"Lied der Moorsoldaten" or "Peat Bog Soldiers" was created by 3 prisoners in 1933 in Börgermoor one of the first concentration camps established in Nazi-Germany.
Contrary to popular belief, the song’s creation was neither spontaneous nor collective. Rather, as Rudi Goguel says, it was a ‘conscious protest song of the resistance against their oppressors.’ The lyrics were written by the proletarian poet Johannes Esser, a miner from the Ruhr. The actor and director Wolfgang Langhoff then rewrote some of the passages and added to the refrain. Finally, the sales clerk Rudi Goguel composed the melody.
About two weeks after the composition was finished, the song was premiered on August 27, 1933 as part of the "Zirkus Konzentrazani"
Below a copy of "Wir Sind Die Moorsoldaten" made by Hanns Kralik in the KZ Börgermoor 1933.
After his release Günter Daus brought this copy outside the camp (archive of Documentation and Information Center Emslandlager in Papenburg, Germany, estate Günter Daus)
1. Wohin auch das Auge blicket,
Moor und Heide nur ringsum.
Vogelsang uns nicht erquicket,
Eichen stehen kahl und krumm.
Refrain:
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten,
Und ziehen mit dem Spaten,
Ins Moor.
2. Hier in dieser öden Heide
Ist das Lager aufgebaut,
Wo wir fern von jeder Freude
Hinter Stacheldraht verstaut.
Refrain:
3. Morgens ziehen die Kolonnen
In das Moor zur Arbeit hin.
Graben bei dem Brand der Sonne,
Doch zur Heimat steht der Sinn.
Refrain:
4. Heimwärts, heimwärts jeder sehnet,
Zu den Eltern, Weib und Kind.
Manche Brust ein Seufzer dehnet,
Weil wir hier gefangen sind.
Refrain:
5. Auf und nieder gehn die Posten,
Keiner, keiner, kann hindurch.
Flucht wird nur das Leben kosten,
Vierfach ist umzäunt die Burg.
Refrain:
6. Doch für uns gibt es kein Klagen,
Ewig kann's nicht Winter sein.
Einmal werden froh wir sagen:
Heimat, du bist wieder mein:
Dann ziehn die Moorsoldaten
Nicht mehr mit dem Spaten
Ins Moor!
As we can see above, the original setting of the song with Rudi Goguel's music, contained 6 verses.
The three notes that are repeated at the beginning stand for the desolateness of the camp. According to the composer, they are intended to recreate the bleakness of the moor and the difficult situation in which the "moor soldiers" had to live.
By contrast, the 4/4 beat brings to mind the marching of the workers and as a rhythmic stylistic means reaffirms the idea of "soldiers".
Below the original 6 verses setting of the song, with Rudi Goguel's music.
In 1935 Hans Eisler adapted the song: besides omitting verses 3 and 4, he also made some musical changes. Eisler quickened the pace of the song to 2/4 time and made other changes in rhythm. He also replaced the characteristic repetition of notes at the beginning with a jump of a fourth.
The composer Hanns Eisler was introduced to the "Lied der Moorsoldaten" during a stay in London. He was making records in a studio with Ernst Busch, a fellow exile and singer of proletarian songs. ‘In January 1935,’ writes Busch,
a man brought us this song to London. This man said that he had somehow managed to get out of Börgermoor. He gave us the lyrics and tried to sing the melody for us as it had been sung by the concentration camp prisoners.
However, as it later turned out, the man in question was not a former ‘moor soldier’, but a German police informant. He had to sing the song over and over again, but it was never quite right, so Eisler picked out a melody himself on the piano.
Hanns Eisler's new arrangement of the song was clearly adapted from "Horch, Kind, horch, wie der Sturmwind weht" (a lullaby of the Thirty Years' War ) (although this song is about a 17th century war the lyrics were written in 1917 by Ricarda Huch and melody added during the Jugendbewegung (Youth Movement) in Germany.
Listen here to a version by Wolfgang Roth from 1960
Of course "Lied der Moorsoldaten" became world famous in the version by Hanns Eisler. His arrangement became so popular that it was even able to overtake Rudi Goguel’s original in many of the Nazi camps. For Goguel the song developed outside of Germany into a ‘fight and protest song of a public character.’ Eisler’s version made its official debut at the first International Worker’s Music Olympics in 1935 in Strasburg, where it was sung by Ernst Busch.
Eisler himself brought his arrangement of this song to America, where he gave a benefit concert for the victims of Nazi crimes in the same year. Busch bears much of the credit for the international popularity of Eisler’s version. He traveled in 1935 from the Netherlands to the Soviet Union, where he made the first recordings of this song.
(o) Ernst Busch (1936) (as "Lied der Moorsoldaten")
Recorded in Moscow in 1936.
Released on the Gramplasttrest label
text on the label:
Песня болотных солдат
обр.Г.Эйслера
Эрнст Буш
джаз оркестр и хор
Translates as:
Song bog soldiers (=Lied der Moorsoldaten)
obr.G.Eyslera (=arr. H. Eisler)
Ernst Busch
Jazz Orchestra and Chorus
This version has only verses 1,2,5 and 6 from the original setting of the song.
