- Source: Hohe Tannen weisen die Sterne
"Hohe Tannen weisen die Sterne" (High firs lead the stars) is a Volkslied from Silesia, first published by a boy scouts group in 1923. It is also known as the unofficial hymn of Sudetenland, and as the Rübezahl song. Modyfied, it is still used by youth groups, published in Die Mundorgel and other collections.
History
The text of "Hohe Tannen weisen die Sterne" was first published 1923 by the Bund deutscher Ringpfadfinder, a boy scout group, in a magazine named Jugendland. The melody is based on "Wahre Freundschaft soll nicht wanken" (True friendship shall not waver), a song from Franconia from the 18th century that Hoffmann von Fallersleben and Ernst Richter published in 1842 in their collection Schlesische Volkslieder mit Melodien (Silesian folk songs with melodies). The composer is unknown.
The text refers to mountains with high fir trees, commonly thought to mean the Silesian Riesengebirge, where the Iser springs, which rather points at Bohemia. It addressed Rübezahl, a regional mountain spirit, as a protector of the missed far-away home country. Rübezahl is invited to join the group singing around a fire, to consider the unfree home country and to end strife and discord.
A few years after the first print, the last line was changed because it was regarded as too militant, from "unser Waffengang des Lebens geweiht" (dedicated to our battle of life) to "sei der Gang unsres Lebens geweiht (dedicated to the course of our life).
In the 1984 Die Mundorgel version, changes included reference to the boy scouts' camp rather than the home country, and dropping the final stanza, besides minor wording changes.
Text
Melody
References
External links
Media related to Hohe Tannen weisen die Sterne at Wikimedia Commons
Hohe Tannen weisen die Sterne Klingende Brücke July 2016
"Hohe Tannen" on YouTube, Tölzer Knabenchor
