Even songs that were more distantly related than Erika were censored to varying extents-the Deutschlandlied had been in existence well before the rise of the NSDAP and yet it has been completely changed in the current German anthem due to the association of it with the Nazi regime. The very fact that if I search for the song "Erika" and am immediately confronted with results depicting WW2 German soldiers and other Nazi symbols attests to this association. While certainly the song remained popular after the war, it was primarily because of how popular it was among German soldiers, much like the American song "Dixie" is well-known even today despite the fact that it is absolutely tied to the Confederate States of America. I would argue that the song is very difficult to dissociate from the Nazi regime for this reason.
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The song itself was very popular in the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS and is heavily associated with Nazi Germany in numerous media such as the 1993 movie Schindler's List where it is used as a Nazi motif. The portrayal of the woman (“Mägdelein”) as “waiting, crying, devoted, loyal, and yet adored woman” corresponded to the role cliché of the “loyal caring wife” propagated by the Nazis.Ībroad, the marching song Erika was and is perceived as a “typical German song”, although to this day mostly inseparable from the German Wehrmacht For example, in 1983, on the junta's tenth anniversary in Chile, it was part of the repertoire of the band of a Chilean military battalion in “familiar field gray with original Wehrmacht steel helmet”, which was still in the tradition of “former German military aid”.Erika was written at some point in the 1930s by Herms Niel, who became what essentially was a musical propagandist for the Nazi regime after the Nazi rise to power in 1933.
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The particular popularity of the marching song during the Second World War is sometimes explained by the fact that it was lyrically part of a series of popular songs with German female first names, in which Wehrmacht soldiers who had gone to war could sing of their loved ones and wives who had stayed at home. This musical idea, which at first glance does not match the lyrical and melodic content of the song, makes the composition memorable and, through its sonic similarity to cannon blows, subliminally emphasizes the character of a war song. The independent march composition shows a concise detail, as it was spread in the recordings at the time of the Third Reich: The vocal part, otherwise completely arranged as march music, is counterpointed in all melody pauses with three rapidly successive steam hammer-like drum beats (without instrumental accompaniment, this results automatically from the sound of the marching feet), which stand completely on their own without accompaniment:Ī little flower blooms on the heather (xxx) / and its name is: (xxx) Erika (xxx). The composition is a marching song, a song that could be sung by soldiers (mostly marching) without instrumental accompaniment. The militaristic hits and the marching songs were the "answer to the approaching war". The conscious use of new technical mass media during National Socialism, especially in film and radio, accommodated this and quickly ensured the popularity of Nazi songs and music. The more the Schlager-song escaped from the harsh reality in dreamy bliss and faked a cozy love affair and pleasure idyll, the better "the true face of Nazi Germany" could be hidden behind the many soft minor tones. In particular, the Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels recognized popular, simple songs as a useful means of propaganda. The marching song "Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein" (Erika) was published for the first time in 1938. Niel, who joined the NSDAP at the beginning of May 1933 and made it to the position of “leading” conductor in the Reichsmusikzug of the Reich Labor Service during the Nazi era, created numerous marching songs that were largely used for Nazi propaganda. The lyrics and the melody come from the German composer for marching songs, Herms Niel (1888–1954).
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