"Erika" is a

marching song A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's ...

used by the German military. The song was composed by

Herms Niel Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock (17 April 1888 – 16 July 1954),
''Munzinger'' Internationales Biographisches Ar ...

in the 1930s, and it soon came into usage by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

, especially the Heer. No other marching song during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

reached the popularity of Erika.

Origins

" Erika" is both a common German female name and the German word for heather. The lyrics and melody of the song were written by

Herms Niel Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock (17 April 1888 – 16 July 1954),
''Munzinger'' Internationales Biographisches Ar ...

, a German composer of marches. The exact year of the song's origin is not known; often the date is given as "about 1930", a date that, however, has not been substantiated. The song was originally published in 1938 by the publishing firm Louis Oertel in

Großburgwedel Großburgwedel is a village northeast of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. Formerly an independent municipality, it is part of the town Burgwedel since 1974. Großburgwedel is home to the town hall of Burgwedel and other town institutions such as th ...

. It had been popular prior to the start of World War II. The song encourages hard work, and according to Michael Tillotson, no other marching song during World War II reached the popularity of Erika. It was extensively played at large political events.

Music

The song begins with the line "Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein" (On the Heath a Little Flower Blooms), the theme of a flower (Erika) bearing a soldier's sweetheart's name. After each line, and after each time the name "Erika" is sung, there is a three

beat Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery (c ...

pause, which is filled by the

kettledrum Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

or stomping feet (e.g. of marching soldiers), shown as (xxx) in the text below. \header \paper \layout global = heidetenor = \relative c'' tenorVoice = \relative c'' verse = \lyricmode verseR = \lyricmode heideshots = shots = \relative c'' \score \score

Lyrics

References

External links

"Erika", lyrics and recordings
ingeb.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Erika (Song) German folk songs German military marches German patriotic songs Songs with music by Herms Niel Songs about the military Songs about flowers 1930s songs