The Bänkelsang and the work of Bertolt Brecht [Reprint 2019 ed.] 9783111342542, 9783110991239

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DE PROPRIETATIBUS LITTERARUM edenda curat C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD Indiana University

Series Practica,

29

THE BÄNKELSANG AND THE WORK OF BERTOLT BRECHT by

S A M M Y K. M c L E A N

1972

MOUTON THE H A G U E • PARIS

© Copyright 1972 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. N. V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

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Printed in Hungary

76-169991

The business of one generation of scholars, I am coming to believe, is to make enough mistakes to keep the next generation in employment. Robin Fox, "At Last — The Book Itself", The New Republic (July 12, 1969), 27 edite nepereatis Mehr Licht Goethe?

PREFACE

Bertolt Brecht is probably one of the most eclectic writers ever to have appeared in Western literature. The question of influence with him is restricted neither to Germany, Europe, nor the West, and possibilities for influences on as well as comparisons to his work have been found in such seemingly varied traditions, works, and figures as medieval religious and secular drama, German Reformation drama, the Lutheran Bible, the Baroque Welttheater, Lessing's discussion of mixed genres, the Goethe-Schiller correspondence insofar as this deals with generic questions, the Viennese Volkstheater, presentational techniques of the German Hoftheater of the nineteenth century, the popular theater of Karl Valentin, Grimmelshausen, Hölderlin, the German Romantics, J. M. R. Lenz, Georg Büchner, C. D. Grabbe, Frank Wedekind, Karl Kraus, cabaret poetry, the German Bänkelsang, the Expressionists, Erwin Piscator, the Comédie Française, the Commedia dell'arte, Shakespeare and the Elizabethan theater, the drama of Greece and India, the nonAristotelian techniques of Chinese and Japanese playwrights, the Chinese actor Mei Lan-Fang, Chinese poetry, François Villon, Voltaire, Diderot, Rimbaud, Paul Claudel, Walt Whitman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Hegel, Marx and Engels, Francis Bacon's Novum Organum, and Galileo observing a swinging pendulum in Pisa. 1 1 See, e.g., "Hanns Eisler, Gespräche: Fünftes Gespräch, 13. 7. 1961" (recorded and annotated by Hans Bunge), Sinn und Form: Sonderheft Hanna Eisler (Berlin, 1964), 306; Reinhold Grimm, Strukturen: Essays zur deutschen Literatur (Göttingen, 1963), pp. 211 ff., and Bertolt Brecht und die Weltliteratur (Nürnberg, 1961); Heinrich Henel, "Szenisches und Panoramisches Theater: Gedanken zum modernen deutschen Drama", Die Neue Rundschau, LXXIV, 2 (1963), 240; Claude Hill, "Bertolt Brecht", Universitas (Stuttgart), XV, 12 (1960), 1284; Walter Hinck, Die Dramaturgie des späten

8

PREFACE

In 1954, two years before his death at the age of fifty-eight, Brecht commented in his essay "Bei Durchsicht meiner ersten Stücke" on some of the early influences on himself and his work, and he wrote the following concerning the fairground in his home town of Augsburg: D i e Einflüsse der Augsburger V o r s t a d t m ü s s e n w o h l a u c h e r w ä h n t werden. I c h b e s u c h t e häufig d e n alljährlichen Herbstplärrer, einen Schaubudenjahrmarkt a u f d e m 'kleinen Exerzierplatz' m i t der Musik vieler Karusselle und P a n o r a m e n , die krude Bilder zeigten wie 'Die E r s c h i e ß u n g des Anarchisten Ferrer zu Madrid' oder 'Nero b e t r a c h t e t d e n B r a n d R o m s ' oder 'Die B a y r i s c h e n L ö w e n erstürmen die D ü p p e l e r Schanzen' oder 'Flucht Karls des K ü h n e n n a c h der Schlacht bei Murten'. I c h erinnere m i c h a n d a s P f e r d K a r l s des K ü h n e n . E s h a t t e enorme, erschrockene A u g e n , als f ü h l e es die Schrecken der historischen Situation. 2

The influence of the fairground and of the Bänkelsang as a fairground presentation on Brecht has been more suspected than it has been recognized, and the significance of the Bänkelsang as both a central element in his work and as a means to a new perspective on his total work, particularly his theater and his writings on theater, has not been traced at all. The present study attempts to recognize and trace this influence. I try to show in this study t h a t Brecht was influenced most profoundly in his work by the popular art forms he saw as a youth at the fairground in Augsburg, t h a t the Bänkelsang was the most meaningful of these popular art forms to him, that the Bänkelsang is basic to and pervades his entire work, and that viewing his work from the perspective of the Bänkelsang reveals in it a continuity which it has hitherto not been seen as having. The book has two main parts, each of five chapters, the first part dealing with the Bänkelsang, the second with Brecht's work. P a r t I examines the presentation, subject matter, structure, form, Brecht, 3 r d ed. ('Palaestra', C C X X I X ; Göttingen, 1962), pp. 119—121, 142—143, n. 48 p . 143; M a x Spalter, Brecht's Tradition (Baltimore, 1967), Introd., p p . xi-xii; and Ulrich Weisstein, ' F r o m t h e D r a m a t i c N o v e l t o t h e E p i c Theater', Germanic Review, X X X V I I I , 3 (May, 1963), 2 5 7 — 2 5 8 . 2 Schriften zum Theater, ed. Werner H e c h t (7 vols.; F r a n k f u r t a m Main: Suhrkamp, 1963—1964), V I (1964), 3 9 6 — 3 9 7 . S o m e n o t e s f r o m t h e diary of E l i s a b e t h H a u p t m a n (Brecht's secretary) for 1926 show, interestingly enough, t h a t B r e c h t w a s working o n a p l a y o n Charles t h e B o l d ( " N o t i z e n über B r e c h t s Arbeit 1926", Sinn und Form [Zweites S o n d e r h e f t B e r t o l t B r e c h t ] , I X , 1 — 3 [1957], 241).

PREFACE

9

and language of the Bankelsang; traces the historical development of the Bankelsang from its beginnings in the early sixteenth century to its decline in the twentieth century; and considers German literary figures who made use of the Bankelsang in their work from J. W. L. Gleim in the eighteenth century to Frank Wedekind and the cabaret poets of the Brettl in the twentieth century. Part I I examines Brecht's dramatic theory, his theatrical presentation, and the subject matter, structure, form, and language of his work, relating observations made concerning him to observations made concerning the Bankelsang in Part I. The final chapter attempts to assess the scholarship on Brecht and the Bankelsang and to gain a perspective on the related influences in Brecht's work of the fairground and the Bankelsang, cabaret poetry, and the popular theater of Karl Valentin, summarizes the continuity of Brecht's work from the point of view of the Bankelsang elements in it, and concludes with remarks on Brecht and tradition. This study comes out of my doctoral dissertation (Aspects of the "Bankelsang"

in the Work of Bertolt Brecht [University of Michi-

gan, 1962]), and suffers accordingly. The format of the dissertation was altered for this study, the ideas were thought through once again, revised and reexpressed, the literature (primary and secondary sources) was brought up to date, and the language was revised throughout. A completely satisfactory rendering from Dissertationese into English proved impossible. I am indebted to the Granduate School Research Fund (Agnes Anderson Fund) of the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, for supporting the publication of this book. Sammy McLean Seattle, August, 1969

CONTENTS

Preface

7 PART ONE: THE

BÂNKELSANG

I. The Bànkelsang and its Presentation II. The Subject Matter

15 25

III. Structure, Form, and Language

53

IV. The Historical Development

81

V. The Literary Bànkelsang

92

PART TWO: THE WORK OF BERTOLT BRECHT

VI. The Subject Matter

Ill

VII. The Dramatic Theory

150

VIII. Theatrical Presentation and Dramatic Structure IX. Structure, Form, and Language X. Brecht, the Bànkelsang,

and Tradition

203 255 290

Bibliography

317

Index of Names and Titles

325

PART ONE THE BÂNKELSANG

I T H E BÄNKELSANG

AND ITS PRESENTATION

Popular journalistic balladry in Germany, the German Bänkelsang, has always found its economic and social raison d'être in the annual fairs and public and national festivals of that country. 1 This was where the Bänkelsänger and his troupe, traveling from festival to festival, were able to reach their public. This was where they found an audience to whom they could tell and sing their sometimes gruesome, sometimes sentimental tales of holocausts, crime, and human misfortune, tales which dealt with 'merkwürdige Begebenheiten' both historical and contemporary, tales which expressed and sympathized with the plight of the common man as one among many whose fate is controlled by the wheel of fortune, which is turned by so few. This was where they found a market for their wares. Furthermore, the Bänkelsang, which in its form as a presentation before a listening audience may be termed a type of sideshow act, fitted very well into the atmosphere of the fairground with its peddlers, barkers, peep shows, waxworks museums, puppet shows, its vividly painted panoramas depicting, in a naive, gauche style seemingly without thought of perspective, singular historical and contemporary events, and its carrousels revolving to the rhythm of their hurdy-gurdy music, a sound quite similar to that of the hand organ used by the Bänkelsänger. I n the following "Lied eines Jahrmarktsausrufers" the barker advertises his peep show quite in the manner of a Bänkelsänger, chanting stanza by stanza a list of the military and Biblical personalities we will see if we take a look in his little box, commenting now and then on these stories told in pictures, and attracting particular attention because of the foreign accent which he aifects: 1

Alfred Lehmann, Zwischen Schaubuden und Karussells (Frankfurt am Main, 1952), p. 148: "In eine Kategorie müßen wir [alle Bänkelsängertexte] einreihen: in die alte, echteste Jahrmarktskunst". Hans Naumann, Primitive

16

THE

"BÄNKELSANÖ"

Raritäte sein ssu sehn, schöne Raritäte ! Soll sick aufmarschieren sehn in die grüße Städte ! Offizier und Musketier, Schwarz Husar und Grenadier, Lauter schöne Leute ! Raritäte sein ssu sehn, auch das Paradiesel, Ev und Adam drinne gehn, munter wie die Wiesel, Und der Engel mit dem Schwert, Wie er beide laufe lehrt! Gruße Raritäte. Auk die Arke Noah soll sick hier präsentiere, Kribble, Krabble, alles voll von vierfußle Tiere; Paar und Paar marshier sick ein, Auk ssuletzt die auf sswei Bein, Die Familie Noah. Wie Madame Potiphar Joseph will verführe; Da sie ihm gar eftig droht, daß er sie scharmiere; Aber Joseph eschappier, Läßt die Rokkeärmel ihr. Heut zu Tag gehts anders ! David spielt vor König Saul auf der Harfen süße, Aber König Saul nit faul greifet nach dem Spieße, Will ihn nagelu an der Wand: O die grüße Unverstand, Tut mik sehr krepiere ! Absalom kommt angtrabt, bleibt am Eikbaum bummle, Ätt er ein Perück gehbt, könnt er sick was tummle, Aber ack, der arme Schurk: Joab stak ihn durk und durk; Mak nit mit ihm tausche ! Ei, wie krickt Philister Bein, solke lange acke, Herr von Simson hinterdrein, klopft sie auf die Nacke, Mit der Eselskinneback Gibt er ihnen Schlack auf Schlack, Daß sie purzle, kakle.

