EU Anthem: “All men become brothers”.
Don't reject or fight migrants from poor countries, but stand up against world hunger and inequality!
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Introductory Note on Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
We bring to the attention of our readers the timely analysis and interpretation by Dr. Rudolf Haensel of Friedrich von Schiller’s Ode to Joy, which was subsequently embodied in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony first performance was in Vienna in May 1824 at the Kaiserliches Hoftheater am Kärntnertor
The 9th Symphony is considered as a powerful symbol of solidarity, social equality, peace and human values.
But there is something important, which is has been ignored by musicologists and historians of music: Beethoven added three extra verses –coupled with corresponding musical pitches– which were not contained in Schiller’s original “Ode to Joy”:
Oh friends, not these sounds!
O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!
But let us sing more pleasantly
Sondern lasst uns angenehmere anstimmen
And more joyful ones!
Und freudenvollere!
These three verses were sung right at the beginning, they were followed by
Freude!
Freude!
Freude schoener Goetterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium
…
Dear readers, we suggest you listen carefully to the 4th movement.
The “ugly sounds” were inserted (in musical phrases) at the outset of the 4th movement (O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!).
Was Beethoven’s intention to “bypass censorship” while expressing in the lyrics and melodies the true nature of these “ugly sounds” which in Vienna in the year 1824 expressed the political acts of derogation of peace, social equality, fundamental human rights, solidarity and brotherhood which prevailed at the height of the Austrian Empire during the Metternich Period.
Flash Forward to the 21st Century
Today, at the outset of the 21st Century, Europe’s “Classe politique” is once again committed to sustaining the “ugly sounds” of a social order marked by corruption, fraud and social divisiveness.
The music of Beethoven’s 4th Movement was embedded in the EU-Anthem. The poem by Friedrich von Schiller was not used.
For more details see:
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Confronting the “Ugly Sounds” of Corrupt Politicians
By , September 22, 2023
Michel Chossudovsky, September 21, 2023
New Thinking and Action
When I recently left my adopted country together with my wife to meet cherished friends in a cosmopolitan city of the EU after many years, to cultivate friendship and exchange ideas with them and to hear my mother tongue again, I noticed that on the street I heard the Arabic and Persian languages much more often instead of German and saw many Muslim-clad women wearing headscarves. As this unfamiliar experience made me a little uncomfortable, I thought more seriously about this problem and at the same time remembered the text of the European Union anthem, which in the first stanza of a later version says: “All men become brothers” (in the sense of brotherhood) (1).
We should stop being suspicious of the migrants from the poor countries of the South, thousands of whom are pouring into the countries of the European Union or the USA, legally or illegally;
We should take action against the deliberate hunger and the inequality in the world that is crying out to heaven, and openly profess the unity of the human race.
“Joy, Beautiful Spark of the Gods”
The poem of praise (Ode) to Joy is the famous poem by Friedrich Schiller, written as early as 1785 and set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven in the 4th movement of his 9th Symphony. The poem, which in its early version consisted of 9 stanzas of 8 verses each, describes very emotionally and solemnly the ideal of a society of equal people bound together by the bond of joy as well as friendship (2).
Since Schiller was critical of his own work, he changed the text several times: according to Wikipedia (3), the first stanza of the variant published posthumously in 1808 reads:
“Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter of Elisium,
We enter drunk with fire,
Heavenly, thy sanctuary.
Your spells bind again,
What fashion strictly divides,
All men become brothers,
Where thy gentle wing dwells.”
After the context of the poem is established in the first stanza, the second stanza speaks of the “great litter”, which consists in particular of “being a friend of a friend”. The social “Bund” in the sense of communality and friendship is to be understood as the crowning of life, the “Erdenrund” as the covenant of all people (4).
The fact that Ludwig van Beethoven had his 9th Symphony end with a choral song with Schiller’s text in a time of political restoration in 1824 was assessed by a contemporary as follows – and is reminiscent of today:
“After all the political confusion and horrors of the time, which Beethoven himself also experienced, this work is in the end an appeal, a longing for fraternisation, for joy and jubilation, for the utopia of a world peace, for a world without wars and destruction.” (5)
The melody has been the anthem of the Council of Europe since 1972, and its instrumental version has been the official anthem of the European Union since 1985.
“Freiheit, schöner Götterfunken”
For Christmas 1989, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was performed in the East Berlin Konzerthaus under the baton of the famous US conductor, composer and pianist Leonhard Bernstein with the altered text “Freiheit, schöner Götterfunken”. The reason was the fall of the Berlin Wall a month earlier (6).
The countries and states of the global South are certainly happy to join in this amended text, as freedom is after all a high good that must be defended always and everywhere.
In an interview with the geopolitical YouTube podcast “The Duran”, the US star economist Jeffrey Sachs spoke in this context of the end of US hegemony as part of a natural cycle, according to Russia Today DE of 18 September 2023. Sachs elaborated on the two opposing “mindsets” that shape geopolitics, saying:
“On the one hand, invoking Adam Smith, an attitude of openness from which all nations can only benefit, on the other hand, the desire to subordinate others and to be ‘number one'”. The United States and Europe have made history on this last point. China, on the other hand, has never posed a threat in history. (…). The ‘tragedy’ of great power politics is a Western concept – we must not surrender to it.” (7)
Learning to Embrace the Unity of the Human Race
In building trust with fellow human beings – regardless of nationality – the information and cultural values that parents and educators bring to the child on a daily basis are crucial.
The image of man of the Christian occidental culture says that man – even the small child – carries bad qualities within himself. The educators usually approach the child with this information – whether consciously or unconsciously. This makes the child afraid of the other person. When the child learns to be afraid, this permeates all his actions and how he moves and gives himself in the community. The emotional reaction of fear then becomes a component of his character, which he carries into adulthood more or less consciously into every interpersonal relationship.
It is therefore crucial what kind of information and what culturally prevailing values they bring to the child. If the child is unsettled and deceived by untrue information and/or confusing lies, he or she will continue to distance himself or herself from all fellow human beings even as an adult.
We do not know today when the human conscience will proclaim the so-called “absolute truth”, according to which human beings belong together and are under the law to cooperate and join hands with each other. There is no doubt, however, that the existence of the human race will depend on people professing all-human solidarity.
Cultural particularities of different nations should continue to exist; they will be an immense enrichment.
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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a school rector, educational scientist and qualified psychologist. After his university studies he became an academic teacher in adult education. As a retiree he worked as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and professional articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral education in values as well as an education for public spirit and peace. For his services to Serbia, he was awarded the Republic Prize “Captain Misa Anastasijevic” by the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad in 2021.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Notes
(1) https://wikipedia.org/wiki/An_die_Freude
(2) op. cit.
(3) op. cit.
(4) A. a. O.
(5) A. a. O.
(6) A. a. O.
(7) https://de.rt.com/international/181178-us-oekonom-jeffrey-sachs-ende-500-jährigen-westlichen-hegemonie-unvermeidlich/
