Hanns Eisler - Das Vorbild (1951)

Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artistic association with Bertolt Brecht, and for the scores he wrote for films. The Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" is named after him.

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Das Vorbild: Triptychon für Altsolo und Orchester nach Worten von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Dedicated to his students.

1. Fuge
2. Aria
3. Symbolum

Annelies Burmeister, contralto and Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Günther Herbig

On 26 March 1948, Eisler and his wife, Lou, departed from LaGuardia Airport and flew to Prague. Before he left, he read the following statement:

I leave this country not without bitterness and infuriation. I could well understand it when in 1933 the Hitler bandits put a price on my head and drove me out. They were the evil of the period; I was proud at being driven out. But I feel heartbroken over being driven out of this beautiful country in this ridiculous way.

Eisler returned to Austria, and later moved to East Berlin. In East Germany, he composed the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic, a cycle of cabaret-style songs to satirical poems by Kurt Tucholsky and incidental music for theater, films, television and party celebrations.

Although he continued to work as a composer and to teach at the East Berlin conservatory, the gap between Eisler and the cultural functionaries of East Germany grew wider in the last decade of his life. During this period, he befriended musician Wolf Biermann and tried to promote him (but in 1976, Biermann would be stripped of his GDR citizenship while on concert tour in West Germany).

Eisler collaborated with Brecht until the latter's death in 1956. He never recovered completely from his friend's demise, and his remaining years were marred by depression and declining health. He died of a heart attack (his second) in East Berlin in September 1962, and is buried near Brecht in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery.