Here's a tiny part of 'folk music in the history of Germany' which still only exists in my head:

The first edition of the 'Zupfgeigenhansel'* came out in 1908, but the songs in this book had already been in many handwritten songbooks of the Wandervogel** founded in 1896. The Zupfgeigenhansel was their official songbook. This youth movement was founded in protest against the adults and their town-based society and values. This was done by 'fleeing the burgeois world' through 'living in the nature' by walking and camping. No alcohol and cigarettes were allowed, no machine powered transport, and each goal was to be reached by the most basic means (cooking on woodfire only; tents only from tarpaulins and e.g. the pegs and poles had to be cut anew each time from wood).

The values were comradeship, patriotism, thriftiness, and 'back to the roots'. All groups coming from this movement were either forbidden or forced into line, that is transformed into Hitler youth groups (my father went to bed one night as a Wandervogel and woke up next morning as a Hitlerjunge) soon after 1933. Many of the most ardent supporters of the Nazis came from these groups but also some of the most determined enemies (Edelweißpiraten, e.g.) who often payed with their lives for opposing Hitler and his values.

As for folk songs, we owe a lot to these groups for digging out and preserving old songs and writing a lot of fine new songs. The best of these songs can compare to McColls 'Manchester Rambler' and the worst made good marching songs for Hitler's armies.

Wolfgang

*Zupfgeigenhansel: 'Johnny with a guitar' would be one possible English translation of this title; 'Zupfgeige' being an unsucessful attempt to prevent the Germans from adopting the foreign word 'Gitarre' to their language

**Wandervogel: verbatim: 'walking bird', but in this context we also understand 'Vogel' in the sense of 'schräger Vogel' which means 'odd person'; the best translation grasping the spirit would be 'odd/outcast walker'