{"id":5882,"date":"2014-12-14T11:16:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-14T11:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=5882"},"modified":"2017-11-16T13:23:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T13:23:08","slug":"otannenbaum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/otannenbaum\/","title":{"rendered":"German Christmas Song: O Tannenbaum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently I wrote a post about <a title=\"Der Weihnachtsbaum: The Christmas Tree in German History\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/christmastree\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Der Weihnachtsbaum <\/a>and its origins in German history. This post was originally a part of it, but it became so large that I thought it only fitting to give it its own post. So, to continue on the <strong>Weihnachtsbaum<\/strong> theme, here\u2019s a popular song you might know as \u2018O Christmas tree\u2019. This, too, originated in Germany!<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0O Tannenbaum<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The English starts off, &#8220;O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches!&#8221; However, this popular Christmas song is an English translation of\u00a0 an old German song entitled &#8220;O Tannenbaum&#8221;. This is not a song about Christmas trees, but about fir trees!<\/p>\n<p>O Tannenbaum\/O Christmas Tree is based on a\u00a0German traditional folk song dating back to the 16th century. It is in fact about the everlasting beauty of the fir tree, and how we can learn something from its year-round strength. However, it became associated with the Christmas tree in the 19th century.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of this, the song has been translated into English as &#8220;O Christmas tree&#8221;, even though a <em>Tannenbaum<\/em> refers to a fir tree in general, rather than a Christmas tree. It is now sung as a Christmas carol in both England and Germany, and there are numerous versions of the lyrics.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the song in German. You might want to play it as you read the rest of the post:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nana Mouskouri - O Tannenbaum\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2lhQ_hBT7lA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The song&#8217;s history<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first verse belongs to the original, which was written in 1819 by <strong>Joachim August Christian Zarnack, <\/strong>and based on the folk song <strong>\u201cAch Tannenbaum\u201d<\/strong> by the 16<sup>th<\/sup> century German Renaissance\/Baroque composer <strong>Melchior Franck<\/strong>. Zarnack wrote this verse about a lover who had been unfaithful &#8211; as opposed to a Tannenbaum, which is faithful and everlasting!<\/p>\n<p>The German lyrics to the first verse are as follows:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cO Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,<\/strong><strong><br \/>\n<strong>wie treu sind deine Bl\u00e4tter!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Du gr\u00fcnst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u201cO Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>wie treu sind deine Bl\u00e4tter!\u201d<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my fairly literal translation of the verse, to give you an idea of the song&#8217;s meaning:<\/p>\n<p><em>O fir tree, O fir tree,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> How faithful are your branches!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> You&#8217;re not just green during summertime,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> But also in wintertime when it snows,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> O fir tree, O fir tree,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> How faithful are your branches!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The second two verses were added in 1824 by German composer <strong>Ernst Ansch\u00fctz<\/strong>, when the song became associated with Christmas time. Here they are, along with my translations (again, these are not the actual lyrics as they are in the English versions, I should point out, but a more literal translation to help understand the German words and the song&#8217;s meaning!)<\/p>\n<p><strong>O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>O fir tree, O fir free!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> You can please me very much!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> How often has, not just at Christmas time,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> A tree like you delighted me!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> O fir tree, O fir tree,<\/em><br \/>\n<em> You can please me very much!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Dein Kleid will mich<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 was lehren:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Die Hoffnung und Best\u00e4ndigkeit<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Gibt Trost und Kraft<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 zu jeder Zeit.<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Das soll dein Kleid<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0 mich lehren.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>O fir tree, O fir tree!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> I could learn something<\/em><br \/>\n<em> from your dress:<\/em><br \/>\n<em> The hope and durability<\/em><br \/>\n<em> Give trust and strength<\/em><br \/>\n<em> at any time.<\/em><br \/>\n<em> O fir tree, O fir tree!<\/em><br \/>\n<em> That&#8217;s what your dress should<\/em><br \/>\n<em> teach me.<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a title=\"Weihnachtsbaum \/ Christmastree by H. KoPP, on Flickr\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/kopp1963\/332980752\" aria-label=\"332980752 55d2f3a922\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  alt=\"Weihnachtsbaum \/ Christmastree\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/147\/332980752_55d2f3a922.jpg\"><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by kopp1963 on flickr.com under CC BY-ND 2.0<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to know more about the Christmas tree in German history, you can read my post about it by<a title=\"Der Weihnachtsbaum: The Christmas Tree in German History\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/christmastree\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Have a great Sunday!!<\/p>\n<p>Constanze x<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/12\/3366724208_c08cd8b583-350x232.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/12\/3366724208_c08cd8b583-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2014\/12\/3366724208_c08cd8b583.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Recently I wrote a post about Der Weihnachtsbaum and its origins in German history. This post was originally a part of it, but it became so large that I thought it only fitting to give it its own post. So, to continue on the Weihnachtsbaum theme, here\u2019s a popular song you might know as \u2018O&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/otannenbaum\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":7417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,7,8,913],"tags":[43,2008,238454,95232,337669,951,358440,1152],"class_list":["post-5882","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-holidays","category-language","category-traditions","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-tree","tag-folk-music","tag-frohliche-weihnachten","tag-german-folk-music","tag-german-music","tag-german-traditions","tag-merry-christmas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5882"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9145,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5882\/revisions\/9145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}