GemeinschaftskuUur (Jena, 1921), chap, viii, 'Studien über den Bänkelgesang', p. 173 (reprinted from Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, X X X I I I [1920/21], 1—21): "Das Auftreten des Bänkelsängers ist durchaus an die Jahrmärkte gebunden".

THE " B Ä N K E L S A N G " A N D ITS PRESENTATION

17

Kopf im Sack und Sack im Kopf, Mamsell Judith schicket Sack im Kopf und Kopf im Sack wie man hier erblicket. Kurios Possierlichkeit; Kommt ssu mir, ihr liebe Leut, Sollt in Kaste gucke !2

There were three props necessary to the Bänkelsang in its form as a presentation before a listening audience: the bench, from which this kind of balladry takes its name, a pointer, and the picture sheets which illustrated visually the ballads being presented. These props, along with a musical instrument (usually a hand organ) and the pamphlets which were sold to the crowd and which furnished the Bänkelsänger with his source of income, made up the tools with which he practiced his trade. 3 The performance would begin with a few introductory strains being played on the hand organ, during which the crowd would gather around the bench which served as a primitive type of stage for the Bänkelsänger and his 'troupe', t h a t is, his family, for the Bänkelsang was practiced as a fairground art by families of Bänkelsänger who traveled from festival to festival, thus earning their livelihood. 4 Behind the bench were the picture sheets, fastened either to an upright rod in the manner of a banner or to the side of the wagon in which the ballad mongers traveled. After the crowd had gathered, a singer (usually, although not necessarily, a young woman) 5 would sing a few stanzas of the ballad to the accompaniment of the hand 2

Erwin Schwarz-Reiilingen (ed.), Die Drehorgel: Ein Liederbuch jür fröhliche Kreise (Leipzig, 1941), pp. 166—167. 3 Gero von Wilpert, Sachwörterbuch der Literatur (2nd ed. rev.; Stuttgart, 1959), p. 45. 4 In some families this fairground art was passed on from generation to generation. For discussions of several families of Bänkelsänger in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, see Adolf Spamer, "Bänkelsang", Sachwörterbuch der Deutschkunde, ed. Walther Hofstaetter and Ulrich Peters (Leipzig and Berlin, 1930), I, 85; Otto Görner, "Der Bänkelsang", Mitteldeutsche Blätter jür Volkskunde, VII, 4 (August, 1932), 116—120; Elsbeth Janda and Fritz Nötzoldt, Die Moritat vom Bänkelsang oder das Lied der Straße (Munich, 1959), pp. 9—11; "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, ed. Adolf Spamer (2nd ed.; Leipzig and Berlin, 1934), II, 449. 5 Erich Seemann, "Bänkelsänger", Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturgeschichte, 1 (2nd ed.; Berlin, 1958), 128, notes with respect to this aspect of the presentation: "Meist teilen sich ein Mann und eine Frau in die Vorführung, wobei der Frau der Gesang anheimfällt."

18

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

organ, referring the audience to the sections of the picture sheet corresponding to the action of the song with the pointer. She would break off in the middle of the ballad, and the tale would then be told to the public in much the same manner in which it had been sung, the picture sheet illustrating the action, the 'actors' addressing their listeners directly, calling upon them to lend an ear to their tale of woe, admonishing them, and commenting on the story with such phrases as "Die schauderhaft'ste Gräuelthat / Will ich mit Grausen Euch erzählen", " 0 Menschen ! nehmt ein Beispiel dran", "So hört es denn zur Warnung", "Aber Geiz und Habsucht, die Wurzel alles Uebels, hatten auch sein Herz verdorben", "Doch nun war das Maaß siner Sünden voll", and "Schauderhaft war das Verbrechen, schauderhaft die Strafe", 6 all of this with the memorized fluency of an intoned litany. The tale would then be concluded with a few more strains on the hand organ and a request to the audience to purchase the pamphlets, which were sold both during and after the presentation itself, and which, the audience was told, contained the story in both prose and verse "schön lang und vollständig". 7 Thus the performance would continue, several numbers being presented in this manner, the hand organ serving as a fill-in during the pauses between numbers, perhaps a particularly sentimental song being added as a closing number. Pamphlets containing prose tales and ballads other than those which had been presented were also offered to the public for sale. 8 The audience could buy not only Moritaten, the form traditionally associated with the Bänkelsang,9 but pamphlets containing other Bänkellieder as well: "Vier schöne Neue Lieder", "Zwey schöne Geistliche Lieder" "Soldaten- und andere schöne Lieder", or "Neue Abschieds- und andere schöne Lieder", for example. 10 These ballad mongers were 6

"Beschreibung der zwanzig Mordthaten welche durch einen deutschen Fleischer zu Marocco verübt worden sind, und dessen erfolgten schauderhaften Hinrichtung", Strasbourg Collection of 'Fliegende Blätter', Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg (Strasbourg, France), Carton V, Pamphlet 142. Subsequent references to this collection will appear as Str. Coll., followed by Carton number (Roman) and Pamphlet number (Arabic). If the reference is to a pamphlet which contains several ballads, the number of the specific ballad referred to will be added in parentheses (Arabic). 7 Naumann, p. 173. 8 Görner, "Der Bänkelsang", 121. 9 See below, pp. 64—66. 10 Str. Coll., I l l , 73; IV, 97 and 133; V, 83.

THE " B Ä N K E L S A N G " AND ITS PRESENTATION

19

interested, after all, in presenting and offering to the public something it would buy: they sang what would sell. 11 The Bänkelsang, then, in spite of the fact that the Bänkelsänger are not 'actors' in the traditional sense of the term, is theater insofar as it is presentation on a stage (the bench) before an audience. It is an open-air, traveling theater which finds its audience at the market place and the fairground. Erich Seemann remarks that "[der Gesang] trägt Züge einer theatralischen Schaustellung". 12 This aspect of the presentation, that is, singing to an audience and pointing to a picture sheet which illustrates the story, is theatrical and dramatic, but dramatic in a special sense. Otto Görner characterizes the Bänkelsänger as "ein merkwürdiger Zwitter zwischen Sänger und Sprecher".13 These ballad singers did not 'act out' their stories, they did not play a particular role or a given character. Rather, they played themselves, they sang and narrated their tales, addressed their audience directly, called out to the people to gather around their stage, moralized, commented on their stories: rather than being a part of their material, they stood above it — they were 'omniscient authors', as it were. The practice of drawing attention by means of a pointer to a picture sheet which illustrates a tale being reported in prose and verse creates a certain distance between audience and subject matter, the picture sheet constituting, as Joel A. Hunt remarks, "an interposition or objectification".14 This objectification, furthermore, is supported by the fact that the same story is also heard by the audience, in both prose and verse to be sure, and then read in the form of a pamphlet, again in both prose and verse. The same subject matter is presented to the audience in three forms: it is seen, it is heard, and it is read. One would have to concur with Otto Görner's statement that, in spite of its primitiveness and the rudimentary character of its 11 Material for this paragraph concerning the presentation of the Bänkelsang is from Görner, "Der Bänkelsang", 120—121; Janda and Nötzoldt, p. 171; Naumann, pp. 172—174; Bruno Kaiser, Echte und fälsche Moritaten. Vom Bänkelsang zu Friederike Kempner (Berlin, 1955), p. 6; Karl Heinz Kramer (ed.), Bänkelballaden, auch Moritaten genannt (Berlin, 1936), pp. 137—138. 12 "Bänkelsänger", 128. 13 "Der Bänkelsang", 157. 14 "Bert Brecht's 'Dreigroschenoper' and Villon's 'Testament'", Monatshefte, X L I X , 5 (October, 1957), 278.

20

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

mise en scene, "der Bänkelsang hat sich . . . zu einer besonderen kleinen 'Universalkunst' entwickelt, deren Einzelbestandteile eigenwüchsig sind und nicht nur der Reklame für den Blättchen verkauf dienen". 15 The individual components of the Bänkelsang — bench, pointer, musical instrument, picture sheets, and pamphlets — independent in themselves, go together to produce a rather unique type of theater. The picture sheets are representative of fairground art in general — of the panoramas, for example, which strove to satisfy the public's desire for sensationalism with their unsophisticated representations of earthquakes, human disaster, holocausts, battle scenes, executions, and other extraordinary events 16 — and characteristic of the Bänkelsang in particular. They were painted on canvas or oil cloth, and could be rolled up and transported easily. Transparencies were also used. 17 Each picture sheet was divided into four, five, or six, in some cases more, individual pictures, which illustrated the high points of the action of the ballad being presented. The title of the ballad was printed across the top of the picture sheet, a constant visual reminder to the spectators of the subject matter they were hearing. 18 Scholars have used various adjectives to describe the unsophisticated technique and style of these Bänkelbilder. Bruno Kaiser notes t h a t the Bänkelsänger illustrated their ballads "mit scheußlich gemalten Kommmentaren", 1 9 and Erwin Sternitzke remarks t h a t "die Bänlcelsängermoritat . . . [wird] an großen, grob und grell aufgetragenen und möglichst blutrünstigen Ölbildern demonstriert." 2 0 Görner gives a more extensive description: D a s Bänkelbild repräsentiert einen merkwürdigen Grenzfall von Malerei überhaupt, es ist eine Malerei, die von ihrem eigenen Wesen eigentlich nur 15

"Das Fliegende Blatt", Die deutsche Volkskunde, ed. Adolf Spamer (2nd ed.; Leipzig and Berlin, 1934), I, 395. 18 Of. Lehmann, Zwischen Schaubuden und Karussells, p. 13. 17 "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, II, 450. Gabriele Böhme, "Bänkelsängermoritaten', vornehmlich solche zu Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts" (unpublished P h . D. dissertation, Munich, 1920), p. 10. 18 Cf. the reproductions of picture sheets in Janda and Nötzoldt, before p. 65, between pp. 80—81, before p. 145, after p. 160; and in "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, II, 451. 19 Echte und falsche Moritaten, p. 6. 20 Der stilisierte Bänkelsang (Würzburg, 1933), p. 1.

