the house opens onto the Franziskanerstraße, whilst the rear is on the Gauchstraße, near Kartoffelmarkt square.
"O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf" is a Christian Advent song. The text was first printed in 1622, attributed to Friedrich Spee; the melody was first printed in 1666.
"Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele" is a Lutheran hymn in German, with lyrics by Johann Franck and a hymn tune by Johann Crüger. It was first published in Crüger's 1649 Geistliche Kirchen-Melodien, and was later adopted in other hymnals, such as the 1653 edition of his Praxis pietatis melica.
"Christ fuhr gen Himmel" is a German Ascension hymn. The church song is based the medieval melody of the Easter hymn "Christ ist erstanden". It was an ecumenical song from the beginning, with the first stanza published in 1480, then included in a Lutheran hymnal in 1545, and expanded by the Catholic Johannes Leisentritt in 1567. It appears in modern German Catholic and Protestant hymnals, and has inspired musical settings by composers from the 16th to the 21st century.
"Harzreise im Winter" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, inspired by his ascent of the Brocken in the Harz mountains during the winter of 1777. He reached the summit in the heat of midday, in deep snow, with the landscape below him shrouded in cloud. The Brocken had always been a place of mystery, connected with witches and devils; where illusions such as the Brocken spectre might confuse an unwary traveller, and where few ventured by choice. This was the inspiration and the setting for his poem.
"Einer ist unser Leben" is a poem in five stanzas, written by Lothar Zenetti in 1973. It became a Christian hymn of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied (NGL) with a 1971 melody by Jean Liesse. The song is part of many hymnals, both Catholic and Protestant, and of songbooks, remaining popular in the 21st century.
