Songs from the Gutter

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Songs from the Gutter (German: Lieder aus dem Rinnstein) is the title of a German-language collection of songs and poems published in three separate volumes by Hans Ostwald in 1903, 1904, 1906. A selection volume appeared in 1920.

Origin of the title

On December 18, 1901, at the unveiling of the statues in the Siegesallee, Emperor Wilhelm II made a speech on the subject of "True Art" that art would descend into the gutter if it made misery even more hideous than it already was:

An art, which disregards the laws and barriers that I have designated, is no longer art, it is factory work, is trade, and art must never become that [...] If now art, as it happens now in many cases, does nothing more than to present the misery even more hideous than it already is, then it sins against the German people. [...] and if the Kulthur is to fulfill its task fully, then it must have penetrated into the lower strata of the people. It can only do this if art offers a hand, if it raises instead of descending into the gutter.[1]

Ostwald took this saying as an occasion to publish his anthology under the title Songs from the Gutter.

Content

The anthology of Songs from the Gutter begins with the time of the Peasant Wars. Poems by Schiller, Goethe, Heine, by then well-known authors like Frank Wedekind, Karl Henckell, Peter Hille and others. But also texts by (then less well-known) young talents such as Else Lasker-Schüler: "...I was born in Elberfeld in 1876. My book Styx (poems) came out in 1902 by Axel Juncker, Berlin..." and Erich Mühsam. His first published poem Amanda can also be found in it. About him it says: "...1902-1903 editor of the Armen Teufel in Friedrichshagen. Now lives in Wilmersdorf... A book has not yet appeared." Other authors less known today were Margarete Beutler, Ada Christen and Martin Drescher.

The Songs from the Gutter include far more than just prostitute's songs.[lower-alpha 1] There are also love songs, songs from hardship and from the lower social classes and social fringe groups, murder ballads, in the broadest sense naturalism, expressionism and forbidden courts.

The was significant for the creation of an independent social German chanson, in which the outcasts of society spoke out with their mostly anonymous songs. Layers of language were made fruitful for lyric poetry that had not previously been represented even in folk song collections.

Editions

  • Hans Ostwald (ed.): Lieder aus dem Rinnstein. Karl Henckell, Leipzig 1903.
  • Hans Ostwald (ed.): Lieder aus dem Rinnstein, 2. Karl Henckell, Leipzig 1904.
  • Hans Ostwald (ed.): Lieder aus dem Rinnstein, 3. Harmonie, Verlagsanstalt für Literatur u. Kunst, Berlin 1906.
  • Hans Ostwald (ed.): Lieder aus dem Rinnstein. Rösl, München 1920.

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ↑ So named after Hans Ostwald's book Das Berliner Dirnentum (1905–1907).

Citations

  1. ↑ "Die wahre Kunst: Wilhelm II". In: Ernst Johann, ed., Ansprachen, Predigten und Trinksprüche Wilhelms II. München (1966), p. 101.

References

  • Heller, Leo (1921). Aus Pennen und Kaschemmen, Lieder aus dem Norden Berlins. Berlin: Delta-Verlag.
  • Rothe, Wolfgang (1973). Deutsche Großstadtlyrik vom Naturalismus bis zur Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Reclam.
  • Schmähling, Walter (1977). Die deutsche Literatur in Text und Darstellung: Naturalismus. Stuttgart: Reclam.

External links

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