For the folk and protest song movements of both East and West Germany, the song heritage of the Vormärz and the revolution of 1848 was a point of cultural and historical identification. Two clear narratives emerge in these songs: first, that of rebellion linked to utopian idealism, and second, that of defeat and retreat. Within these two general narratives are several sub-categories of songs, for example, parodies of authority, songs of poverty and unemployment, soldiers' songs, songs demanding German unification, and songs of emigration. Almost 120 years after they were first composed, played, and sung, the Vormärz and 1848 songs were revived in the West German folk scene; a decade later they were revived once more in the GDR. This chapter will examine the significance of those narratives as focused on by singers at different periods in the development of the two postwar German states.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1848 revolution in 1998, The German Volkslied Archive in Freiburg compiled a CD of 1848 songs entitled 1848 … weil jetzt die Freiheit blüht. It was performed by some of the most prominent Liedermacher and folk artists of the east and west German folk scenes. A sentence from the CD booklet sums up the thematic range of the songs: “Zustände zwischen Euphorie und Resignation teilen sich mit, sarkastische Bemerkungen über Polizeigewalt wechseln mit trotzigem Aufbegehren.” This illustrates a relationship that marks German political song from the Vormärz through to its revival in the Federal Republic and in the GDR, whereby vibrant utopianism exists side by side with the melancholy of the deutsche Misere.