Friday, April 29, 2022

On the Path of the Revolutionaries


Last Saturday, April 23, Red Baron followed the path Baden revolutionaries took from Horben, located in the Black Forest, on their way to Freiburg on April 23, 1848. 

Well, not in total; my Gehwerkzeuge (legs) no longer fit for long distances.

Sitting on a bench, waiting for the walkers to arrive,
and looking at the field of the 1848 skirmish
I actually waited for the hikers at the historical site where precisely 174 years ago, a vanguard of Freischärlers (revolutionary irregulars) was stopped by government troops in its march to Freiburg, resulting in a skirmish near Günterstal.

An information board gives a brief outline of the events on Easter Sunday, 1848
 
Using the material from my website, "Freiburgs Geschichte in Zitaten," I initiated the article "Gefecht bei Günterstal" in the German Wikipedia on December 18, 2012. Today still, 67% of the text is original.

On May 16, 2021, a bot, the MalnadachBot, performed the translation of the German article into English, upgrading the "skirmish" into a "battle. Judge whether the encounter between government troops and a few rushing ahead revolutionaries should be called a battle.

 

Red Baron also took part in the inauguration ceremony of the memorial for the fallen Freischärler at the Jägerbrunnen (Hunter's Well) at the site of the 1848 skirmish on Easter Monday (April 21) of 2003. My photo of the memorial stone I took on that date garnishes both the German and the English Wikipedia articles.

Ten years later, the memorial stone is slightly mossy
and keep the face of the bard in your memory.
Here is a photo that I took on the 165th anniversary of the 1848 skirmish in 2013.


Back to the 2022 commemoration walk from Horben to Günterstal.

Eventually, the walkers from Horben arrived and stood around a bit lost.

Nine years later. Do you recognize the three participants of 2013?
At the end of the short commemoration at the monument to the fallen revolutionaries, the assembled people sang, accompanied by the bard of 2013, "Thoughts are Free," a familiar song that originated shortly before 1800 in southern Germany.

Its basic philosophy is already known from ancient times. In the German-speaking world, Walther von der Vogelweide wrote around 1200: Joch sint iedoch gedanke frî (Yet thoughts are free). 

The poet Freidank summarized the core motif of the later song text more clearly in verse around 1229:

diu bant mac nieman vinden,
diu mîne gedanke binden.
man vâhet wîp unde man,
gedanke niemen gevâhen kan
No one can find the ribbon
that binds my thoughts.
One catches a woman and a man,
thoughts no one can catch.

About 200 years later, Martin Luther wrote in his book: Von weltlicher Oberigkeit, wie man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei: Thoughts are duty-free!

In his play The Tempest of 1622, Shakespeare has the magician Stephano say in the second scene of the third act: Thought is free.

This view continues into the late years of absolutism. Influenced by the intellectual and social reform movements in Western and Central Europe, Friedrich Schiller had the Marquis of Posa demand of the absolutist King Philip of Spain in his play Don Carlos in 1787, even before the French Revolution: Sire, give freedom of thought!

Since the days of the Carlsbad Decrees and the Age of Metternich, "Die Gedanken sind frei" became a popular protest song against political repression and censorship, especially among the banned Burschenschaften (student fraternities). At the Hambach Fest in 1832, the text is sung against the Carlsbad Resolutions* and the ensuing "persecution of demagogues."
*§ 1: Writings that appear in the form of daily sheets or in booklets ...  may not be promoted for printing in any German federal state without the prior knowledge and approval of the state authorities.

In the aftermath of the failed 1848 German Revolution, the song was banned.

Die Gedanken sind frei.

Die Gedanken sind frei,
wer kann sie erraten,
sie fliehen vorbei
wie nächtliche Schatten.
Kein Mensch kann sie wissen,
kein Jäger erschießen,
es bleibet dabei:
die Gedanken sind frei.

Ich denke, was ich will,
und was mich beglücket,
doch alles in der Still,
und wie es sich schicket.
Mein Wunsch und Begehren
kann niemand verwehren,
es bleibet dabei:
die Gedanken sind frei.

Und sperrt man mich ein
in finstere Kerker,
das alles sind rein
vergebliche Werke.
Denn meine Gedanken
zerreißen die Schranken
und Mauern entzwei:
die Gedanken sind frei.

Drum will ich auf immer
den Sorgen entsagen
und will mich auch nimmer
mit Grillen mehr plagen.
Man kann ja im Herzen
stets lachen und scherzen
und denken dabei:
Die Gedanken sind frei!
Thoughts are free.

Thoughts are free,
who can guess them,
they flee-past
like nighttime shadows.
No one can know them,
no hunter can kill them
It remains:
The thoughts are free!

I think what I want
and what makes me happy,
but always inwardly,
and as it suits.
My wish, my desire
no one can deny,
It remains:
The thoughts are free!

And if someone locks me
in the gloomy prison,
All that is absolutely
wasted work.
Because my thoughts
pull the barriers into pieces
and walls in two:
The thoughts are free!

I want to renounce
forever the worries
and want to never again
plague me with whims
One can in the heart
always laugh and joke
and think:
The thoughts are free!

After that, the gathering dispersed. Lonely, Red Baron walked the rest of the way from the memorial stone to the Sternwaldeck-Pavillon.
*

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