THE " B A N K E L S A N G " AND ITS PRESENTATION

21

die F a r b e h a t . . . . Perspektiven, Nuancen, alles 'Malerische' schlechtin, dürfen fehlen und sind überflüssig f ü r den Beschauer aus dem Volk, nur Tatsachen, Ereignisse, Handlungen kommen zur Darstellung. Das P a t h o s des 'kleinen Mannes' oder das, was der kleine Mann f ü r P a t h o s hält, was ' F u r c h t und Mitleid' in seinen Augen erregt, erfüllt diese bunten Tafeln . . . . Solche Dinge sind reine Stofflichkeit, sie bedürfen ü b e r h a u p t keiner Mittel der Darstellung. 21

Naumann, not quite so caustic, sees a relationship between these picture sheets and history painting: Schon von weitem locken die schreienden Farben an. Die Technik ist unglaublich roh und primitiv, ohne Plastik, mit falschen Perspektiven, voll übertriebenen gräßlichen Affekts; die Barbarei des Dargestellten wie der Darstellung ist so schauerlich, daß sie an die mittelalterliche Märtyrerhistorienmalerei erinnert (vgl. San Stefano rotondo in Rom), ohne deren minutiöse Sorgfalt natürlich zu erreichen. Jedes Bild soll die ganze Erzählung begleiten, und so t r i t t denn das Gleiche ein wie in jener Legendenmalerei: die ganze Fläche teilt sich in Felder (Normalzahl 5), das effektvollste und größte Schlußbild k o m m t in die Mitte, und such auf dem einzelnen Feld begegnet es zuweilen, daß zwei Handlungen zugleich, die Figuren in doppelter Handlung dargestellt werden. 22

Panoramas, picture sheets, and history painting do have a common denominator inasmuch as all three depict unique historical and contemporary events, whether this content be the religious subject matter of the history painting of the medieval period and deal with the trials and tribulations of Christian martyrs, or whether it be the more secular subject matter of a later age. And the following comments by Elsbeth Janda and Fritz Nötzoldt on Manet's painting "The Execution of the Emperor Maximilian" indicate how thin the line of distinction may be which separates history painting from the more popularly oriented picture sheets "Historienbild oder Moritatentafel? . . . of the Bänkelsänger: Das Bild hat einst großes Aufsehen erregt, vor allem, weil man sich nicht darüber einig werden konnte, ob es noch Historienmalerei oder schon Moritatentafel war . . . . aber da [Manet] es seiner Freundin, der Sängerin Emilie Ambre, mit auf deren Amerikatournee gab, wo sie es in den Nebenräumen der Konzertsäle gegen einen kleinen Aufschlag auf den Billettpreis sehen ließ, könnte man sich eigentlich für die Moritatentafel entschließen. 21 22

"Der Bänkelsang", 158. "Studien über den Bänkelgesang", pp. 170—171.

22

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

. . . Die Ambre erklärte sogar—einer Moritatensprecherin verwandt —die Details des Gemäldes . . ," 23 The handling of spatial relationships in the painting is striking indeed, and there is a 'lack' of perspective in the traditional sense (c/. Naumann's "unglaublich roh und primitiv, ohne Plastik, mit falschen Perspektiven"): the muzzles of the rifles, held and fired by seven soldiers who in their casual stance and attitude would appear to be engaged in target practice rather than firing-squard duty, are pointed and fired directly into the chests and throats of the three victims at a distance of about one foot, and the total distance between firing squad and victims would appear to be not more than three to five feet, certainly not a respectable distance to assume in such a matter. The unusual perspective in Manet's painting gives the viewer a new perspective on the execution of Maximilian by firing squad. I t is also interesting to note t h a t a Bänkellied dealing with the execution of Maximilian appeared in the Nürnberger Kreuzerblätter for October 5, 1867 ("Zur Erschießung Kaiser Maximilians von Mexico: Neueste Mordgeschichte"), to be sure a ballad which should probably be placed in the category of literary Bänkelsang rather than t h a t of popular Bänkelsang, since its use of prosody and language seems to tend intentionally toward the comical and the parodic. I t begins, for example: Ach, es ist betrübt zu lesen, W a s m a n von d e m Max gehört, Der in Mexico gewesen Von Napoleon bethört; Wie m a n diesen edlen Sprossen Ohne Gnade hat erschossen, Als d e m bösen Juarez Er gegangen in das Netz.

The moral is added in the last stanza in a complicated network of syntactical disarray: Darum, lieber Hörer, werde Willst d u glücklich auf der Erde

23

Die Moritat vom Bänkelsang t e x t after p. 64.

oder das Lied der Straße,

reproduction and

THE "BÄNKELSANG" AND ITS PRESENTATION

23

U n d des Lebens werden froh, Kaiser nie v o n Mexico !24

The musical instruments employed by the Bänkelsänger, especially the Leierkasten or Drehorgel, have also done their share in contributing to the unique character of the Bänkelsang. The violin and the harp were used in the eighteenth century, 25 the harp being particularly characteristic of the Viennese Bänkelsang and continuing in use there well into the nineteenth century. 26 These were replaced in the nineteenth century by the instrument traditionally associated with the Bänkelsang, the hand organ, which, when constructed especially for use as a Bänkelsängerorgel, was capable of producing a grand total of eleven melodies.27 Adolf Spamer, writing in 1930, states that such hand organs are no longer manufactured. 28 This had forced the Bänkelsänger who did not already possess a hand organ to look for other means of accompaniment, and so the harmonica, accordion, and guitar were used occasionally. 29 The sounds produced by all of these instruments — the whine of a badly played violin, the twang of a guitar, the metallic, reedy hum of an accordion or a harmonica — are characteristic of the music played by the Bänkelsänger. But no Bänkelsang performance would be quite complete without the hurdy-gurdy sound of the Bänkelsängerorgel which, because of its particular timbre and its limited melodic possibilities, determined to a great extent the melancholy, singsong quality of the music produced by the Bänkelsänger as he would grind out his tunes on it, the Bänkelsängerton.30 The pamphlets sold by the Bänkelsänger were in the form of the old Fliegende Blätter, and consisted usually of eight, less often four, printed pages. On the first page was the title and, frequently, a woodcut done rather crudely in a manner similar to t h a t of the picture sheets. Occasionally the woodcut would be divided into several pictures, each scene depicting a high point of the action 24

Ibid., pp. 78—81. "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, II, 450. 26 Cf. Franz R e b i c z e k , Der Wiener Volks- und Bänkelgesang in den Jahren von 1800—1848 (Vienna and Leipzig, 1913), p. 46; and B ö h m e , "Bänkelsängermoritaten", p. 10. 27 "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, I I , 450. 28 "Bänkelsang", Sachwörterbuch der Deutschkunde, I, 85. 29 Gf. Kramer, Bänkelballaden, p . 138; and B ö h m e , p. 10. 30 Gf. "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, I I , 450; a n d Spamer, "Bänkelsang", Sachwörterbuch der Deutschkunde, I, 85. 25

24

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

quite in the style of the picture sheets. 31 Most of the pamphlet was taken up by the extensive prose version of the tale, and this was followed by a shorter version in the form of a Lied, the Bankellied.32

31

E. g., Str. Coll., I l l , 2: "Beschreibung von der grossen Theuerung in Wien, nebst einer nicht weit davon sich zugetragenen Wunder-Geschichte von einem sehr reichen geizigen Muller, der seinen armen Bruder mit 6 hungrigen Kindern einen Laib Brod versagt, wie er dafür gestraft, die Kinder aber durch einen sanften Schlaf von Gott wunderbar erhalten, n u n aber aufgewacht sind. Gedruckt und zu bekommen in Wien bey Anton Leitner." The woodcut on t h e title page depicts various scenes f r o m t h e "Wunder-Geschichte" and is divided into two parts, t h e lower p a r t showing a domestic scene involving t h e family and t h e niggardly miller, t h e upper p a r t depicting t h e miller's f a r m hand as he discovers mice eating t h e corn. Each figure or group of figures bears a number which refers t h e reader t o an explanation below t h e woodcut: "1. Die sechs schlafenden Kinder. 2. Der Vater, so sie aufwecken will. 3. Die Mutter, so den Laib Brod anschneidet. 4. Der Müller, so im Stuhl sitzt. 6. Der Knecht. 6. Die Mäuse, so das K o r n gefressen." Böhme remarks in this regard: "Einige Drucke haben über dem Titel den Text erklärende Bilder" (p. 16). 32 Gf. t h e facsimiles of pamphlets and woodcut reproductions in J a n d a and Nötzoldt, pp. 33, 129, 134, 177, 191, between pp. 120—121, 152—153; and in "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, I I , 445, 450, between 448— 449. Also: Str. Coll., V, 144 and 145.

II T H E SUBJECT MATTER

DIDACTICISM. DOCUMENTATION

The subject matter of the Bänkelsänger pamphlets consisted, for the most part, of lurid reports of all kinds of sensational and remarkable events of historical and contemporary significance: executions, crime, murder, family tragedies, vice, strange and miraculous occurrences, human disaster and misfortune, shipwrecks, holocausts, floods, famine, robbery, poaching, and piracy filled the pages of these thrillers and adventure stories. These stories were told and sung with an attitude of larmoyant sentimentality and naive horror, and with the addition of a moral which served as a warning to all readers. Furthermore, they were purported to be true, historically documented events. One need read only the title of the following pamphlet, for example, to get the impression t h a t a true story is being related as a warning against the vice of gambling: "Der Mann der Mitternacht, oder traurige Folgen schrecklicher Spielsucht. Ein wahres warnendes Beispiel f ü r Leichtsinn der Jugend. Geschehen 1861" (Str. Coll., V, 137). The documentation is often more extensive than in the title just cited. For example: "Beschreibung des furchtbaren Brandes am 28. Februar 1847 im Schauspielhause zu Karlsruhe, wobei mehrere 100 Menschen ihren Tod in den Flammen gefunden haben. Mit einem Schlußhede", a pamphlet in which the moral is stated following a gruesome description of people suffocating and dying in the flames, arms and legs being broken and bodies being crushed in the melee of this holocaust which resulted from the malfunction of a gas lamp: "Uns alle aber lehre dies erschütternde Strafgericht Gottes bedenken, daß wir nicht wissen, an welchem Tage, zu welcher Stunde und auf welche Weise der Herr unsere Seele von uns fordern wird, auf daß wir stets auf unsern Tod vorbereitet sein mögen!" (Str. Coll., V, 138). Gabriele Böhme, quoting from the Akta, die öffentlichen Schaustellungen, Messsehnswürdigkeiten,

26

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

Lustbarkeiten betreffend of Leipzig for May 2, 1827, cites a letter from the Bänkelsänger Johann Heinrich Heydenreich to one of the councilors which shows how a Bänkelsänger himself feels with respect to the didactic and documentary aspects of his material. Quoting from Heydenreich's letter, Böhme states that "er will durch 'Bild und Schrift auf das gemeine Volk wirken. Sei das Bild schlecht, so sei doch die Schrift, welche er ausstelle die Hauptsache und enthielte nur geschichtlich wahre Tatsachen. Sie seien aus dem österreichischen Beobachter entonmmen, der, bekanntlich, niemals Unwahrheiten zu Tage fordere . .' Heydenreich's statements are also interesting in t h a t they illustrate the fact t h a t the Bänkelsänger, in his original form, was a Zeitungssänger, and that he still retains his original character as a hawker of news.

