Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979)

This year will be the 71th anniversary of the founding of the GDR, which was announced by Wilhelm Pieck on 7 October 1949. This event marked the end of a development that had begun shortly after the end of the War. Since 1945, there had been mounting tension between the four allied powers. Although they had jointly declared the formation of a democratic Germany to be their most important goal, their definitions of democratisation were worlds apart. To remember this event, we post "Unser Leben im Lied", a box with three tapes, released in 1969 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GDR. It is a very interesting compilation with songs from the antifascist resistance and "Aufbaulieder"  (tape 1), children and youth songs (tape 2) and songs from the "Singebewegung" (tape 3).
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The GDR viewed the whole democratic and revolutionary song tradition as its own cultural inheritance. The "Kampflieder" of Brecht and Eisler and songs from the Spanish Civil War were learned in schools and in the army.

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s these songs appeared in song books of the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the Young Pioneers alongside German folk songs and new, so called "Aufbaulieder" written specially for the GDR youth. Songs such as "Fleißig, nur fleißig" and Johannes R. Becher´s "Nationalhymne der DDR" encouraged diligence and a joyful common purpose in the building of the new socialist state. In general, however, the political song genre did not prosper in the 1950s. It was a serious, sacred tradition, not to be tampered with, and the writing of new songs critical of the GDR was unthinkable. On the other hand, as Lutz Kirchenwitz notes, for the young poets of the 1950s, who were inspired by the creation of a socialist state on German soil, the political crises caused by the uprising of 17th June 1953 and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 created an atmosphere of disillusionment that was detrimental for the writing of new political poetry and song.

By the early 1960s, a completely new kind of protest song culture was being encountered. The American civil rights song was filtering over the air waves via West Germany through to East Berlin. The building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 had given the GDR government a sufficient sense of security to relax the severity of censorship in the arts. During this political thaw, which lasted roughly up until the infamous 11th Plenum of the SED in December 1965, an independent folk music scene emerged in East Berlin, based on the informal Hootenanny model made famous by American folk singers such as Pete Seeger.  The Berlin Hootenannies were guided by the resident banjo-playing Canadian Perry Friedman. With his uninhibited performance style, Friedman made German folk songs attractive for the youth and freed the workers´ songs of their sacred aura.

In general during the cultural thaw there was an easier access to western pop music and jazz. In this respect the formation of the Hootenanny-Klub in 1966 was the culmination of four years of musical eclecticism in a vibrant scene in East Berlin that also included Wolf Biermann, Eva-Maria Hagen, Manfred Krug and Bettina Wegner.

The political thaw came to an abrupt end with the 11th Plenum of the Zentralkomitee of the SED in December 1965. Pop groups were banned for their alleged corrupting Western influence. But as Jürgen Tinkus writes, this created a space for folk and singing groups to emerge. In late 1966 it was decided at the highest of levels that the Hootenanny-Klub was to be taken over by the FDJ. With the agreement of several leading members, the groups name was changed to the "Oktoberklub". The writer Gisela Steineckert was installed as a supervisor. This appropriation of the singing youth movement by the FDJ was ideologically motivated. With effective control over all popular performance events, the FDJ had the means to bring it to the masses, and by 1968 thousends of singing clubs had formed all over the GDR. Leaders of the singing clubs were frequently remindet that they had to remain "politische Instrumente des Jugendverbandes." In this way the movement became increasingly instrumentalized as an agent of state propaganda. From 1968 onwards, under the slogan "DDR-Konkret" the FDJ encouraged young students and wokers to write new songs dealing with their everyday lives and with issues of importance to them. This gave a new twist to the concept of revolutionary "Gebrauchslyrik" pioneered by Erich Mühsam in his ealry-twentieth-century "Kampflieder".

The official role of the political song in the GDR was defined by Inge Lammel as follows:
"Die neuen Lieder werden für die Politik von Partei und Regierung geschaffen. Sie sind nicht mehr Kampfmittel einer unterdrückten Klasse gegen eine Klasse von Ausbeutern, sondern Ausdruck der gemeinsamen Interessen aller Werktätigen."

