Olympische Hymne
Encyclopedia
Olympische Hymne is a composition for orchestra and mixed chorus by Richard Strauss
.
In 1932, Richard Strauss was approached by Dr. Theodor Lewald, the German Olympic Committee’s representative to the International Olympic Committee
(IOC). The German committee desired an anthem composed for the 1936 Summer Olympics
to be held in Berlin. Early in 1933, Strauss agreed to compose an Olympic Hymn, with the condition that a suitable text be found to set to music. However in 1933, the IOC had chosen Walter Bradley-Keeler's Hymne Olympique, written for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, as the official Olympic anthem for all time. The IOC however accepted Lewald's proposal to allow Germany its own Olympic anthem for the Berlin games.
Gerhart Hauptmann
initially agreed to write the required text, but he never produced it. Therefore the text was determined by competition. Wilhelm von Scholz, President of the German Poets’ Academy, won first place but his composition (a Germanic ode devoted to Siegfried’s battles) was considered far too nationalistic. A second competition resulted in 3,000 texts submitted. Most were unsuitable, but from fifty possibilities, four were sent to the composer. Strauss chose Robert Lubahn’s and said he was "extraordinarily satisfied" with it. Lubahn (1903-1974), an unemployed Berlin actor at the time, received 1,000 Reichsmarks on September 22, 1934 for his poem. It consists of three stanzas, each of which ends with the word “Olympia”.
Robert Lubahn's Text for the Olympische Hymne:
The version above is the one sung at the opening ceremonies and differs in one word from Lubahn’s original submission. Lubahn's word Rechtsgewalt in the last of the three stanzas was replaced (over Lubahn's objection) with the word Eidestreu by Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels
who found Lubahn's usage ambiguous and possibly democratic.
Composition of the Olympische Hymne was completed by Strauss on December 22, 1934. The principal music theme was derived from a major symphony Strauss planned but never finished. Strauss wrote disparagingly of the work to his librettist Stefan Zweig
: "I am whiling away the boredom of the advent season by composing an Olympic Hymn for the plebs---I of all people, who hate and despise sports. Well, idleness is the root of all evil." The composer originally demanded 10,000 Reichsmarks for the commission, but agreed to waive the fee altogether following negotiations with Lewald.
During the 1936 Winter Olympics
in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
, the composer invited members of the IOC executive board to hear the work sung by an opera star from Munich. In February 1936, the IOC declared Strauss’s composition as the Olympic anthem “for all time” much as it had in 1933 for Bradley-Keeler's composition.
, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
augmented by the National Socialist Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of one thousand members attired in white. From the distinguished visitor section on the opposite side of the stadium to the musicians, Theodor Lewald stepped onto a rostrum to address the nearly 4,000 athletes from 49 nations who had just marched in. His remarks concluded with the news that the Olympic Committee had decided the day before to make Richard Strauss's Olympic Hymn the hymn for all future meets. He expressed his thanks to the composer. After a short opening proclamation by Adolf Hitler
, and an artillery salute and the release of several thousand white pigeons; Richard Strauss conducted the Olympische Hymne at 5:16 p.m.
The duration of the work is approximately three and one-half minutes. A voice and piano version was published by Fürstner in Berlin in 1936. Strauss’s hand-written full orchestra score was dedicated to Theodor Lewald “in memory of 1 August 1936”. This score was located after the war by the German National Olympic Committee, and copies were made for the organizers of the 1968 Summer Olympics
in Mexico City and for IOC President Juan Samaranch in 1997 for the Olympic Museum
in Lausanne
. A full score was published in 1999 by C.F. Peters as part of the Richard Strauss Edition.
A photograph of Richard Strauss rehearsing the Olympische Hymne at the Olympic Stadium can be seen at http://web.archive.org/web/20091027074318/http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Studio/2891/olympia.htm
's Olympia
, the film of the 1936 Olympics. (It follows the Marathon sequence.)
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
.
In 1932, Richard Strauss was approached by Dr. Theodor Lewald, the German Olympic Committee’s representative to the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
(IOC). The German committee desired an anthem composed for the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
to be held in Berlin. Early in 1933, Strauss agreed to compose an Olympic Hymn, with the condition that a suitable text be found to set to music. However in 1933, the IOC had chosen Walter Bradley-Keeler's Hymne Olympique, written for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, as the official Olympic anthem for all time. The IOC however accepted Lewald's proposal to allow Germany its own Olympic anthem for the Berlin games.
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
initially agreed to write the required text, but he never produced it. Therefore the text was determined by competition. Wilhelm von Scholz, President of the German Poets’ Academy, won first place but his composition (a Germanic ode devoted to Siegfried’s battles) was considered far too nationalistic. A second competition resulted in 3,000 texts submitted. Most were unsuitable, but from fifty possibilities, four were sent to the composer. Strauss chose Robert Lubahn’s and said he was "extraordinarily satisfied" with it. Lubahn (1903-1974), an unemployed Berlin actor at the time, received 1,000 Reichsmarks on September 22, 1934 for his poem. It consists of three stanzas, each of which ends with the word “Olympia”.