N A T U R A L DISASTERS, CRIME, HUMAN MISFORTUNE, ADVENTURE

Natural disasters, crime, human misfortune, and adventure seem always to have played a major role in the subject matter of the Bänkelsang. A pamphlet of 1572 from the Strasbourg Collection reports, for example, a great flood: "Ein schon newes Christliches gesang von der erbärmlichen Wassergüß so sich am gantzen Thonawstram im Julio dises 72. Jars zugetragen hat. Im Thon: Ach Got wem sol ichs klagen u. Oder: Wie das Lied von Olmitz. Gestelt durch: Abraham Hundtsperger Stattpredicant zu Krems" (I, 89); another a famine: "Neues Lied von der großen Hungersnoth in Ostpreußen und auf dem Westerwald. Gedichtet von Philipp Keim aus Diedenbergen; wo mit Choral und Orgelbegleitung von ihm gesungen wird" (V, 47). Other typical news items are furnished by a fire: "Der Brand des Wiener Ringtheaters am 8. Dezember 1881", or a shipwreck: "Der schreckliche Shiffsuntergang der Cimbria am 10. J a n u a r 1881, wobei 416 Personen ertranken". 2 Murders are good not only for sensationalism — "Traurige Beschreibung wie ein Vater seine Frau und seine drei Kinder im betrunkenen Zustande ermordet h a t " — but also for didactic purposes, the 1 "Bänkelsängermoritaten, vornehmlich solche zu Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts" (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Munich, 1920), p. 9. 2 Elsbeth Janda and Fritz Nötzoldt, Die Moritat vom Bänkelsang oder das Lied der Straße (Munich, 1959), pp. 124—125, 160—162.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

27

prose version of this horror story ending with the following comment: "Obige Geschichte zeigt, wie weit der Trunk den Menschen bringen kann; darum ein Jeder daran ein warnendes Beispiel nehmen muß" (Str. Coll., V, 144). Then there is the murderess Marie Markert, a peasant girl and maidservant at the home of a farmer near Bilbao, Spain. One day while working in the fields she hears the cry for help of a wounded soldier who has crept into a nearby swamp for refuge. Marie, instead of giving him aid, murders and robs him. But her evil deed is discovered, and she must flee the community. Soon the news t h a t she has murdered and robbed a helpless soldier spreads over the whole country. There is no place where she can find refuge. She wanders for months, ostracized, the stigma of her deed following her wherever she goes. Eventually she manages to get on a ship bound for America, but the captain and the crew discover her identity and leave her on a desert island: "Hier verlebte sie unter Tiegern, Hyänen und Riesenschlangen, unter Sturm und Regen, Hunger und Durst zwei Jahre und bereuete tausendmal ihre Schandthat." She manages to get on a ship which takes her back to Spain, where she finds employment in the home of a merchant. She works here a year, and the merchant, having fallen in love with her, asks her to marry him. She breaks down, tells him who she is, flees, wanders again for months over the countryside, and eventually returns to the scene of her crime. She is found "auf derselben Stelle, wo sie vor ungefähr 5 Jahren den blau uniformirten Rekruten mordete, in dem nämlichen Sumpfe ohne alle menschliche Hülfe verhungert". 3 The Exekutionszettel and Hinrichtungslieder should also be mentioned in connection with crime as an aspect of the subject matter of the Bänkelsang. Execution pamphlets were reports of trials and executions which were sold to the spectators at the time of the execution of the criminal; they often contained — along with a description of the life of the criminal, his deeds, and his punishment — a song in which the criminal himself, saying his last words, confessed and repented for his crimes. Böhme reports that execution pamphlets extend back to the sixteenth century, were especially popular in the eighteenth century, and furnished the Bänkelsänger with material 3

"Die unbarmherzige Marie, oder: die Gerechtigkeit Gottes ereilt den Sünder über Land und Meer. Geschehen in den Jahren 1836 bis 1842", Str. Göll., V, 157.

28

THE "BÄNKELSANG"

on into the nineteenth century in such Moritaten as "Letzte Worte des Raubmörders Backhoff", "Rede und Brief, von Otto auf dem Schafott gehalten", and "Lied zur begangenen Mordtat des K l a u " , which were sung at the Leipziger Messe ca. 1830 (pp. 13, 52, 53). Execution pamphlets from the Strasbourg Collection are, for example, "Zwey Armensünder Lieder. Das erste Bekehrungsoder Abschiedslied eines vorhin in Nürnberg im Dienst gestandenen Kaufsmannsdiener, jetzt aber wegen vorsetzlich begangenen Brudermords in Ansbach im Arrest sitzenden armen Sünders. Das Zweyte Auf die Geschichte der Mordthat selbst (VI, 57), or "Hinrichtung des Johann Georg Striefler, Bauers in dem Rothenburgischen Orte Untergeilnau, welcher wegen verübten Weibsmordes zu Rothenburg ob der Tauber d. 14. Dec. 1804. mit dem Schwerdt hingerichtet worden ist" (III, 9; prose only). Robbery and murder, when combined with a love story which involves a villainous young man who will stop at nothing to gain his ends and an innocent, unsuspecting maiden infatuated with his false charms, constitute a plot which would sell almost anywhere and at any time: "Schreckliche Liebes-Scene, welche durch einen Raub und Mord endete" (Str. Coll., I I I , 134). Women are not always deceived, however, by members of their own class. A count, for example, induces a poor peasant girl, who sells her small wares at his castle, to marry him. The ceremony, however, is performed by one of the count's tenants dressed as a minister. A week later the count discards her and she, dishonored and ostracized, dies of grief. 4 Victimized womanhood is not always so unsuspecting:

4

1.

E s gieng ein schwarzbraun Mädchen, Zum rothen kahlen Wein In einem schonen Städtchen Zu Straßburg an d e m Rhein.

2.

D a waren viel Franzosen, Die fahrten sie zum Tanz_ Und einer war verschossen, In sie vor Liebe ganz.

3.

Er liebt sie nur zum Scheine, Bracht sie u m ihre Ehr ; D a fieng sie an zu weinen Und lamentirte sehr.

"Ein Armes Bauer-Mädchen kam", Str. Coll., IV, 164 (3).

THE SUBJECT MATTER

29

The 'schwarzbraun Mädchen', having been a little too anxious to whoop it u p in the taverns of Straßburg, finishes the ballad herself: 8. Mein Schaz t h u t m i c h n i c h t s nützen, E r ist auf und d a v o n , U n d h a t m i c h lassen sizen, Mit e i n e m j u n g e n Sohn. 9. D r u m m e r k t dieß ihr Jungfrauen, Gebt a c h t auf eure Ehr, T h u t k e i n e m Mannsbild trauen, W e n n s a u c h ein D e u t s c h e r w&r.5

Adventure is a favorite motif in the subject matter of the Bänkelsang, both as a plot-forming element per se and as an added attraction in a story which focuses our attention primarily on other matters. One of the older pamphlets of the Strasbourg Collection tells, for example, of a romance between a Christian prince of Sicily, Gerbino, and a beautiful Moorish princess, Constantia, whose father attempts to force her to marry a king of her own faith. The action shifts from Sicily to southern Spain to north Africa, and climaxes in a naval battle off the coast of Sardinia between the forces of the Christian prince and the heathen king. Even though Gerbino wins the battle, the lovers lose in the end: Constantia is murdered by her own people as an act of revenge against Gerbino for having destroyed the fleet of the heathen king, and Gerbino, upon his return home, is executed for having attacked the heathens after his grandfather, the king, had promised them safe escort through his kingdom. The author, in the last stanza, not only points the moral but also indentifies himself: G e z w u n g e n E h e selten zü g ü t t e m k o m m e n Als ir in diser Histori h a b t v e r n o m m e n D a r u m b lad auff dein K i n d kein solchen berge Gib i m einen der i h m gefall A u ß H 6 n i g wirdt d a n n o c h w o l Gall E s ligt a m t a g spricht H a n s Sachs v o n n Nürnberge. 6 6

"Franzosenlied", Str. Coll., IV, 116 (2). " E i n n e w e s Lied v o n einer ermordten J u n g f r a w e n die eines H e y d n i s c h e n K ö n i g s T o c h t e r w a s : V n d v o n eines K ö n i g s Sone in Sycilia. I n frawen E h r e n T h o n z u singen", Str. Coll., I, 78. B ö h m e , p . 40, m e n t i o n s t w o other Moritaten b y H a n s Sachs, one "eine Mordgeschichte, in der eine F r a u ihren Mann umbringt", t h e other entitled "Der Kindermörder". 6

30

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

The pages of these Bänkelsänger pamphlets are filled with the adventures of pirates, freebooters, and robbers who, in the end, are met with just retribution for their dastardly deeds. Duval, "Der Mann der Mitternacht", whose compulsion to gamble started him on his life of crime, becomes a pirate and slave trader operating between England and South America, pillages and robs for nine years, and is finally tied to a tree and hacked to death by South American savages. 7 Johann Adam Durlach, a butcher's apprentice from Hamburg who seeks his fortune in America, is sold as a slave in Morocco by Turkish pirates after they attack and pillage the ship on which he is traveling off the coast of New York. 8 "Pietro Giorgio, der bekehrte Freibeuter", who operates along the coasts of Greece and Turkey, falls in love with the daughter of one of his victims and settles down to a life of conjugal bliss in Montenegro, thus avoiding the terrible end which would have met him had he continued his life of piracy. 9 Babet and Zerlina, daughters of a philanthropic silk merchant from Klagenfurt who established a settlement in Serbia for the protection and refuge of Christians from the oppression of the Turks, become, after this Christian settlement has been attacked and destroyed by Turkish raiders, the leaders of a guerilla band, and avenge this destruction wrought by non-believers on believers by murdering and pillaging all of Islam on land and sea. M Robbers and robber stories are legion in the subject matter of the Bänkelsang, and their numbers include, as in the case of Babet and Zerlina, adventuresses as well as adventurers: "Maria Carleton die französische Prinzessin, Gattin von sechs Männern und Anführerin einer großen Räuberbande. Hingerichtet zu London", " I m wilden Westen oder Der Überfall auf diePacificbahn", "Antonio, der schreckliche Räuberhauptmann. Seine blutigen, entsetzlichen Taten und sein furchtbares Ende", "Der furchtbare Räuberhauptmann Masatto in den Pirenäischen 7

