Volk ans Gewehr (People to Arms) was the refrain of the very popular 1931 Nazi song "Siehst du im Osten das Morgenrot" (Do you see dawn in the east). The song was written by Arno Pardun, who dedicated it to Joseph Goebbels. [1] It contains strong allusions to the well-known workers' song Brothers, to the sun, to freedom , a German communist song later adopted by the NSDAP. [2]
The song, which was characterized by a hammering march rhythm, was first heard at a rally in the Berlin Sportpalast on 8 January 1932 by about 150 Sturmabteilung (SA) people of Standard 7 and performed publicly by the Fuhsel Chapel. In the following years, it became one of the most played National Socialist songs.
Pardun's song was one of the most famous mass songs of the Nazi era; in the 1930s, it was mainly used as an SA marching song. It was also a compulsory song for the Reichsarbeitsdienst. During World War II, it was used as a military song - not least because it was included in the soldier's song book Morgen marschieren wir (Tomorrow we march). The song was used as the interval signal of Reichssender Berlin. In 1944, the song was again opted for use by the Volkssturm. A Swedish translation of the song, Folk i gevär, was additionally used as an anthem by the Nationalsocialistiska Arbetarepartiet. [3]
The decisive bars of the song were used shortly after the Nazi seizure of power by the Berlin radio station. Lectures at German universities or student council meetings also started with the song after 1933. [4] Thus, people were constantly reminded of this song. The historian Jutta Sywottek describes this as a subtle educational tool of the National Socialists for propaganda and preparation for war. [5] [6]
At the Nuremberg trials of the major German war criminals, this song was used as evidence.[ citation needed ]
| Verse | German | English |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siehst du im Osten das Morgenrot? | Do you see the dawn in the east? |
| 2 | | Many years passed by. |
| 3 | Deutscher, wach auf nun und reih dich ein, | German, awake now and line yourself up, |
| 4 | Jugend und Alter, Mann für Mann, | Young and old, man after man, |
The text contains allusions to numerous cornerstones of Nazi ideology, such as the demand for the creation of living space in the east (“Do you see the dawn in the east”), sharp anti-Jewish sentiment (“Germany awake and death to the Jews”) and the invocation of the entire people to aid the war effort ("People to arms, people to arms!"), as well as the popular workers' song Brothers, to the sun, to freedom, for example in the first line.
The slogan People to arms goes back to a poem from 1820 ("Freedom, your tree is rotting/everyone on the begging stick/soon bites into the hunger grave/people's rifle"). The melody has a minor character, fifth and fourth structures, as well as echoes of church modes of the 19th century song type. The song was "exposed to the accusation of being un-German, Russian or Bolshevik". Above all, the power of the chorus line gives the battle song its effect.
The performance of this song in public is prohibited in Germany according to Section 86a of the Criminal Code. In Austria, comparable provisions apply due to Section 3 of the Prohibition Act of 1947.
The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany.
Dietrich Eckart was a German völkisch poet, playwright, journalist, publicist, and political activist who was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party. Eckart was a key influence on Adolf Hitler in the early years of the Party, the original publisher of the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, and the lyricist of the first party anthem, "Sturmlied". He was a participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and died on 26 December of that year, shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison, from a heart attack.
This is a list of words, terms, concepts and slogans of Nazi Germany used in the historiography covering the Nazi regime. Some words were coined by Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party members. Other words and concepts were borrowed and appropriated, and other terms were already in use during the Weimar Republic. Finally, some are taken from Germany's cultural tradition.
Volksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community", "folk community", "national community", or "racial community", depending on the translation of its component term Volk. This expression originally became popular during World War I as Germans rallied in support of the war, and many experienced "relief that at one fell swoop all social and political divisions could be solved in the great national equation". The idea of a Volksgemeinschaft was rooted in the notion of uniting people across class divides to achieve a national purpose, and the hope that national unity would "obliterate all conflicts - between employers and employees, town and countryside, producers and consumers, industry and craft".
Morgenrot is a 1933 German submarine film set during World War I.
Maria "Mimi" Terwiel was a German resistance fighter against the Nazi regime. She was active in a group in Berlin that wrote and distributed anti-Nazi and anti-war appeals. As part of what they conceived as a broader action against a collection of anti-fascist resistance groups in Germany and occupied Europe that the Abwehr called the Red Orchestra, in September 1942 the Gestapo arrested Terwiel along with her fiancée Helmut Himpel. Among the leaflets and pamphlets they had copied and distributed for the group were the July and August 1941 sermons of Clemens August Graf von Galen which denounced the regime's Aktion T4 programme of involuntary euthanasia.
Alfred Baeumler, was an Austrian-born German philosopher, pedagogue and prominent Nazi ideologue. From 1924 he taught at the Technische Universität Dresden, at first as an unsalaried lecturer Privatdozent. Bäumler was made associate professor (Extraordinarius) in 1928 and full professor (Ordinarius) a year later. From 1933 he taught philosophy and political education in Berlin as the director of the Institute for Political Pedagogy.
Herbert Windt was a German composer who became one of the most significant film score composers of the Third Reich. He was best known for his collaborations with the director Leni Riefenstahl on films Triumph of the Will and Olympia.
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Walter Friedrich Karl Weizel was a German theoretical physicist and politician. As a result of his opposition to National Socialism in Germany, he was forced into early retirement for a short duration in 1933. He was a full at the University of Bonn, from 1936 to 1969. After World War II, he helped to establish the Jülich Research Center, and he was a state representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Hermann Ehlers was a German politician. He was the second president of the Bundestag from 19 October 1950 to 29 October 1954.
Albert Merz was a German Christadelphian who was executed for refusing to bear arms in the Second World War.
Volkslied 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 included in this classification.
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"Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit" is the title of the German re-writing of the Russian work song Brave, comrades, in step!, which Leonid Petrovich Radin wrote during 1895/96 in Moscow while he was in Taganka Prison.
Fritz Jöde was a German music educator and one of the leading figures in the Jugendmusikbewegung.
Gotthold Frotscher was a German music historian and musicologist.
Rudolf Kötzschke was a German historian who founded the Seminar for Regional History and Settlement Studies in Leipzig, the first regional history institution at a German university.
Heinz Strelow was a German journalist, soldier and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime.
Break the yoke of the tyrants who tormented us so cruelly! Swing the swastika flag over the workers' state