Lili Marleen

A great war song has come out of Germany.

From Smolensk to Tunis last week, German troops were singing it. British soldiers were whiling away hot African evenings listening to it on enemy broadcasts and inventing English words. To meet German competition. British broadcasters had started airing the song themselves--an English version was sweeping England. Neutral Swedes and Swiss were crooning it. The song's original name was The Song of the Young Sentry. But millions, all over Europe, knew the catchy little ditty better as Lili Marleen.

In front of the barracks, before theheavy gate

There stood a lamppost, and if it's standing yet

Then we shall meet there once again beside the lamppost in the rain,

As once, Lili Marleen, as once, Lili Marleen.

The lamppost knows your footsteps, so lovely and so free,

For you it burns unceasing, but it's forgotten me,

And if I don't return again, who'll stand beside you in the rain?

With you, Lili Marleen, "with you, Lili Marleen?

Sing Something Simple. The tune of Lili Marleen has the simplicity, tinged with poignancy, which has characterized many of the most enduring popular songs (Madelon, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, etc.). It begins by impressing its listeners as musical beer and sauerkraut, ends by becoming a habit-forming musical drug. With an ump-pah accompaniment, it is a march. Changed to ump-da-dump-dump, it becomes a tango. In either case, the strains are of a kind which easily attach themselves to romantic memories and the pathos of separation.

Lili Marleen was composed in 1938 by a black-haired Nazi tunesmith named Norbert Schultze. Its lyricist was Hans Leip, minor poet who had a small reputation during the Weimar Republic. Rejected by some 30 music publishers, Lili Marleen finally caught on in August 1941, when Nazi broadcasters, taking over the Belgrade radio, found they had only three records to play. One was Lili Marleen. By last January they had played it twice nightly for 500 nights, and fan mail, which came from as far away as German submarines off the U.S. Atlantic coast, had run into millions of letters.

Meanwhile a Swedish songstress named Lala Anderson (whose recording had caused the Belgrade furor) had made Lili Marleen the rage of Berlin cabarets. Actress Emmy Sonnemann (Frau Hermann Goering) sang it for Nazi bigwigs at a concert in Berlin's Kroll Opera House.

Subversive Parodies. By last winter the Belgrade broadcasters felt that perhaps the tune was being overplayed. They tried a new and hopeful theme song, "Es geht Alles vorueber, es geht Alles vorbei" ("Everything will be over, everything will be past"). But subversive parodies soon caused Propaganda Minister Goebbels to order Lili Marleen back on the air again.

Outside the Third Reich, Lili Marleen has gone through various metamorphoses. The British changed it into a sentimental song. The Danes and Norwegians made up verses in which Hitler swung from Marleen's lamppost. Following this cue, the OWI has prepared a version for possible future use in propaganda broadcasts to Germany. Sample stanza:

In front of the barracks, beside the heavy gate

Still stands the lamppost--but what has happened there?

Who is it I see hanging there?

I can't believe it--that would be too wonderful. . . .

Do you know, Lili Marleen? Do you know, Lili Marleen?

Up to last week Lili Marleen, perhaps the Tipperary of World War II, had yet to be played in the U.S.

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