Str. Coll., V, 137: cf. above, p. 25. "Beschreibung der zwanzig Mordthaten welche durch einen deutschen Fleischer zu Marocco verübt worden sind, und dessen erfolgten schauderhaften Hinrichtung. N e b s t einem dazu verfaßten Liede", Str. Coll., V, 142. 9 Karl Heinz Kramer (ed.), Lob der Träne: Ein Moritatenbuch (Cologne and Berlin, 1955), pp. 113—121. 10 "Babet und Zerlina, oder: Die Schrecklichen zu Wasser und zu L a n d e " , Str. Coll., V, 141. 8

THE SUBJECT MATTER

31

Gebirgen in Spanien", 1 1 "Beschreibung einer schrecklichen und grausamen Mordthat, verübt an 140 Personen, durch den Räuberhauptmann Casparoni im vorigen Jahre im Dorfe Villa auf Corsika", "Polygrawo der furchtbare Räuberhauptmann, der seinen Vater, Bruder, Schwester und zuletzt sich selbst ermordet hat. Eine wahre Begebenheit." 12 T H E USE OF FOREIGN SETTINGS

As is evident from the titles and the content given above, many of these Bänkelsängerballaden and -geschickten take place in foreign lands. The adventurous but wanton life of Maria Carleton, for example (see above), vain, proud, haughty, born of poor parents but believing herself to be an exalted personage because "sie las Romane Tag und Nacht", takes her through practically the whole of the western hemisphere, from her birthplace in Lyons, France, to England, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Spain, Amsterdam, back to America and New York, Hungary, and finally to London where she is executed. Foreign locales in which these ballads and tales take place are Holland, Russia, England, Spain, France, Italy, North America, South America, North Africa, Hungary, Greece, Turkey. America is especially popular, and is presented generally as a sort of new-world, materialistic Utopia where western Europeans in general, and Germans in particular, seek their fortunes: "Eine neue Heimath wollt' er / Suchen in Amerika"; 1 3 "[Das Schiff] hatte an seinem Bord kostbare Waaren und sehnsüchtige Auswanderer, die sich eine neue Heimath in der neuen Welt suchen wollten"; 14 "Der K a u f m a n n Gehrhard war auf einmal auf den Gedanken gekommen, auszuwandern und seine Spekulation und sein Glück in der neuen Welt zu machen, das er in der alten nicht zu finden glaubte." 1 5 Or the reference may be a negative one, pointing out an inordinate desire for wealth and material possession: 11

Janda and Nötzoldt, pp. 165—167, 164, 33—37, and pamphlet facsimile between pp. 152—153, respectively. "Str. Coll., V, 143 and 146 respectively. 13 "Schreckliche und schauderhafte Begebenheit, welche sich in Köln am Rhein zugetragen hat, und wo auch die Verbrecher hingerichtet wurden", Str. Coll., V, 140. 14 "Der Mann der Mitternacht . . .", Str. Coll., V, 137. 16 "Gegenseitige Treue oder Leiden und Schicksale zweier Liebenden durch die Härte eines Vaters", Str. Coll., V, 145.

32

THE "BÄNKELSANG" Denn Adam war als Knabe schon Von Geiz und Habsucht angefüllt, Und nichts hat seine Gier gestillt. Drum wollt' er nach Amerika, U m dort ein großes Glück zu machen; Dort, sprach er: giebt's Juwelen ja, Und Gold und and're schöne Sachen. 16

Turkey is also important with respect to the foreign element, it being, as H a n s N a u m a n n notes, "der Erbfeind der Christenheit u n d der Schoß heidnischer Greuel". 1 ' The choice of a foreign setting adds to the element of adventure and probably reflects, in p a r t , a romanticism and a desire for the exotic, as, for example, in the ballad of "Maria Carleton". The use of a foreign setting does, however, aid in pointing a moral insofar as it creates distance between reader or spectator and subject matter, the interjection of the foreign element allowing a clearer view of the subject m a t t e r t h a n if it took place in one's own subjective back yard, as it were. There is a distinct didacticism apparent in those ballads and tales involving Turks or, more generally, non-Christians, the intent being to illustrate the contrast between the vicious, inhuman non-Christian and the good, pious Christian, to point t h e way to a good, Christian life. Babet and Zerlina, "die Schrecklichen zu Wasser u n d zu Lande", are pictured as good-deed-Dotties in spite of all their murdering, pillaging, and destroying: they are Christians fighting t h e Turks. 1 8 J o h a n n Adam Durlach, the butcher's apprentice f r o m H a m b u r g who is sold as a slave to a Turkish butcher in Morocco, commits acts so infamous they would cause even a T u r k t o recoil with horror: he eventually wins t h e favor of his rich master, marries his daughter, and becomes a Moslem; however, satisfied neither b y his wealth thus attained nor by his profitable butcher business, he lures unsuspecting women into his house, cuts them up, and sells the results, thus avoiding having to pay any original cost or overhead: "Wenn m a n von den Grausamkeiten der Türken hört, u n d wie sie besonders gegen christliche 16

Str. Coll., V, 142: cf. above, n. 8. Primitive Gemeinschaftskultur (Jena, 1921), chap, viii, "Studien über den Bänkelgesang", p. 176. 18 -Sir. Coll., V, 141: cf. above, n. 10. 17

33

THE SUBJECT MATTER

Brüder Qualen ersinnen, welche die Menschheit empören, so muß mann doch gestehen, daß ihre Grausamkeiten sich meistens nur auf ihre Feinde ausdehnen. Was soll man aber sagen, wenn man, wie hier zu lesen ist, Christen findet, die Schandthaten verüben, vor denen selbst die grausamen Türken, ja die Cannibalen zurückschaudern würden".19 Larissa, as a final example, is being courted by two men: Der eine flehte zum Propheten Und war voll Rachgier und voll List; Der andere war ein Schutz in Nöten, Ein edler Mann, ein guter Christ. Larissa war's, um deren Liebe Sie sich bemühten ohne Ruh', Doch neigten sich des Mädchens Triebe Dem Christen, nicht dem Türken, zu. 20

The contrast is always one in black and white, the preferable way of life always obvious. HISTORICAL EVENTS, SETTINGS, AND PERSONALITIES. WAR A N D THE SOLDIER'S LIFE. POLITICAL BÄNKELLIEDER

Historic events play an important role in the subject matter of the Bänkelsang, events of political and military significance which are presided over by the great personalities of history and which affect profoundly the course of the life of the common man. The execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, for example (cf. above, pp. 22—23), or "Der Sächsische Prinzenraub durch Kunz von Kaufungen aus dem Schlosse Altenburg in der Nacht vom 7./8. Juli 1455", the last stanza of which gives the following summary and afterthought: Gott tu den frommen Christen alles Guts Und laß die jungen Herren In kein' Feindes Hand mehr also komm'n, Geb auch der Frau Kurfürstin viel Fromm'n, Daß wir uns in Ruhe ernähren.81 "Str. Coll., V, 142: cf. above, n. 8. "Larissa", Janda and Nötzoldt, pp. 159—160. 21 Janda and Nötzoldt, pp. 55—56. 20

34

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

The Viennese were especially concerned with the fate of their rulers ("Das schreckliche Unglück im Schloss Mayerling"22), eulogies on high-ranking personalities being characteristic of the Viennese Bänkelsang in particular: "Trauerlied auf den betrübten Hintritt Ihro Majestät Mariae Theresiae der römischen Kaiserin", or "Trauerlied von der Hinrichtung der Königinn aus Frankreich (1792) Im Tone: In die Gruft will ich steigen" (the execution of Marie Antoinette), for example. 23 A robber story might be set in a historical background, as is the case with "Der furchtbare Räuberhauptmann Masatto in den Pirenäischen Gebirgen in Spanien", printed in 1846, which takes place during the Inquisition; 24 or we might see a series of great Biblical and secular personalities parade before our eyes: 3. Von A b r a h a m ist zu lesen, daß er zum Soldatenstand H a t 300 K n e c h t erlesen, u n d selbst war ihr Kommandant. W a s waren f u r tapfere Krieger dort die Kinder Israel? Moses, Josua f ü r Sieger, die Richter und Samuel. 4. Von David die Schrift t h u t melden, daß er klein noch als Soldat Der Philister starken Helden schlug, den großen Goliath. H a t m i t Saul viel Krieg geführet, ist zulezt durch Samuel Bis zum K&nig avanciret, über das Volk Israel. 5. Und was gabs vor alten Zeiten, wie uns lehret die Geschieht, U n t e r Juden und auch Heiden [ ] f ü r große Helden nicht; Wie der große Alexander und H e r m a n n t h a t zeigen sich, Bis zulezt auch k a m der ander Preußens König Friederieh. 25 22 Ibid., pp. 87—88, and reproduction of picture sheet between p p . 64 and 65. 23 Ibid., pp. 61—62 and 63—64, respectively. Böhme, p. 39, remarks in this regard: " I m Wiener Bänkelgesang t r i t t die Liebe zu den Fürsten, echt und treuherzig, besonders hervor und wird in den auf den Märkten gesungenen Trauerliedern auf das Hinscheiden berühmter Persönlichkeiten besonders deutlich." Cf. also Gustav Gugitz, Lieder der Straße: Die Bänkelsänger im josephinischen Wien (Vienna, 1954). 24 J a n d a and Nötzoldt, pamphlet facsimile between pp. 152 and 153. 25 "Loblied auf den Soldatenstand. Mel. Guter Mond, d u gehst so stille", Str. Coll., V, 2 (3). The sixth word of line 2, stanza 5, is unreadable.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

35

A recitation of the deeds and fortunes of great Biblical personalities might serve as a comfort for the common man in times of stress, as in the following ballad in which it is the deity who turns the wheel of fortune: 1. Der Mensch gedenkt sich oft, wie kann so unverhoft, Das Gluck so gunstig seyn, jenem so ungemein? Da ich doch leben muß, in Kummer und Verdruß, Darum gedenke doch, der alte Gott lebt noch. 4. Tobias ware blind, wurd sehend durch sein Kind, Auch Daniel beweißt, wie ihn Gott hat gespeißt, Des Samuels Gebeth, hat ihn vom Feind errett, Darum gedenke doch, der alte Gott lebt noch.

