Hitler's favourite songs

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CanadianPatriot
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Hitler's favourite songs

#1

Post by CanadianPatriot » 11 Jun 2003, 13:51

[Several threads dealing with Hitler's favourite songs have been merged and renamed; misinformative and off-topic posts have been removed. Ivan Ž.]

I've heard stories that Hitler's favourite song was "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". In the same vein, his favourite film was [allegedly] "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". This could be propaganda spread to de-mystify Hitler, though.

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Weiss Wurst
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#2

Post by Weiss Wurst » 29 Jul 2003, 08:43

Does anyone wonder if Hitler was enamored of his propaganda ballads, marching songs, etc? I often wonder if he sat listening to the lyrics or simply stuck with the classics. I for one find it very hard not to be drawn into the music of such marching songs as the Horst Wessel Lied, though I believe it to have an evil reputation, I still enjoy listening to it over and over.


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#3

Post by 197752 » 28 Nov 2008, 17:35

My Dad, now dead, was a WWII US Army veteran, one of the first American paratroopers. Anyway, I remember him telling that supposedly Hitler had a favorite song, ironically, a French song, a love song, apparently about unrequited love. Does anyone know if this is correct or if was merely one of the many stories that accompanied Hitler's to all who fought against him.

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#4

Post by robertmountfor » 20 Apr 2012, 09:25

Apologies if I have mentioned it before, but the late, great Herbert Döhring once told me that he loved to whistle ' whos afraid of the big bad wolf'. Makes sense aswell when you think about it. Other favourites were the 'Donkey serenade, and light operettas including 'Merry Widow'. Some of the words reminded him of his native rural Austrian childhood he said.

[Note: member robertmountfor stated here that Döhring mentioned Hitler humming the "Donkey Serenade", not whistling "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". I. Ž.]

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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Hitler's favourite songs

#5

Post by Ivan Ž. » 06 Nov 2020, 22:58

As any other person, Hitler had more than one favourite song in his life.

The only semi-official favourite song of Hitler's (Lieblingslied des Führers) known to me was: "Die braune Garde". I wrote "semi-official" because it was credited as such only in a couple of songbooks, in 1934 (Lieder der Arbeit, 50 ausgewählte SA-Sturm- und Marschlieder and Sturm- und Kampflieder-Buch, the 1934 ed.). And that seems to be about it. I haven't heard of another song being published as his favourite, in his lifetime.

According to F. K. Prieberg's research, Hitler also liked "Es zog ein Hitlermann hinaus" (set to the melody of "Es steh'n zwei Freunde Hand in Hand") and "Im schönsten Wiesengrunde" (a folk song with the same melody as "Drei Lilien"); see Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933–1945, p. 1507 and p. 3322. However, Prieberg credited no sources for those claims.

As for the previously mentioned songs...

According to his secretary Traudl Junge, Hitler indeed liked the "Donkey Serenade" and it was the only Schlager record that he played (in the 1940s, that is, when she worked for him; he could have been playing other Schlager records in the past, of course); see Until the Final Hour, New York, 2004, p. 81.

The info on "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" apparently originates from R. G. L. Waite's The Psychopathic God, Adolf Hitler, New York, 1977, p. 27; it seems that his source might have been an interview with Hitler's secretary Johanna Wolf (he wasn't specific about his sources). Waite wrote: "One of his favorite tunes came from a Walt Disney movie. Often and absent-mindedly he whistled 'Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?'" (It was also Waite who stated that "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was one of Hitler's favourite movies, along with "King Kong".) Naturally, the fact that Hitler may have whistled some tune at some point in his life doesn't make it his favourite song. Most Disney tunes were incredibly catchy, which is why they're still popular today, in 2020. So it wouldn't be strange if Hitler liked them too (especially back then, when there was incomparably less music and movies around). I myself whistle "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" many times a year, but I'd never consider it my favourite song.

Cheers,
Ivan

Note: several posts dealing with a record or records that Eva Braun may have played have been moved to a different topic.

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Ivan Ž.
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Re: Hitler's favourite songs

#6

Post by Ivan Ž. » 08 Nov 2020, 20:16

For those interested in other topics dealing with Hitler's music taste, see:

Topic Hitler's favourite march
Topic Hitler's taste in classical music
Topic Records labelled "Führerhauptquartier" and "Berghof"

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