Teil 1 Lieder aus dem Antifastischem Wiederstand:

01 - Einheitsfrontlied -  Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks
03 - die Moorsoldaten - Erich Weinert Ensemble der DDR
04 - mein Vater wird gesucht - Christian vom Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
05 - Dank an die Sowjetarmee - Solistenvereinigung des Berliner Rundfunks
06 - Kalinka - Rotbanner Ensemble der Sowjetunion
07 - der Zukunft entgegen - Rundfunk-Jugendorchester Wernigerode
08 - Du hast ja ein Ziel vor den Augen - großes Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
09 - Ein neues Leben will errungen sein - Solistenvereinigung des Berliner Rundfunks
10 - Marsch der fröhlichen Jugend - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre'
11 - Aufbaulied der FDJ - Rundfunk Jugendorchester Leipzig
12 - wann wir schreiten Seit an Seit - Kammerchor des Rundfunk
13 - Heut ist ein wunderschöner Tag - Rundfunk Jugendchor Leipzig
14 - Sportmarsch - Großer Radio DDR Kinderchor
15 - Weil wir jung sind - Orcester des Wachregiments Berlin
16 - Hymnus der Jugend - Chor der Pädagogischen Hochschule Potsdam
17 - Ich trage eine Fahne - Chor der Gerhard Hauptmann Oberschule Wernigerode
19 - Lied vom Bau des Sozialismus - Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
20 - Signale der Jugend - Rundfunk Jugendchor Wernigerode
21 - Immer lebe die Sonne - Rundfunk Kinderchor Berlin
22 - Für den Frieden der Welt - Orcester des Tanzensembles Berlin


Teil 2 Jugend-, Heimat- und Kinderlieder:

01 - Bitte der Kinder - Rundfunk Kinderchor Leipzig
02 - Lied von der blauen Fahne - Großer Chor des Berliner Rundfunks
03 - Im August blühen die Rosen - Großes Rundfunk Orchester Berlin
04 - Auf zum Sozialismus (Fröhlich sein und singen) - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre' Berlin
05 - Getreu der Partei - Orchester des Tanzensembles der DDR
06 - Es geht um die Erde ein rotes Band (Bruder unbekannter Bruder) - Chor der Gerhart Hauptmann Oberschule Wernigerode
07 - Mein Lied ist laut - Hermann Hähnel
08 - Dschungellied (der Jim starb gestern) - Orchester Gerd Natschinski
09 - es lebe das Brot - Chor der NVA
10 - Heute lacht Brandenburg - Chor und Orchester des Staatlichen Volksensembles der DDR
11 - Fritz der Traktorist - Rundfunk Jugendchor Leipzig
12 - Eisenbahnerlied - Rundfunk Jugendchor Wernigerode
13 - Zimmermannstanz - Orchester Gerhard Kneifel
14 - die Heimat hat sich schön gemacht - Zentraler Pionierchor 'Edgar Andre'
15 - es wird einmal in den Schulbüchern stehen - Eva Lorenz
16 - Fuchs und Igel - Hermann Hähnel
17 - tapfer lacht die junge Garde - Erich Weinert Orchester der NVA
18 - Über die Diktatur - Hermann Hähnel
19 - wie Thälmann kampfentschlossen - Erich Weinert Ensemble der NVA
20 - wer möchte nicht im Leben bleiben - Rundfunk Kinderchor Berlin
21 - Republik mein Vaterland - Rundfunkchor Berlin
22 - zwei liebevolle Schwestern - Gisela May

Teil 3 Lieder aus der Singebewegung:

01 - Oktobersong - Oktoberklub Berlin
02 - Song von den gefallenen Genossen - Oktoberklub Berlin
03 - Sag mir wo Du stehst - Hartmut und der Oktoberklub Berlin
04 - der Weg - Singeklub der EOS Büntzow
05 - Lied aus dem fahrenden Zug zu singen - Kurt Demmler und der Singeklub "Venceremos" Berlin
06 - Lied vom Vaterland - Oktoberklub Berlin
07 - Zugvögel - Songgruppe der TU Dresden
08 - Wer bin ich, und wer bist Du - Petra Rechlin und kurt Demmler
09 - Als ich aufsah von den Büchern - Monika Zöllner und der Oktoberklub Berlin
10 - Die Kraniche fliegen im Kiel - Jahrgang 49
11 - Mein kleiner Bruder - Singeklub der NVA
12 - Fahnenlied - Jahrgang 49
13 - Komsomolzenlied - Oktoberklub Berlin
14 - Hiring Aal un Kabeljau - Singeklub "Geschwister Scholl" Wismar
15 - Lied von der unruhvollen Jugend - Folkloretruppe der TU Dresden
16 - Kinder, kommt nun herein - Singeklub "Spartakus" Potsdam
17 - Saigon ist frei - Oktoberklub Berlin
18 - Was wollen wir trinken - Oktoberklub Berlin
19 - Für unser Chile - Jahrgang 49
20 - Havanna '78 - Jahrgang 49

Included is a scan of the very informative booklet with an essay by Inge Lammel about the development of the music in the GDR.

Thanks a lot to the unknown original uploader!

Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR  (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979), part 1 (Booklet & Tape 1)
Unser Leben im Lied - 30 Jahre DDR  (ETERNA, Tape-Box, 1979), part 2 (Tape 2 & 3)
(256 kbps, booklet included)