Die Moorsoldaten

[struggle4progress]

wohin auch das Auge blicket
Moor und Heide nur ringsum
Vogelsang uns nicht erquicket
Eichen stehen kahl und krumm ...

hier in dieser öden Heide
ist das Lager aufgebaut
wo wir fern von jeder Freude
hinter Stacheldraht verstaut ...

wherever the eye watches
bog and heath all around
no chirping of birds entertains us
oaks are standing bare and crooked ...

here inside this barren marshland
the camp is built up
where we are far from any joy
stowed away behind barbed wire ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat_Bog_Soldiers

[MissHoneychurch]

1. Had to learn it in school

back when the GDR still existed ....

I am still able to sing part of it. And yes, it is still sending me chills down my back. And Hannes Wader is a great singer, so that adds to it.

[struggle4progress]

2. That's interesting! It's not the sort of thing that would be taught

to US school children IMO, but of course the history is different

I suppose a number of the post-war GDR political class had an intensive first-hand experience of Germany in the 30s and 40s: I once knew a man who had fled Germany at age 15 because his mother found in his sock drawer the stash of communist leaflets he handed out clandestinely -- and, poor clueless woman that she was, threatened to turn him in to the authorities, who (she thought) would give him a nice lecture and straighten him out. He, on the other hand, figured (somewhat more realistically, I think) that they'd beat the crap out of him and leave him to rot somewhere in captivity -- so he ran for his life. He didn't move back after the war, but he did re-establish contact with his old friends, some of whom eventually became GDR bigshots; I don't remember details, I'm afraid, and he's been dead a decade now