Wilde Gesellen vom Sturmwind durchweht - Fahrtenlied [Filmaufnahmen Bündische Jugend]

“Wilde Gesellen vom Sturmwind durchweht” (Wild fellows blown by the storm wind) is a traveling song in the tradition of the Wandervögel, first published around 1923 by Fritz Sotke, although the author is unknown. It was one of the most frequently sung songs in the youth movement. After the National Socialists seized power, the song appeared in various National Socialist songbooks, but disappeared again when the Bündische Jugend (German Youth Movement) was banned. After the Second World War, the song was widely sung by scouts in the Federal Republic of Germany, among others, and was also part of Heino's repertoire. The song first appeared around 1924 in the songbook Fahrtenlieder, published in several editions by Fritz Sotke, although according to the publisher it was “passed down orally.” In 1929, it appeared in the Jugend-Liederbuch published by Arbeiterjugend-Verlag in Berlin, edited by August Albrecht. Fritz Sotke, formerly a member of the German Youth Movement, joined the NSDAP in 1932. The song he recorded appeared in 1933, shortly after the “seizure of power,” in songbooks of the Hitler Youth as well as in Blut und Ehre (Blood and Honor), published in 1933 by Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, and provided the title of one of the HJ songbooks with the verse “Uns geht die Sonne nicht unter” (The sun does not set for us). In the course of the crackdown on the now banned Bündische Jugend (German Youth Movement), the song disappeared from Nazi publications. After the end of the war, Wilde Gesellen vom Sturmwind durchweht remained popular and was sung in West Germany by the Scouts, among others. It found its way into the Mundorgel and was also part of Heino's repertoire. The revolutionary version by Ernst Busch was recorded by him at Aurora (GDR), but also by Franz Josef Degenhardt. The song originally had three verses. After 1945, a fourth verse was added, but it is not printed in the Mundorgel, for example. According to cultural scientist Wolfgang Lindner, the lyrics represent “defiant, adolescent sentimental self-assertion in the fateful process of movement and development.” In the first and second verses, “wandering misery” and “wandering joy” alternate with each other. The “youthful self-exiles” see their own “pride” and ‘splendor’ on the one hand, and the “social coldness of the establishment” and their own families on the other. The final verse of all four verses is “The sun does not set on us.” The third verse differs from the first two in its Christian reference: the “King of Thorns” sends his “comforting tears.” The fourth, on the other hand, concludes the “process of movement”: it deals with the death of the protagonists. Lyrics: Wild fellows blown by the storm wind, Princes in rags and loden, We'll go on until our hearts stand still, Dishonored to the ground. Cheerful and agile, in colorful splendor, You won't find anyone more colorful than us; Even if the mockers and scoffers laugh at us, The sun will not set on us! We wander through storm and fire, knocking on Veit's or Velten's door. A grateful heart and a helping hand are so rare, so rare. We whirl along on the dusty road, always quick and cheerful; even if our own brother has forgotten us, the sun will not set on us! (Further verses) But out there by the wayside, there with the king of thorns, the fiddles sound across the wide land, lamenting our Carmen to the Lord. And the crowned one sends down comforting tears in the dew. The journey continues through the wild thicket, the sun will not set on us! Even if our hearts should one day stop beating, no one will weep tears for us. The storm wind will softly blow its lament, the sun will shine more dimly. A life full of colorful splendor is over, unrestrained above and below. Spitters and mockers, you laughed at us, the sun will not set on us! Translated with DeepL.com (free version)