Listen here:
Or here:
The same master was also released on the SovSong label
As I said above, already in 1935 Hans Eisler himself brought his arrangement of this song to America, where he gave a benefit concert for the victims of Nazi crimes in the same year.
In January 1937 the song was published in New York City by Workers Library Publishers in the songbook "Songs Of The People".
Ernst Busch also took it to Spain, where it became part in the song repertory of the
International Brigades during the Civil War (1936–1939). In 1938 Busch published
the songbook and album “Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales”, which was recorded in 1937, at the front line of the Spanish Civil War, in the Odeon Studio in Barcelona, among them "Das Lied der Moorsoldaten" in a shortened version – presented by Ernst Busch and the
choir of the XI. brigade (this was a brigade of German volunteers)
Here's the first edition of the Canciones de las Brigadas Internacionales with the title: Kampflieder der Internationalen Brigaden.
And here's the fifth edition
Here's the original album with six songs on three 78's:
This version has only verses 1,2 and 6 from the original setting of the song.
The same recordings were released by the Keynote label (album # K 101) in the USA in 1940 as "6 Songs For Democracy". (Discos de las Brigadas Internacionales Espana; reissued Music Room International
Series/Keynote Records, New York, 1940.)
One of the records bore a sticker reading in Spanish "The defective impression of this record is due to interruptions of electric energy during an air-raid."
Liner notes for this album by Erich Weinert:
Whenever, in the history of the world, freedom has arisen against unfreedom, justice against injustice, the spirit of the people’s uprising has been most clearly and splendidly reflected in its songs, which grew upon the soil of righteous indignation. They were written by the poets who sided with the people; and where there were no such poets the people wrote them themselves.
Innumerable songs arose during the war of the Spanish people against its enemies. And Spanish was not their only language; for the soldiers of the International Brigades contributed songs, in their own languages, which lived and became popular songs with the Spaniards.
In this album Ernst Busch has recorded some of the best and most popular songs of the 11th International Brigade, making the recordings under the most difficult circumstances. These records could not be made during times of peace. How often did the recording or manufacture have to be interrupted because Franco’s bombs were crashing down on Barcelona or the supply of electricity cut off!
But that lends these songs a peculiar charm. For they were created in the midst of the battle, on the firing line, as it were. We trust that they will again awaken, in the outside world, some of the fighting spirit, this fire, out of which they were born.
Paul Robeson also wrote an introduction for this album:
Here are the songs recorded during heavy bombardment, by men who were themselves fighting for the “Rights of Man”.
Valiant and heroic was the part played by the International Brigade in the glorious struggle of the Spanish Republic. I was there in the course of that struggle and my faith in man—in the eventual attaining of his freedom—was strengthened a thousand fold. This album helps sustain that faith. It’s a necessity.
July 4, 1940 Paul Robeson
It was only during the Spanish Civil War that this song became internationally known. From that point on, it could be heard in even more languages. According to Goguel, the song quickly grew ‘into a symbol of the international solidarity against fascism.’ As ‘Le Chant des Marais’ it was popular in France, not only in the résistance. The African American singer Paul Robeson, who likewise sang for the international brigades, made the song popular in the US as the ‘Song of the Peat Bog Soldiers.’
(c) Paul Robeson (1942) (as "The Peet-Bog Soldiers")
Lawrence Brown: piano.
Recorded on January 30, 1942
Released on the album "Songs of Free Men" (Columbia Masterworks M-534)
Wrongly spelled as "The Peet-Bog Soldiers".
("Moorsoldaten" song from a German Concentration Camp)
Sung in English and German -Arr. Eisler-
Listen here:
The French Foreign Legion use the French version of the song, "Le Chant Des Marais", as one of its marching songs, the sombre tone and timing matching the 88 paces per minute distinctive of the Legion.
(c) Mouloudji (972) (as "Le Chant des Marais")
Listen here: sons/le-chant-des-ouvriers/le-chant-des-marais.mp3
(c) Pete Seeger (1961) (as "Peat Bog Soldiers")
On the album "Gazette Vol. 2"
Listen here:
(c) Ian Campbell Folk Group (1962) (as "Peat Bog Soldiers")
On the album "Songs of Protest"
Listen here:
(c) Mitchell Trio (1965) (as "Peat Bog Soldiers")
On the album "Violets of Dawn"
Listen here:
(c) Dubliners (1970) (as "Peat Bog Soldiers")
On the album "Revolution"
Listen here:
(c) RUM (1975) (as "De Moorsoldaten")
On the album "RUM 3"
Listen here:
(c) Liederjan 1976 (as "Die Moorsoldaten")
On the album "Live aus der Fabrik".
Listen here:
(c) Hannes Wader (1977) (as "Die Moorsoldaten")
On the album "Hannes Wader singt Arbeiterlieder"
Listen here:
(c) Sjeu (2007) (as "De Veensoldaten")
On the album "Straat-Zang-Theater"
Listen here:
More versions here:
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