Thus the list continues for fifteen stanzas, through Moses, Jonah, Esther, Judith, Joseph, and others, the thought of t h e ballad being summarized in the last stanza: 16.

Mein Kind verzage nicht, wann dir etwas geschieht, Dann Gott allein regiert, nur dein Geduld probiert Gedenk auf Kreutz und Leid, folgt endlich auch die Freud, Und dieß gedenke doch, der alte Gott lebt noch. 28

The story of a Biblical hero might serve for the complete content of a ballad: "Ach es ist betrübt zu lesen, was man von dem Joseph hört", for example, which tells the Old Testament story of Joseph. 27 War is often a plot-forming element per se, military campaigns serving as subject matter: "Mislungene Reise, der Franzosen nach Wien durch die glorreichen viele Siege Sr. Königlichen Hoheit Erzherzogen Karl, kommandierenden Kayserl-Königl. Feldmarschall. Im Tone: Auf Brüder auf u." (Str. Coll., VI, 55), or "Ein neues Lied von dem feindlichen Einfall Friedrich Königs von Preußen in Schlesien", a Viennese pamphlet from the Seven Years' War. 28 A pamphlet printed in Augsburg in the early seven26

Str. Göll., VI, 51 (1). "Str. Coll., IV, 97 (2). 28 Janda and Nötzoldt, pp. 56—58.

36

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

teenth century tells of a campaign being undertaken by Frederick, Elector Palatine, during the first stages of the Thirty Years' War: "Wahrhaftige und eigentliche Abbildung und Contrafactur des verjagten Winterkönigs, auch sein erschröckliches Vornehmen, wie er sich will rächen an allen denjenigen, so ihn veracht haben, auch wie stark er im Anzug ist, und wo er sich mit seim Feldlager am ersten wird hinbegeben. Gott wöll uns mit Gnaden beistehen." The last four lines indicate quite clearly the feeling expressed in the pamphlet concerning the position of the common man in a destructive war carried on by the powers that be: R e n n e t der warmen Stuben zu, Sonst ist nirgend kein R a s t noch R u h , O Gott, gib Glück, wehr dem Feind stolz Und gib den armen Leuten gnug Holz. 49

The subject matter may have to do with the soldier's life, as in "Vorzüge des Soldatenlebens", in which the soldier praises his life in the field which begins and ends with a drum roll: Kein bessers Leben ist auf dieser Welt zu finden, Als wenn m a n ißt und trinkt, und läßt sich gar nichts kränken: Wie ein Soldat im Feld sein Herrn dienet treu, H a t er nicht allzeit Geld, h a t er doch E h r dabey, H a t er doch E h r dabey, h a t er doch E h r dabey. 2. Sein Häuslein ist sehr klein von Leinwand ausgeschnitten, Wie auch das B e t t allein mit Stroh ist überschüttet; Der Rock ist meine Deck, worunter ich schlaf ein, Wenn mich der Tambour weckt, m u ß ich gleich m u n t e r seyn. Muß ich gleich m u n t e r seyn, m u ß ich gleich m u n t e r seyn. 5. W e n n ich gestorben bin, so m u ß m a n mich begraben, Mit Trommeln und mit Spiel, wie's die Soldaten haben; Drey Salven giebt m a n mir, wohl in das Grab hinein, Das ist Soldat'n-Manier, laßt andre lustig seyn. L a ß t andre lustig seyn, laßt andre lustig seyn. (Str. Coli., V, 83 [4])

The drum motif appears again in the "Ballade von einem Soldaten, welchen das Gewitter in dem Städtlein Kahl bei Altenburg in 29 J o h a n n Scheible (ed.), Die Fliegenden Blätter des XVI. hunderts (Stuttgart, 1850), pp. 239—244.

und XVII.

Jahr-

37

THE SUBJECT MATTER

die Erde geschlagen", this time as a warning preceding the thunderbolt which is seen as God's punishment for having led a godless life: Als er beim guten Biere saß Und darbei seinen GOTT vergaß, Erschröcklich t a t er sagen; Ich höre jetzt den Trommelschlag. Darauf er von dem Tisch ging ab Und t a t gar spöttisch fragen: Du Trommelschläger, durst' dich auch? Darauf der große Donnerhauch Ihn in die Erd' t ä t schlagen. Da er bis an den halben Leib In dieser Kluft verborgen bleib' Und könnt' kein Wort mehr sagen. 30

In the following ballad the soldier-to-be is awakened not by the roll of a drum, but by a recruiter who forces him to do military service against his will. The last stanza expresses with particular severity the contrasting positions of the haves and the have-nots in wartime. The ballad is quoted here in full: Wo soll ich mich hinwenden Bey der betrübten Zeit, An Allen Ort und Enden Ist nichts als Kampf und Streit. Rekruten f&nget man So viel man haben kann, Soldat muß alles werden Es sei Knecht oder Mann. Mit List hat man mich gefangen Da ich im Bette schlief, Da kam ein Reuter gegangen Ganz leise auf mich zu. Ach Bruder bist du da, Von Herzen bin ich froh, Steh auf, Soldat mußt du werden, Das ist was ich dir droh. 30

Kramer, Lob der Träne, pp. 138—140.

38

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

Werd ich einmal gefangen Mit Eisen angelegt, Als war ich durchgegangen So h a t m a n mich noch krigt. Verleih o Gott Geduld Wir bitten u m deine Huld, Mein Schicksal m u ß ich leiden Vielleicht h a b ichs verschuldt. D e m Konig m u ß ich dienen So lang ich das Leben hab, Werd ich einmal erschossen So legt m a n mich ins Grab. D a liegen In Erden Ach Gott Vielleicht

meine K a m m e r a d e n Schooß begraben, erbarme dich betriffts auch mich.

Ad je mein Vater und Mutter Adje mein beßter Freund. Zur Reis' m u ß ich mich geben, Zur Vestung m u ß ich ein. Es regieret in der Welt Die Weisheit und das Geld, Der Reiche k a n n sich helfen Der Arme m u ß ins Feld. (Str. Coll., V, 71 [3])

War may serve as a background for a personal melodrama: Anthalusia, "die edle und heldenmütige Griechin", offers to be executed in her father's place, but her bravery touches the pasha's heart and he pardons them both at the last minute; 31 a young man, having joined the cavalry and gone off to fight the Turks, discovers that some villainous wretch is trying to rob him of his life-long sweetheart while he is away at war, whereupon he takes a leave of absence, returns home, and kills the villain, for which act he must face the firing squad — but lo, a miracle! — not one of the

31

" A n t h a l u sia, die edle u n d heldenmütige Griechin oder Ein seltenes Opfer kindlioher Liebe. Eine wahre Begebenheit, welche sich vor kurzer Zeit zugetragen h a t " , J a n d a and Notzoldt, pp. 153—154.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

39

bullets finds its mark, his bride throws herself at his feet, and mercy appears in the person of the emperor's messenger: Sieh da, ein Retter kommt geflogen, Mit weißem Tuch hoch in der L u f t ! Gnad', Gnade ! klingt's von aller Lippen, Gnad', Gnade, jetz der Reiter ruft. Dem Himmel Dank und Dank dem Kaiser ! Dem Brautpaar weiht man Kranz und Reiser. 38

Whereas the place of the action is frequently a foreign land, war is often used as a time orientation: "Der geheimnisvolle Rächer oder: Der brave Müllerbursche. Eine wahre Begebenheit, geschehen unweit Hamburg nach dem Schleswig-Holstein'schen Kriege", "Der Frevler im Gotteshaus oder: Der Jäger am Tag des Herrn. Eine wahre Begebenheit aus dem amerikanischen Bürgerkriege", 33 "Die Heldentaten eines jungen Mädchens bei der Erstürmung Richmonds. Eine wahre Begebenheit aus dem letzten amerikanischen Kriegsjahre". 3 4 Otto Görner remarks in this regard: "Die Kriege des 19. Jahrhunderts wie Kriege überhaupt gelten als die großen zeitlichen Orientierungspunkte: das Zeitbewußtsein des 'kleinen Mannes', des Volks wird vom Kriege bestimmt. Kriegszeit ist wie keine andere Schicksalszeit. So sind z. B. der 70er Krieg, der amerikanische Sezessionskrieg, der 64er Krieg vertreten." 3 5 The Turkish Wars, as AlfredLehmann mentions, were also important in this respect. 36 The first half of the nineteenth century, with its Napoleonic Wars, various wars of independence, and general political upheaval, brought forth a series of political Bänkellieder. Authors of these 32

"Die Husarenbraut oder: Treue Liebe bis zum Tode", Kramer, Lob der Träne, pp. 91—93. 33 Ibid., pp. 31—41 and 135—137 respectively. 34 Otto Görner, "Der Bänkelsang", Mitteldeutsche Blätter für Volkskunde, VII, 4 (August, 1932), 122—123. 35 Ibid., 122. 36 Zwischen Schaubuden und Karussells (Frankfurt am Main, 1952), p. 148. Türkenlieder were especially important in the Viennese Bänkelsang: many were printed in Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, their importance continuing on through the eighteenth century and, to some extent, in the nineteenth century. Franz Rebiczek, Der Wiener Volks- und Bänkelgesang in den Jahren von 1840—1848 (Vienna and Leipzig, 1913), pp. 19—20, 87, discusses this aspect of the Viennese Bänkelsang and gives further references.

