Horst-Wessel-Lied parody translation

[walterkaschner]

Here is another version, popular with certain of the blue collar working class in the 1930s:

1. Die Fahne hoch, das Schmalz ist aufgeschlagen,
die Margarine kostet schon 'ne Mark und zehn.
Uns knurrt immer noch der Proletariermagen,
vom Sozialismus ist noch nichts zu sehn.

2. Wir brauchen Brot, ihr gebt uns Wachparaden
und laßt den braunen Rundfunk auf uns los.
Ihr spielt die Herrn von Euer Gottes Gnaden,
kein Feuerwerk ist euch zu groß.

3. Der Winter kommt, wir haben keine Kohlen,
der Arbeitsdienst zieht uns den Rücken krumm,
und unsre Kinder laufen auf zerrissnen Sohlen
in eurem Gottesgnaden-Reich herum.

4. Einst kommt der Tag, da wird sich uns verkünden,
wer Freiheit liebt und Todesfurcht nicht kennt.
Dann werden wir ein rotes Feuerwerk anzünden,
in dem das ganze Dritte Reich verbrennt.

My (very rough) translation:

1. Raise high the banners! the price of lard has already risen,
Margerine already costs one Mark ten.
Our proletarian stomachs are still growling,
there is still nothing of Socialism to be seen.

2. We need bread, you give us guard parades
And turn your brown [SA] radio loose on us.
You pretend to be lords by the grace of your own own God,
No firework celebration is too great for you.

3. Winter comes - we have no coal,
The Workers' Service turns its humped back on us,
And our children run about with holes in their shoes
In your God-blessed Reich.

4. There will come a day, it will be proclaimed to us,
Which will love freedom and will not know fear of death.
Then we will light a red firework
In which the entire Third Reich will be cremated.

Regards, Kaschner

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

That is funny! Although, the term 'blue collar' is unfamiliar to me, elaborate?

[walterkaschner]

Birgitte,

In the US we differentiate between "white collar" workers, who typically wear white shirts and work in an office, and "blue collar" workers, who typically wear blue shirts(at least formerly, not so much these days) and work on the factory or shop floor.

BTW, I seem to remember a German song with the Horst Wessel Lied melody that was about an adventurer who was shipwrecked and then rescued by a pirate ship, sold into slavery and purchased out of slavery by a german prince, who then freed him. Is that the one you have in Danish?

Here is another workers' parody of the Horst Wessel Lied which might amuse:

1. Die Preise hoch,
Die Schnauze fest geschlossen
Hunger marschiert
In ruhig festem Schritt
Hitler und Goebbels
Unsre beiden Volksgenossen,
Hungern im Geist
Mit uns Proleten mit.

2. Im Arbeitsamt
Wird SOS geblasen,
Zum Stempeln stehn
Wir alle Mann bereit.
Statt Brot und Arbeit
Gibt der Führer uns nur Phrasen
Und wer was sagt,
Lebt nur noch kurze Zeit

3. Die Straße stinkt
Nach braunen Batallionen,
Ein Pöstchen winkt
Dem Sturmabteilungsmann.
Vielleicht verdient als Bonze
Morgen er Millionen,
Doch das geht uns
'nen braunen Scheißdreck an.

My (very rough) translation:

1.The prices rise;
With its snout almost closed
Hunger marches on
With firm and steady step.
Hitler and Goebbels,
Both our compatriots,
Share hunger, but only in spirit,
With us proletarians.

2. In the Workers' Bureau
Trumpets sound the SOS.
All of us stand ready
To get our work pass stamped.
Instead of bread and work
The Führer gives us only speeches
And whoever says anything about it
Lives only a short time thereafter.

3. The streets stink
of brown [SA] batallions,
A bureaucrat winks
At the SA trooper,
Perhaps tomorrow he will be a "big shot"
And earn millions,
That's why we are fighting against the brown s**t-dirt.

Regards (and please pardon the rough language), Kaschner

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

Hee hee hee!

No, the one I have is a late 19th century 'penny lied' about a fickle girl who tells her suitor to climb a mountain and get her an edelweiss before she'll marry him. Of course he falls down from the peak and ends up lying crushed at her feet, at which point she recants. Oh, the horror! Oh, the tragedy! Wah!

[varjag]

Hee hee hee!

No, the one I have is a late 19th century 'penny lied' about a fickle girl who tells her suitor to climb a mountain and get her an edelweiss before she'll marry him. Of course he falls down from the peak and ends up lying crushed at her feet, at which point she recants. Oh, the horror! Oh, the tragedy! Wah!

Birgitte knew that song too, though not in German. The boys name was
Kuno, wasn't it?
But the melody I learnt with the song - had nothing to do with HW Lied.
You're in Denmark eh? I learnt the song in Sweden - the title was
Alpens Ros, what was 'your title'?

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

Same title, "Alperosen" -- I don't remember any names being mentioned in it, though. But yea, it definitely predates Horst Wessel by at least half a century. Which isn't really so weird -- HW was an early rallying song, it'd make perfect sense for Horst to have written it to a tune other people would be familiar with. Otherwise he might just have ended up standing there by himself singing.