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Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht
Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht (No, I won't give my sons) is a pacifist song by the German singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey[wp] from 1986. He released the song on his solo album Alleingang as well as a single and performed it several times for live albums in the following years. The song deals with the subject of conscientious objection and also with fleeing from war.
Lyrics and music
Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht is a quietly performed ballad[wp], accompanied in the original version by Reinhard Mey on acoustic guitar as well as partly by an electronic piano and in the third verse by a drum with an implied marching rhythm. The song is introduced with a short guitar and piano sequence and played in a 4/4 time signature.[1]
The lyrics of Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht## are structured in six stanzas, each ending with the refrain[wp] "Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht" ("No, I won't give my sons"). From Mey's real perspective as a father of two sons, he chose the form of an open letter[wp] to an addressee not specified by name, conceivably the "Kreiswehrersatzamt" (District Army Replacement Office) or the Ministry of Defence[wp] ("I'd better write to you in good time"). The singer describes how he raised, protected and protected his two sons and how he brought them up "to respect life". He emphasises that he will do everything he can to ensure that they "bear no arms" and that they will not go to war:[1]
English translation No aim and no honour, no duty,
Are worth killing and dying for.
German Original Kein Ziel und keine Ehre, keine Pflicht,
sind's wert dafür zu töten und zu sterben.
In the first half of the third verse, the musical accompaniment changes: a drum plays a sombre marching rhythm in the background, while the guitar accompaniment is reduced.
English translation They will not march in rank and file,
not hold out, not fight to the last,
freeze to death on a godforsaken field,
while you sit down in soft cushions.German Original Sie werden nicht in Reih' und Glied marschieren,
nicht durchhalten, nicht kämpfen bis zuletzt,
auf einem gottverlass’nen Feld erfrieren,
während ihr euch in weiche Kissen setzt. - Reinhard Mey [2]
In the last two stanzas he emphasises that he will teach his sons "disobedience [...], resistance and unbendingness", "to answer to no one but oneself". He would rather flee with them than have them become servants of the authorities. He prefers a life abroad, "a life like thieves in the night", to war, rather than give his sons' lives for "the delusion" of the rulers.[1]
Background
Unlike his fellow singer-songwriters Degenhardt[wp] and Wader[wp], Reinhard Mey was never involved in party politics.[3] In the period of the 1968 movement, he faced harsh criticism from the left, and his lyrics were considered by many to be too apolitical.[4] Although one author cites "prototypical" peace songs such as Vertreterbesuch (1970) and Frieden (1994) (1994)[5] in Mey's repertoire, he does not recognise any lyrics that could be classified as peace songs in the discourse of the new peace movement between the mid-1970s and 1990.[6] Socially critical texts, however, were already found early on in Reinhard Mey's work, often from an emotional or personal, only implicitly political perspective - thus breaking the "long held consensus that the 'political song' and the 'private song' would exclude each other" (cf. also first-person politics[wp]).[7] At any rate, since the 1980s at the latest, Mey's lyrics have often been explicitly pacifist, for example in Alle Soldaten woll'n nach Haus (1990), Die Waffen nieder (2004) and Kai (2007).[7]
In this respect, Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht has a double place in Mey's oeuvre: chronologically, on the one hand, in a series of highly personal songs from his still young perspective as a father (Menschenjunges [1977], Keine ruhige Minute [1979]), and thematically, on the other hand, in his socially critical and pacifist texts.
Lyrics
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References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht, Noten und Text auf reinhard-mey.de
- ↑ Artur R. Boelderl, Ursula Esterl, Nicola Mitterer: Poetik des Widerstands: Eine Festschrift für Werner Wintersteiner, StudienVerlag, 2020, ISBN 978-3-7065-6050-4
- ↑ Marc Sygalski: 4.3. Wie Orpheus singen: Reinhard Mey, in: Seminar für Deutsche Philologie der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Hrsg.): Das »politische Lied« in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zwischen 1964 und 1989 am Beispiel von Franz Josef Degenhardt, Hannes Wader und Reinhard Mey (= eScripta. Göttinger Schriftenreihe für studentische Germanistik.), 2011, ISSN 2192-0559, S. 36-48.
- ↑ Marc Sygalski: 3.2.3. »Implosion« der Burg Waldeck-Festivals (1968 und 1969), in: Seminar für Deutsche Philologie der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Hrsg.): Das »politische Lied« in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zwischen 1964 und 1989 am Beispiel von Franz Josef Degenhardt, Hannes Wader und Reinhard Mey (= eScripta. Göttinger Schriftenreihe für studentische Germanistik.). 2011, ISSN 2192-0559, S. 113-119.
- ↑ Reinhard Mey: Alle Lieder; 14. Auflage, Edition Reinhard Mey, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-925482-31-1, S. 336.
- ↑ Kersten Sven Roth: Das politische Liedermacherlied vor, während und nach 1968 – zur Modellierung dynamischer Textsorten-Diskurs-Relationen, in: Sprache und Wissen (1968), DE GRUYTER, Berlin, Boston 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-025472-3, S. 190-191, doi:10.1515/9783110254723.163
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Marc Sygalski: 4.3.2. Nein, meine Söhne gebʼ ich nicht – das Private im Politischen, in: Seminar für Deutsche Philologie der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Hrsg.): Das »politische Lied« in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland zwischen 1964 und 1989 am Beispiel von Franz Josef Degenhardt, Hannes Wader und Reinhard Mey (= eScripta. Göttinger Schriftenreihe für studentische Germanistik.). 2011, ISSN 2192-0559, S. 120-122.
External links
- German speaking Wikipedia has an article about Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht
Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht (December 20, 1986) (Size: 4:57 min.)- Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht (December 20, 1987) (Size: 5:49 min.)
- Song seven from the first CD of the (live) album Die große Tournee '86.
- Nein, meine Söhne geb' ich nicht - Reinhard Mey & Freunde (September 29, 2020) (Size: 5:31 min.)