40

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

political caricatures and satires, as well as of the ballads of a more sober character having to do, for example, with the Polish uprising of 1831 — "Der Tod des Obristen Gräfin Emilia Plater, die polnische Patriotin (1831)"; 37 or Str. Coll., VI, 44, containing "Gebet der polnischen Armee im Befreiungskriege 1831 vom Generalissimus Skrzynecki vorgeschrieben. Aus dem Polnischen übersetzt von Caspar Kapschik" and "Klage der Mutter des polnischen Lieutenants Stanislaus Wodnicki der am 31. Marz bei Grochow gefallen" — were frequently minor literati, but these Bänkellieder actually lived among the people, and were sold and sung in all of Germany. 38 The fall of Napoleon gave rise to a number of such ballads: "Kaiser Napoleons Feldzug nach Rußland", for example, or "Napoleon und der König von Rom", a sarcastically satirical Bänkellied after a ballad by Moritz Gottlieb Saphir, in which Napoleon's son, rising from his grave in Schönbrunn to visit his father in his tomb on St. Helena, is told by Napoleon t h a t his complete empire now consists of the length and breadth of his tomb: Da schlingen die Gerippe Die Knochen ineinand', Und liegen Lipp' an Lippe Und liegen Hand in Hand. So trafen sie sich beide, Der Vater und der Sohn, Das ist die letzte Stunde Vom Haus Napoleon !39

"Das Lied von der Verurteilung und Begnadigung des württembergischen Leutnants Koseritz (1833)" deals with the consequences of the attempted revolt against the Diet of the German Federation in Frankfurt, in which Koseritz played a major role. Koseritz is condemned to death, then ostensibly pardoned by being deported to America so that he can do no more damage to the powers that be. 40 "Das A t t e n t a t " tells in an ironic tone of the attempted assassination of Frederick William IV by Ludwig Tschech in 1844. The attitude toward the king and queen is particularly biting: 37

Janda and Nötzoldt, p. 71. Cf. Wolfgang Kayser, Geschichte der deutschen Ballade (Berlin, 1936), p. 257. 38 Janda and Nötzoldt, pp. 67—68 and 69—70 respectively. 10 Ibid., pp. 74—75. 38

41

THE SUBJECT MATTER

Friedrich Wilhelm h a t gehört, D a ß die Weber sieh empört, Wollt' in Schlesien sie besuchen U n d traktiern m i t Pfefferkuchen. Seht, die edle Königin Setzt sich in den Wagen rin ! — Redern reicht ihr eine Tüte "Schmeckstduprächtig", erster Güte. W a r wohl je ein Mensch so frech Wie der Bürgermeister Tschech? Der verruchte Übelthäter, Hochverräther, A t t e n t ä t e r ! F a s t den König b r a c h t ' er u m Vor dem ganzen Publikum, Schoß sogar der Landesmutter Durch den Rock ins U n t e r f u t t e r . 41

The tone changes from satirical caricature to one of bitter criticism in a poem which makes reference to the unsuccessful Heckerputsch by the left-wing radicals in Kandern, Baden, 1848: Dreiunddreißig Jahre, dreiunddreißig J a h r e W ä h r t die K n e c h t s c h a f t schon. Nieder m i t den H u n d e n von der Reaktion ! Wenn die R o t e n fragen, lebt der alte Hecker noch, Sollt ihr ihnen sagen: J a , er lebet noch ! E r h ä n g t an keinem Baume, er h ä n g t an keinem Strick, Sondern a m Märchentraume der deutschen Republik. F ü r der Freiheit Rechte, f ü r der Freiheit Reich, Wir sind keine Knechte, wir sind alle gleich. I n die Galerien brechen wir jetzt ein, All die schönen Bilder müssen unser sein. Das gibt Holz im Winter f ü r des Volkes Not, Wer uns d a r a n hindert, schlagen wir gleich tot. J a , dreiunddreißig J a h r e w ä h r t die Sauerei, Wir sind keine Knechte, wir sind alle frei. "Ibid.,

pp. 75—77.

42

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

Schmiert die Guillotine m i t Tyrannenfett, R e i ß t die Konkubine aus des Fürsten B e t t . Ja, B l u t m u ß fließen knüppelhageldick U n d daraus ersprießen die rote Republik. 4 2

Defamatory Bänkellieder had existed long before the nineteenth century, however. Although there is no connecting line between t h e sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the nineteenth century in this regard, t h e religious, political, and social strife of the two earlier centuries brought f o r t h m a n y songs in which opposing factions attacked each other and the conditions of t h e times were criticized. A pamphlet of 1517 praises L u t h e r and attacks the papacy: "Helleuchtendes evangelisches Licht von H e r r n Martino L u t h e r im 1517. J a h r in der Finsternuss des B a p s t t u m s aus Gottes W o r t angezündet u n d in einer Figur im ersten J u b e l j a h r vorgebildet": Luther, ein Licht a m dunklen Ort, H a t angezündet aus Gottes Wort, Ob's gleich der Papst t u t fechten an, Behält doch Gottes Wort den Plan.

Der Ablaßkramer m u ß entlaufen, Sein Lumpenwaar will niemend kaufen, Der Geck ist worden gar zu Spott, Weil er gemacht hat Bankerott. Die B u t t e druckt ihn auf den Rücken, U n d stechen ihn Wespen und Mücken. Er hoffet viel Geld zu erschnappen, B e k a m dafür ein Narrenkappen, Die i h m Herr Luther zugeschnitten, Sein Waar m a g er andern anbieten.

A pamphlet of 1583, f r o m t h e Catholic faction, attacks Luther, setting words which are anti-Lutheran to one of his own hymns as a satirical device: " E i n New Liedt von Martin L u t h e r dem trewlosen Augustiner Mönch, wie er das W o r t Gottes verfelscht. Gestelt durch Simon Reutlinger von Hiltzingen Pfarherr zu Gerending in Österreich. I m Thon wie das Lutherisch Gesang: Ach Gott vom Himel siech darein etc.": 42

"Der alte Hecker", ibid.,

p. 101.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

43

Ach Gott vom Himel schaw darein, Und laß dich das erbarmen, Wie hat Luther die Bibel dein So gar verfelscht den Armen. Er lehrt, der Glaub sey allein gnug, Man dörfi kein gut Werk thun darzu, Und ist im grund erlogen. 43

A pamphlet of 1619, "Der siebenköpfige Calvinistengeist", criticizes Calvinism. There are seven stanzas, each stanza describing a particular characteristic of Calvinism. Each stanza is headed b y a title in the form of similes which become progressively more caustic: "Freundlich wie ein Mensch", "Demütig wie ein Lamm", "Listig wie ein Fuchs", "Unersättlich wie der Wolf", "Blutgierig wie ein Leopard," "Feurig wie der Drach", " I n allem Thun und Laßen wie der Teufel". Another pamphlet which bears no date but which, judging from its content, applies to the Thirty Years' War, contains an "Eigentliche Abbildung der vornehmsten örter, Städte, Festungen und Pässe, so in kurzer Zeit aus der Gefängnuß und Drangsal des Papstthums durch Gottes und der Gothen Macht sind erlediget worden". Lastly, a pamphlet of 1619, "Geistlicher Raufhandel", expresses the position of the common man in relation to the religious and political bickering which led to the Thirty Years' War. A four-line stanza precedes the body of the pamphlet: O schau doch Wunder, mein lieber Christ, Wie der Bapst, Luther und Calvinist Einander in die Haar gefallen, Gott helfe den Verirrten allen.

The body of the pamphlet begins: Ach, Herr Gott, ein elends Wesen, Wir können weder schreiben noch lesen, Seyn ungelehrt, einfältig Leut, Verstehen nicht den großen Streit, So all Lehrer täglich treiben, In dem Predigen und Schreiben, Werden im Glauben nur verirrt, Mancher gar epikurisch wird, Oder lebt so hinein in Tag, Daß er gar nichts mehr glauben mag. 43

Ibid., pp. 90 and 91—93 respectively.

THE "BÄNKELSANG"

44

and ends: Herr Jesu, schau du selbst darein, Wie uneins die drei Männer seyn, K o m m doch zu deiner Kirch behend Und bring solch Zanken zu eim End. 44

DIDACTICISM. SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

Didacticism is an especially important aspect of the Bänkelsang, and the morality expressed by this institution which seems, quite literally, to 'intentionally teach', must be given thorough consideration. Hans Naumann, Wolfgang Kayser, and Otto Görner, among others, have examined the Bänkelsang from this point of view. Naumann, speaking of the Bänkelsang in general, emphasizes its religious character, the Christian morality which it expresses, and compares it to the Salvation Army: "[Die Bänkelsänger] wollen rühren, erschüttern, erschrecken und bessern zugleich. . . . Düsteres, wunderbares oder entsetzliches Geschehnis, aufdringliche Frömmigkeit und Moral bilden den freudlosen Charakter des Bänkelgesangs, der innerlich eng einer bestimmten Klasse alter und neuer religiösmoralischer Flugschriften, wie etwa heute denen der Heilsarmee, verwandt ist." 45 Naumann sees a change occurring in the subject matter of the Bänkelsang in the mid-eighteenth century under the influence of Gleim and his successors, the Romanzendichter, a trend toward a more secular subject matter, toward the pathetically sentimental, and he shows t h a t this continues throughout the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth. H e sees the morality expressed in the Bänkelsang, however, as remaining basically Christian: good is rewarded and evil is punished, good being synonymous with Christian, evil being synonymous with non-Christian. 46 As the following observations and the remarks by Kayser and Görner will show, Naumann's view of the Christian character of the morality of the later Bänkelsang of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is an erroneous one. On the contrary, the morality of the later Bänkelsang is a secular one which expresses a social consciousness and a sympathy for the common man and 44 45 46

Scheible, pp. 209—211, 44, and 206—208, respectively. "Studien über den Bänkelgesang", pp. 168—169. Ibid., pp. 175, 177, 179—181, 184.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

45

his problems; further, this social consciousness can be traced back to the sixteenth century. Kayser sees misfortune and crime as the principal elements of the subject matter of the early Bänlcelsang — the Newe Zeitung and the Zeitungslied of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries — as well as of the later Bänlcelsang. He is of the opinion, however (and he refers in this regard to Görner's observations), that the morality expressed in the later Bänlcelsang is a this-world, materialistic morality based on the contrast between rich and poor, whereas the morality of the earlier Bänlcelsang was a religious morality based on the Christian contrast of the sufferings of this world and the joys of the next, the rewards in an afterlife for having led a good — that is, Christian — life in this: "Wenn im Zeitungslied Verbrechen und Unglück grell geschildert werden, so geschieht das auch in einer bestimmten Weltordnung. Nur heißt hier der Gegenpol nicht Reichtum und irdisches Glück, sondern Entschädigung des Unschuldigen und Frommen in einem Jenseits. Der christliche Gedanke des richtenden Gottes stellt den Gegenpol dar, wobei oft genug die Nähe des Jüngsten Tages verkündet wird."47 The Christian morality of the Bänlcelsang is especially evident in the Türkenlieder, which pointed the way to a good, Christian life by illustrating the contrast between the vicious, inhuman nonChristian and the good, pious Christian. A Christian morality is also apparent in the reporting of strange and miraculous occurrences (such as portents in the sky), which, as Kayser states (ibid., p. 66), were especially popular in the seventeenth century, and the popularity of which continued to some extent in the eighteenth century; Str. Coll. I l l , 112, for example — "Eine gewisse und wahrhaftige Wundergeschichte, welche sich zugetragen in Ungarn zu Groß wardein Anno 1729 den 5. Februar von eines Kommandanten Tochter, welche sehr keusch und gottesfürchtig gelebt. Im Ton: Nun laßt uns den Leib begraben" — tells of a girl who, having gone for a walk in her garden, returns home to find that she has been away for 120 years, an occurrence which is recognized as a miracle wrought by the deity.48 The Exekutionszettel and Hinrichtung s" Geschichte der deutschen Ballade, pp. 60—61. 48 Other texts of the Strasbourg Collection which express a purely Christian morality are, e.g.: "Ein Schöna Lied O lieben Freunde nun thüt euch bekeren u. Zu ermanung den Christen yetzundt sehr fast nützlich. Ein ander schön

