A Legacy of Hope Critical Songs of the GDR 1960-1989
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\-a-a-l A Legacy Of Hope Critical Songs Of The GDR 1960 - 1989 Thesis presented by Victoria Hardwick in the Department of German Studies for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Adelaide, July 1996 Recordings of the songs analysed in this thesis are available in the casseie collection-pangúages.argumeñts ) at Technical Services, Faculty of Arts. Flowever, th, presented in the thesis can be followed without necessarily knowing or hearing the music' To My Mother Contents Acknowledgements Statement Absnact Introduction Section Crne 1. Socialist Realism 11 2.The Song Movement (Singebewegung) in the GDR 31 3. Hope 60 Section Two 4. Socialism 68 5. The Role of the Liedermacher 95 6. Everyday Life r07 7. Hope, Dreams, Longing, UtoPia 160 8. Love 180 9. Die Wende 1988-1989 L96 Conclusion 21,6 Footnotes 219 Discography 252 Bibliography 253 Acknowledsement My sincere gratitude goes to my supervisor, Dr. Naomi Cumming, for her unfailing encouragement and her ready and generous attention to all problems. I would also like to thank fudith Wilson, Margaret Ki^g and Lee Kersten for their patience, help, advice and support over many years. Many thanks also to Gloria Sumner, Franca DiSotto and Catherine Amis for their invaluable assistance in the final stages of this work. Abstract Critical songs in the former German Democratic Republic are less about theories and ideologies than about how the execution of these affects the people who are exposed ro them. They question socio-political measures and widespread attitudes to actually existing socialism, often giving voice to opinions which people have been cautious to verbalise. There has always been interaction been popular music and politics. History has shown however that the importance of political and./or critical songs has depended largely on the role given to them by the government or regime under which they emerge. The critical songs written and performed in the GDR made possible both a presentation of ideas, opinions and perspectives, and a¡ awareness of emotions, conscious and subconscious. People listen to music, and specif,rcally songs, with a certain expeclation. [n societies like the former GDR, where repression became a common method for dealing with socio- political problems, those expectations went beyond the need for entertainment, relaxation and academic interest to include more underlying psychological expectations. While there is no theory which defines exactly how emotions are expressed in music, a differentiation can be made between how people's emotions are aroused and what emotional qualities are present in musical works. This is especiaily true when the music is accompanied by a text, as the text extends the possibility of emotions being evoked in listeners because it signifies a particular situation. Naturally, reactions to songs, critical and otherwise, will be varied. However, in a society like the former GDR, where ideology and its interpretation and practical manifestation are pa.ramount, those reactions, a mingling of the intellectual and the experiential, became important in urging people to take a position, whether it was to affirm the ideology and how the state chose to interpret it, to criticise the interpretation while aff,rrming the ideology or to criticise both. For whether people consciously made a choice or not, is not the question. How they rcacted to and found means of surviving within the sysæm indicates thei¡ choice. It is my intention to trace briefly the development of the critical song movement in the GDR and to show how it formed a mode of resistance to the GDR government's interpretåtion o[ socialism and yet maintained a very powerful element of hope that socialism could become a reality in the GDR. In line with the GDR government's attitude to art in its various forms, the critical songs chosen will be examined and analysed, taking into consideration the most obvious influences on their development and tracing the importance of this genre to the slate as a form of political opposiûon. Introduction Critical songs in the German Democratic Republic are less about theories and ideologies than about how the execution of these affects the people who are exposed to them. They question widespread attitudes to social problems, often giving voice to opinions which people have been cautious to verbalise. When people become aware that their difficulties are not unique, but are shared with others, they often experience a feeling of unity with those others. Just as importantly, however, critical songs express emotion and political conviction, simply because they speak to people in a way in which no other medium can. People listen to music, and specifically songs, with a certain expectation. In societies like the GDR, where repression became a common method for dealing with socio- political problems, those expectations went beyond the need for entertainment, relaxation and academic interest to include more psychologically based expectations. Among these was the need to become part of a group that did not agree with everything the government did, to move out of isolation and share one's criticism of the state with others, or merely to find emotional release in the common thoughts and feelings which emerged during the performance of songs. While there is no theory which defines exactly how emotions are expressed in music, a differentiation is made between how people's emoúons are aroused and what emotional qualities are present in musical works. Jenefer Robinson, in her article "The Expression and Arousal of Emotion in Music", states: Kivy argues that to have one's emotions aroused by a piece of music - in particular, to be moved by a piece of music - is quite distinct from perceiving a particular emotional quality in that piece. Music that is sad or expresses sadness is music with a sad expressive contour or music that is sad by convention, not music that arouses or evokes sadness. (...) ...on the other hand (...) there are important emotions aroused by music which are full-blown, ordinary, real-life emotions, not "truncated" or "imaginary" in any sense.l z This is especially true when the intentions of the composer are made clearer by the inclusion of a text. The emotions of the composer may not coincide with the emotions of the listener, especially in instrumental music, that is to say, listeners may perceive the emotional inæntions of the composer, without actually experiencing the same emotions. Music with text, i.e. song, extends the possibility of emotion being evoked in listeners, in that it signifies a particular situation. Naturally, reactions to a song, critical or otherwise, will be va¡ied. However, where ideology and its intepretation and practical manifestation are paramount in a society like the GDR, those reactions, a mingling of the inællectual and experiential, became important in uniting people to either afhrm the government's position, to criúcise with a view to affirming the ideology, but criticising the practice, or to criticise both the ideology and the practice. For some these two would have been inextricably intertwined. While Robinson does not reach a clear, or adequate, conclusion about "how the expression of emotion by music is related to the arousal of emotion in the listener"2 , she does conclude: And the point I have urged above all is that any such analysis must begin with the emotions that a.re aroused by the music in the listener.3 Music, and especially song, is a means by which these difficulties can be discussed. As well as reflecting the times in which they are conceived, critical songs can also make listeners aware of other people's perspectives, not only in their own culture, but also in other cultures. Musicians, whether they are songwriters, interpreterc, Liedermncher or instrumentalists, if they have the perception and sensitivity, can capture the mood of the times in which they live, react to the fears, needs and hopes of the people in their everyday existence. A major advantage of songs being used as a political weapon is their brevity. They need no stage props, can be accompanied by one or several instruments and can be performed spontaneously, on market squares, in churches, in fact wherever the musician feels it is appropriate. The prohibition of such songs does not hinder their dissemination, since, due to their brevity, they can be copied by hand, taped and -) distributed in private and memorised, to a greater or lesser extent, without difficulty. In other words, they are less dependent on resources allotted to the media, e.g. publishing houses, radio and television, ngwspapers and galleries, than are other a¡t works, such as novels, plays, paintings etc. There has always been interaction between popular music and politics. History has shown however that the importance of political songs has very much depended on the role given to them by the government / regime under which they emerge. In his book Das Chanson, Felix Schmidt refers to the historical signihcance of songs and states that they could only achieve political importance when poets and singers were able to speak their mind and spontaneously reflect on the events of their time.4 However, they were seldom able to do so without fear of reprisal. This makes the difficulties encountered by critical Liedermacher ín the GDR, who dared to commment honestly on the conditions under which they lived, historically consistent. Schmidt states further that songs fulfilled several roles: they were a journal of events, propaganda and also political weapons.s This tradition certainly became part of the development of the song movement, offrcial and critical, in the GDR. When critical songs were performed in the German Democratic Republic they made possible both a presentation of ideas, opinions and perspectives, and an awareness of emotions, conscious and subconscious.