Robert Lubahn's Text for the Olympische Hymne:
- Völker! Seid des Volkes Gäste, kommt durch's offne Tor herein!
- Friede sei dem Völkerfeste! Ehre soll der Kampfspruch sein.
- Junge Kraft will Mut beweisen, heißes Spiel Olympia!
- deinen Glanz in Taten preisen, reines Ziel: Olympia.
- Vieler Länder Stolz und Blüte kam zum Kampfesfest herbei;
- alles Feuer das da glühte, schlägt zusammen hoch und frei.
- Kraft und Geist naht sich mit Zagen. Opfergang Olympia!
- Wer darf deinen Lorbeer tragen, Ruhmesklang: Olympia?
- Wie nun alle Herzenschlagen in erhobenem Verein,
- soll in Taten und in Sagen Eidestreu das Höchste sein.
- Freudvoll sollen Meistersiegen, Siegesfest Olympia!
- Freude sei noch im Erliegen, Friedensfest: Olympia.
- Freudvoll sollen Meistersiegen, Siegesfest Olympia!
- Olympia! Olympia! Olympia!
The version above is the one sung at the opening ceremonies and differs in one word from Lubahn’s original submission. Lubahn's word Rechtsgewalt in the last of the three stanzas was replaced (over Lubahn's objection) with the word Eidestreu by Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
who found Lubahn's usage ambiguous and possibly democratic.
Composition of the Olympische Hymne was completed by Strauss on December 22, 1934. The principal music theme was derived from a major symphony Strauss planned but never finished. Strauss wrote disparagingly of the work to his librettist Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
: "I am whiling away the boredom of the advent season by composing an Olympic Hymn for the plebs---I of all people, who hate and despise sports. Well, idleness is the root of all evil." The composer originally demanded 10,000 Reichsmarks for the commission, but agreed to waive the fee altogether following negotiations with Lewald.
During the 1936 Winter Olympics
1936 Winter Olympics
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted the Summer Olympics the same year in Berlin...
in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria...
, the composer invited members of the IOC executive board to hear the work sung by an opera star from Munich. In February 1936, the IOC declared Strauss’s composition as the Olympic anthem “for all time” much as it had in 1933 for Bradley-Keeler's composition.
Première at the Berlin Olympic Games
The première was held on August 1, 1936 at the opening ceremonies of the 1936 Summer Olympics at the Olympic Stadium (Berlin)Olympic Stadium (Berlin)
The Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March...
, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
augmented by the National Socialist Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of one thousand members attired in white. From the distinguished visitor section on the opposite side of the stadium to the musicians, Theodor Lewald stepped onto a rostrum to address the nearly 4,000 athletes from 49 nations who had just marched in. His remarks concluded with the news that the Olympic Committee had decided the day before to make Richard Strauss's Olympic Hymn the hymn for all future meets. He expressed his thanks to the composer. After a short opening proclamation by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, and an artillery salute and the release of several thousand white pigeons; Richard Strauss conducted the Olympische Hymne at 5:16 p.m.
The duration of the work is approximately three and one-half minutes. A voice and piano version was published by Fürstner in Berlin in 1936. Strauss’s hand-written full orchestra score was dedicated to Theodor Lewald “in memory of 1 August 1936”. This score was located after the war by the German National Olympic Committee, and copies were made for the organizers of the 1968 Summer Olympics
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
in Mexico City and for IOC President Juan Samaranch in 1997 for the Olympic Museum
Olympic Museum
The Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland houses permanent and temporary exhibits relating to sport and the Olympic movement. With more than 10,000 pieces, the museum is the largest archive of Olympic Games in the world and one of Lausanne's prime tourist draws attracting more than 250,000...
in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
. A full score was published in 1999 by C.F. Peters as part of the Richard Strauss Edition.
A photograph of Richard Strauss rehearsing the Olympische Hymne at the Olympic Stadium can be seen at http://web.archive.org/web/20091027074318/http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Studio/2891/olympia.htm
Soundtrack
A slightly abbreviated version of the Olympische Hymne can be heard on the soundtrack to the closing sequence of part 1 of Leni RiefenstahlLeni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
's Olympia
Olympia (1938 film)
Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
, the film of the 1936 Olympics. (It follows the Marathon sequence.)
Discography
| Conductor | Orchestra | Recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Bruno Seidler-Winkler | Berlin State Opera Orchestra and Chorus | 1936 |
| James Stobart | Locke Brass Consort | 1979 |
| Hayko Siemens | Munich Philharmonic Orchestra & Munich Motet Choir | 1999 |
| Leon Botstein | American Symphony Orchestra & Concert Chorale of New York | 2005 |