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Peat Bog Soldiers

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Memorial at the place of the entry to the former concentration camp "Börgermoor", where the song originated. The stone shows the first verse in German.

"Peat Bog Soldiers" (German: Die Moorsoldaten) is one of Europe's best-known protest songs. It exists in countless European languages and became a Republican anthem during the Spanish Civil War.[1] It was a symbol of resistance during World War II and is popular with the Peace movement today. It was written, composed and first performed in 1933 in a Nazi concentration camp by prisoners.

Background

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This song was written by prisoners[2] in Nazi moorland labour camps in Lower Saxony, Germany. The Emslandlager[3] ("Emsland camps") – as they were known – were for political opponents of the Third Reich, located outside of Börgermoor, now part of the commune Surwold, not far from Papenburg. A memorial of these camps, the Dokumentations- und Informationszentrum (DIZ) Emslandlager, is located at Papenburg.

In 1933, one camp, Börgermoor, held about 1,000 Socialist and Communist internees. They were banned from singing existing political songs so they wrote and composed their own. The words were written by Johann Esser (a miner) and Wolfgang Langhoff (an actor); the music was composed by Rudi Goguel and was later adapted by Hanns Eisler and Ernst Busch. When creating it for Busch, Eisler made several changes to the rhythm, including condensing the meter into two-four time.[4]


It was first performed at a Zircus Konzentrani ("concentration camp circus") on 28 August 1933 at Börgermoor camp. Here is Rudi Goguel's description of it:[5]

The sixteen singers, mostly members of the Solinger workers choir, marched in holding spades over the shoulders of their green police uniforms (our prison uniforms at the time). I led the march, in blue overalls, with the handle of a broken spade for a conductor's baton. We sang and by the end of the second verse nearly all of the thousands of prisoners present gave voice to the chorus. With each verse, the chorus became more powerful and, by the end, the SS – who had turned up with their officers – were also singing, apparently because they too thought themselves "peat bog soldiers".

When they got to, ... "No more the peat bog soldiers / Will march with our spades to the moor.", the sixteen singers rammed their spades into the ground and marched out of the arena; leaving behind their spades which now had, sticking out of the peat bog, become crosses.

The song has a slow simple melody, reflecting a soldier's march, and is deliberately repetitive, echoing and telling of the daily grind of hard labour in harsh conditions. It was popular with German refugees in London in the Thirties and was used as a marching song by the German volunteers of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. It was soon picked up by other nationalities and it appears in almost all the collected anthologies of Spanish Civil War songs.

The French Foreign Legion use the French version of the song, "Le Chant Des Marais", as one of its marching songs, the sombre tone and timing matching the 88 paces per minute distinctive of the Legion.[citation needed]

Lyrics

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Abridged version

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Langhoff and Esser's original song[6] runs to six verses, plus refrains (see below). For performance – and, therefore, for most translation – shorter lyrics are used. These omit verses two, three and four of the original.

German original

Wohin auch das Auge blicket.
Moor und Heide nur ringsum.
Vogelsang uns nicht erquicket.
Eichen stehen kahl und krumm.
Refrain:
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.
Auf und nieder geh'n die Posten,
keiner, keiner kann hindurch.
Flucht wird nur das Leben kosten,
vierfach ist umzäunt die Burg.
Refrain
Doch für uns gibt es kein Klagen,
ewig kann nicht Winter sein,
einmal werden froh wir sagen:
Heimat du bist wieder mein.
Refrain

English translation

Far and wide as the eye can wander,
Heath and bog are everywhere.
Not a bird sings to cheer us yonder.
Oaks are standing gaunt and bare.
Refrain:
We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the moor.
We are the peat bog soldiers,
Marching with our spades to the moor.
Up and down the guards are marching,
No one, no one can get through.
Flight would mean a sure death facing,
Guns and barbed wire block our view.
Refrain
But for us there is no complaining,
Winter will in time be past.
One day we shall rise rejoicing.
Homeland, dear, you're mine at last.
Refrain

Complete version

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This is the full six-verse German version, together with a literal English translation.

German original English translation

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

Refrain:
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

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

Refrain

Morgens ziehen die Kolonnen
in das Moor zur Arbeit hin.
Graben bei dem Brand der Sonne,
doch zur Heimat steht der Sinn.

Refrain

Heimwärts, heimwärts jeder sehnet,
zu den Eltern, Weib und Kind.
Manche Brust ein Seufzer dehnet,
weil wir hier gefangen sind.

Refrain

Auf und nieder geh'n die Posten,
keiner, keiner kann hindurch.
Flucht wird nur das Leben kosten,
vierfach ist umzäunt die Burg.

Refrain

Doch für uns gibt es kein Klagen,
ewig kann nicht Winter sein,
einmal werden froh wir sagen:
Heimat du bist wieder mein.

Refrain

Wherever the eye gazes
Bog and heath all around,
No chirping of birds entertains us.
Oaks are standing bare and crooked.

Refrain:
We are the bog soldiers,
And we're marching with our spade into the bog.
We are the Bog soldiers,
And we're marching with our spade into the bog.
 
Here inside this barren marshland,
the camp is built up.
Where we are, far from any joy,
stowed away behind barbed wire.

Refrain

In the morning, the columns march
towards the moor to work
digging under the searing sun.
but our mind toward our homeland yearns.

Refrain

Homeward, homeward everyone yearns
to the parents, wife and child.
Some chests are widened by a sigh,
because we are caught in here.

Refrain

Up and down the guards are walking
Nobody, nobody can get through.
Escape would only cost the life
Four fences secure the castle.

Refrain

But for us there is no clamoring,
It can't be an endless winter.
One day we'll say happily:
"Homeland you are mine again!"

Refrain

References

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Footnotes
  1. ^ "Die Moorsoldaten (The Peat-Bog Soldiers)". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  2. ^ "Account Suspended". www.holocaust-education.de. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Esterwegen Labor Camp". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Objects - Hanns Eisler / Ernst Busch: Das Moorsoldatenlied (Peat Bog Soldiers; 1937)". kuenste-im-exil.de. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  5. ^ Original text: Le Chant des déportés (in French)
  6. ^ Die Moorsoldaten
Recordings

Further reading

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  1. ^ "Perry Friedman (I) (1935–1995)". IMDb. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
  2. ^ "Swan Arcade – Swan Arcade". Discogs. 1973. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  3. ^ "Neue CD aus heimischen Gefilden: Die Moorsoldaten". 6 December 2015. Archived from the original on 24 December 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2018.