Children's Hymn

Children's Hymn is the English name of a poem by Bertolt Brecht, Kinderhymne, written in 1950 and set to music by Hanns Eisler in the same year.

The Hymn was Brecht's response to the introduction of the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied, which he believed to be corrupted by the Third Reich', as national anthem of West Germany in 1950. There are several allusions to the West German hymn (e.g. 'From the Meuse to the Memel, From the Adige to the Belt' <=> 'From the ocean to the Alps, from the Oder to the Rhine' or 'Germany, Germany above all' <=> 'we desire to be not above, and not below other peoples').

The verse form and the rhyme scheme are similar to both the Deutschlandlied and Auferstanden aus Ruinen, the national anthem of East German. Accordingly, all the three lyrics can be combined randomly with the melodies.

In order to create a new all-German national anthem during the German reunification, several public campaigns supported the use of the Children's Hymn. However, those suggestions were overruled; the hymn remained the same.

• The "Kinderhymne" on Youtube

See also

• 1950 in poetry