Die Gedanken Sind Frei

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a mere housewife

Not your cup of tea
I love this song so much.


From the information below the video:
Legend claims this song goes back to the Bundshuh rebellion of 1525 when the peasants rebelled against their oppression by the Swabian princes. The revolt was a failure, and serfdom continued for another three hundred years in Germany (the words to this song first appeared on leaflets in 1780).

The concept of "freedom of thought" has nearly always been considered dangerous, and the song was banned for many years before the 1848 revolution, especially as it was seen to be associated with the ideals of the French Revolution. It was widely sung in pre-Hitler Germany and brought to the USA by German immigrants fleeing Nazi-Germany. It is also said to have been sung in German concentration camps between 1933 and 1945. The original lyricist and composer are unknown.


Die Gedanken Sind Frei, my thoughts freely flower,
Die Gedanken Sind Frei, my thoughts give me power,
No Scholar can map them, no hunter can trap them,
No man can deny, Die Gedanken Sind Frei!

I think as I please and this gives me pleasure,
My conscience decrees this right I must treasure,
My thoughts will not cater to duke or dictator,
No man can deny, Die Gedanken Sind Frei!

And should tyrants take me and throw me in prison,
My thoughts will burst free like blossoms in season,
Foundations will crumble and structures will tumble,
And free men will cry, Die Gedanken Sind Frei!

And now I renounce forever my sorrows,
And never again to fret my tomorrows,
I'll always have laughter and joy ever after,
For in my heart I'll sing, Die Gedanken Sind Frei!
 
I second the motion! ... sorry about that. My i before e rules are shaky in English ... let alone German.
In German ie is always pronounced like the English ee,
while ei is always pronounced like the English eye.

The nice thing about German is that spelling and pronunciation rules are consistent.
 
I don't mean to turn this thread into a German lesson, but I think you mean, "Das ist richtig." :)
You are right. I had one year of German in high school and that was over 50 years ago. Jetz kan ich nicht die deutsche sprechen. But it’s such a cool language, isn’t it!
 
You are right. I had one year of German in high school and that was over 50 years ago. Jetz kan ich nicht die deutsche sprechen. But it’s such a cool language, isn’t it!

I did a summer intensive almost 14 years ago, and somehow managed to slink through a grad school reading exam on it a decade ago. A lovely language, but it always boggled by mind and addled my brain more than any other language for some reason.
 
82798798_2734558453295981_8030232149250539520_n.jpg I have had friends who can speak German tell me this is old German. They couldn't tell me precisely what it was. It comes from my Schmidt heritage.

What is this?

83558278_2734532026631957_5613817144031576064_n.jpg 83853024_2734532103298616_4932195509054996480_n.jpg 83318231_2734532219965271_628823417323257856_n.jpg
 
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It's a collection of sermons on the gospels...The last picture is the sermon for the first Sunday in Advent, I think... Oh dear, I really want to translate this, but I need to do my real job. Maybe later, or hopefully someone else's German reading ability is better :)
 
It's a collection of sermons on the gospels...The last picture is the sermon for the first Sunday in Advent, I think... Oh dear, I really want to translate this, but I need to do my real job. Maybe later, or hopefully someone else's German reading ability is better :)
You can read old German script? Wow! Impressive:applause:
 
View attachment 6568 I have had friends who can speak German tell me this is old German. They couldn't tell me precisely what it was. It comes from my Schmidt heritage.

What is this?

View attachment 6565 View attachment 6566 View attachment 6567
This is not Old German, it is modern German. This book is from the late 19th century.

I can read the script (my grandparents used to have books written in Frakturschrift lying around their house) but I'm not familiar enough with the vocabulary to make a complete translation very quickly.

The title page says,

Evangelisches Hauspredigtbuch
Predigten
über die Evangelien
an sämmtlichen
Sonn-, Fest-, und Feiertagen,
zum Gebrauche bei der
häuslichen Erbauung
von Prälat Friederich Albert Hauber
Generalsuperintendent und erster Frühprediger
am Münster zu Ulm.

Mit 25 Holzschnitten.


Translated (fairly directly) into English:

Gospel House-preaching book
Sermons
on the Gospels
for every
Sunday, Festival and Holiday
for the use of
the Edification of the Household
by Prelate Friederich Albert Hauber
General Superintendent and First Early Preacher
at Ulm Münster.

With 25 Woodcuts.
 
Here's a variation on that theme, Heidi, from one of my favorite Mahler albums.
The incomparable Goerne singing:
 
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