46

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

lieder should also be mentioned in connection with the Christian morality of the Bänkelsang. Many of these pamphlets and songs were written by members of the clergy, and were filled with sermonlike warnings exhorting the crowd to repent and lead a Christian life. Böhme states that it was the purpose of the execution pamphlets "zu betonen, daß die Öffentlichkeit der Hinrichtung ein Erziehungsund Besserungsmittel f ü r die Zuschauer, nicht aber ein Schauspiel zur Befriedung der Sensationslust, sei." 49 As has been mentioned, execution pamphlets were especially popular in the eighteenth century, although they extend back as far as the sixteenth century and continue to furnish the Bänkelsänger with material on into the early nineteenth century. Otto Görner has given extensive consideration to the morality of the later Bänkelsang.50 He regards 1843 as the beginning date for the later Bänkelsang, the year in which the Hermann Reiche Publishing Company was established in Schwiebus, Saxony, and which had published 1169 pamphlets up to 1932, the date at which Görner writes (ibid., 169). He cites five Moritaten which were published by Hermann Reiche and which were sung by the Rosemann family at the annual fair in Chemnitz, 1930: "Die Heldentaten eines jungen Mädchens bei der ErstürmungRichmonds'', "Das lebendig begrabene Kind oder Gott ist gerecht", "Der geheimnisvolle Rächer oder: Der brave Müllerbursche. Eine wahre Begebenheit, geschehen unweit Hamburg nach dem Schleswig-Holstein'schen Kriege", "Die elf Waisen, worunter acht Söhne u. drei Töchter L o b g e s a n g v o n Christo v n s e r e m Herren" (I, P a m p h l e t n u m b e r unreadable); "Der X C I . P s a l m . E i n g a n t z Trostlich Gesang so in Sterbensleüfften w o l zü betrachten ist. I n der Melodey: D e r Thorecht spricht E s ist kein Gott. I t e m ein andere Composition dises X C I . Psalmens. I n der Melodey: A u ß tieffer n o t h schrey ich z u dir u . " (I, 46); " E i n e erschreckliche B e g e b e n h e i t u n d w a h r h a f t e Geschichte v o n einer u n g e h o r s a m e n B e c k e n - T o c h t e r z u Brüssel in B r a b a n t , wie solche hier ausfuhrlich in Versen beschrieben wird; a l l e n u n g e h o r s a m e n u n d widerspenstigen K i n d e r n z u m S t r a f e x e m p e l a u f g e s e t z t " (IV, 74), w h i c h illustrates t h e F o u r t h C o m m a n d m e n t ; " E i n schön n e w e s Christliches g e s a n g v o n der erbärmlichen Wassergüß . . . a m g a n t z e n T h o n a w s t r a m . . . " (I, 89; see above, p. 26), t h e reporting of w h i c h disaster serves t o warn all Christians t o repent: " S e y z u der l e t z t g e w a r n e t /O t h u m e W e l t kehr v m b : Zu lang ist vbel geharret/ hörs E u a n g e lium". 49 50

"Bänkelsängermoritaten", p. 52. "Der Bänkelsang", 164—168.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

47

sich befanden. Eine rührende Geschichte der neuesten Zeit", and "Herzenskämpfe oder: Der harte Vater" (ibid., 164). Görner reviews the content of these stories, then discusses the morality expressed in them. Crime and misfortune make up their content, and the action always proceeds in such a manner that he who in the end meets with great fortune must necessarily have experienced great hardship and misfortune: fortune comes about only after misfortune. The stereotyped characters of these stories are "der harte Vater, das eigensinnige Mädchen, das arme Kind und die armen Kinder, Geliebte und Ungeliebte, Räuber und Soldateska, Stiefmütter, die junge Dame, der man das Leben retten kann, die alte Dame, die immer zufällig ein halbes Dutzend Kinder verloren hat, der Geizhals, der Wucherer" (ibid., 165), each one of which falls into one of two distinct classes: the rich and the poor. This is the moral contrast expressed in these stories. The poor suffer and meet with fortune, the rich must atone for their evil deeds and incur misfortune. Görner sees, as did Naumann, a contrast of good and evil, but good is now synonymous with poor, evil synonymous with rich. This, then, is a secular morality: "Von einem wirklichen Bessernwollen im Sinne der christlichen oder irgendeiner andern Ethik kann kaum die Rede sein . . . . Strafen müssen so grausam wie möglich sein. Den Armen überhaupt und den armen Kindern insbesondere gilt die Sympathie. Es ist die soziale Frage, gesehen in der Perspektive des kleinen Mannes, gelöst nach dem, Rezept: Geld macht glücklich" (ibid., Görner's italics). Thus, the extremely poor become, in the end, extremely rich: "Glück und Vorteil, nicht Tugend und Belohnung, sind die erörterten Themata" (ibid.). Speaking of the coexistence in these stories of a maudlin sentimentality (which, he concurs with Naumann, finds its source in the eighteenth century) and a brutal violence (which indicates that these texts originate in the lowest social depths), Görner characterizes the later Bänkelsang as 'Vulgärpoesie': the intention to improve, to better, is only tacked on, as it were, the real intent being to produce a pleasant shivering in the spines of the spectators (ibid., 167). Furthermore, the Bänkelsang is 'Mitleidpoesie': the deus ex machina (in the person of a rich, beautiful lady, for example) appears suddenly out of the blue to save the hero, who has suffered unbelievable misfortune and senseless brutality. All of this takes place in a universe in which there prevails a 'Trivialethik': "Die naiv-praktische Moral bestimmt, daß der

48

THE

"BÄNKELSANG"

Arme, nachdem er gründlich gelitten hat, reich wird, der Reiche, nachdem er lange genug h a r t u n d grausam gewesen ist, h a r t u n d ausgiebig b e s t r a f t wird. Es handelt sich in der Moritat . . . u m die Moral des Sprichworts, . . . eine praktische, aus den Dingen heraus erst zur E r f a h r u n g gebrachte MoralWeisheit, die sich mit den Dingen abfindet" (ibid., 166). I t seems reasonable to state t h a t t h e Bänkelsang, developing as it did in its early stages under t h e religious fervor and strife of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, assumed to a greater or lesser extent a religious content and expressed a Christian morality. This Christian morality remained contextually a part of the Bänkelsang b u t gradually decreased in importance with time, t h e morality of the Bänkelsang tending to be more secular and expressing a social consciousness of class distinction, this to be sure in a naive, superficial, melodrama-like manner which sees t h e acquisition of riches as the sole and ultimate solution to the problems of the have-nots. I t can be demonstrated, however, t h a t this view of social and economic questions is not always so naive and superficial, t h a t this poetry which was presented b y the common m a n to t h e common m a n expresses a sincere sympathy for the common m a n and his problems. Kramer, writing in 1955, sees this when he states: " I m übrigen zeigt aber der Bänkelsang auch humane Züge, die frei von sozialem Puritanismus sind." 5 1 K r a m e r makes reference in this regard t o t h e closing lines of "Eine schreckliche T a t der Verzweiflung oder: I m Banne des Elends", in which a Frenchman, unable t o find work, convinces his wife t h a t the only solution to their destitute existence is suicide. They throw themselves and their children into t h e sea. The children and the mother drown, b u t t h e father is saved, and lives to be punished for a crime which, for all practical purposes, he was forced to commit. The ballad ends: Jedoch der Vater wurde noch gerettet Und bald auch hin zu dem Gericht gebracht; Und büßen wird, zeitlebens er gekettet In feuchten, dumpfen Kerkers ew'ger Nacht. Das ist des namenlosen Elends Ende. Zu Gott gewandt erheben wir die Hände: Vor solcher Not bewahr' uns, guter Gott. 62 61 M

Lob der Träne, p. 227. Ibid., p. 210. Italics mine.

THE SUBJECT MATTER

49

I n the second and third decades of this century ballads concerning unemployment became increasingly important. These dealt principally with the problems of unemployed mine workers. For the most part they were sold on the streets and in taverns by disabled miners and other unemployed workers, but were also sung by Bänkelsänger: "Arbeitslos! Eine Bergmannsgeschichte aus der Not unserer Zeit", "Ohne Arbeit, ohne Brot, Ach, wie bitter ist die Not. Die Geschichte dreier arbeitsloser Bergleute". 53 Görner himself, summarizing the subject matter of the pamphlets published by Hermann Reiche, mentions t h a t the miseries of metropolitan living ('Großstadtelend') furnished the Bänkelsänger with material, certainly a topical question which involves the problems of the common man. This social conscience appears not only in the later Bänkelsang. I t can be traced back to the sixteenth century. A pamphlet of 1571 tells of a peasant who, having been refused grain by his lord, a 'reichter Edelman', stills his hunger by eating his youngest child. The moral is expressed in Christian terms, but plainly indicates a social conscience: Gott wol vns hie mit vermanen Seiner Armen zu verschonen Welches er Zeigen thut Wer auff nimbt vnnd hört der Armen Vnd sich thut erbarmen Der helt mich selbest in huet. 54

A pamphlet of 1802 retains the Christian orientation, but makes the contrast of rich and poor quite obvious: "Merket auch dieses auch ihr Reichen, die ihr bei eurem Ueberfluß und Verschwendung eure armen Brüder und Schwestern, die so oft in grossen Mangel und Elend leben, so könnt herum gehen sehen, und sie noch dazu, wenn sie euch um ein Stücklein Brod ansprechen, mit harten Worten von euch abweißt; denket, es wird ein unbarmherzig Gericht über euch ergeben, darum seyd barmherzig, wie auch euer Vater im Himmel barmherzig ist." 55 We have already noted the expression of the position of the common man in wartime and of his feelings 53 "Bänkelsang", Die deutsche Volkskunde, ed Adolf Spamer (2nd ed.; Berlin, 1934), II, 446. 61 "Ein Newes leid [ s i c ] vonn dem erschrecklichen geschieht so geschehen ist ein meil wegs vonn Saltzburg de 10. tag Jener 1571. Jar. Im Thon Innßpruck ich muß dich lassen", Str. Coll., I, 77.