2 - “In dem Kerker saßen zu Frankfurt an dem Main” (“Die freie Republik”)

Summary

THE POLITICAL SONG “In dem Kerker saßen zu Frankfurt an dem Main” (They Sat in the Dungeon in Frankfurt on the Main) relates to the escape of six students who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for participation in the storming of the Frankfurt guardhouse in 1833. Their successful breakout in January 1837 was the subject of a satirical song that emerged in the decade before the 1848 Revolution as an anonymous adaptation of Wilhelm Sauerwein's “Lied der Verfolgten” (Song of the Persecuted). In the late nineteenth century the song was still widely sung in the social democratic workers’ movement. After the Second World War it became one of the most popular historical political songs—above all in the West German folk and Liedermacher movement—where it was known under the title “Die freie Republik” (The Free Republic).

The song about the six students who had escaped from the Frankfurt prison possibly originated directly after the breakout on January 10, 1837. The author of the text, which heaps scorn on the judicial and police authorities, is unknown. It seems likely to have emerged from within the circle of republicans who supported the storming of the guardhouse in 1833. However, there is no reliable evidence to confirm this. The oldest known source, an entry in a handwritten songbook from Hessen, dates from 1848. The disjointedness of the text, however, typical of a song that has undergone considerable alterations through oral dissemination, suggests that it had already been in circulation for several years before this.

The storming of the Frankfurt guardhouse on April 3, 1833 was a failed attempt to trigger a revolutionary uprising throughout Germany. Alongside the Hambach Festival of 1832, it was one of the most spectacular political events of the Vormärz, one that received widespread coverage in the press at the time. The insurgents were mostly students, many of whom successfully fled. Those arrested were sentenced in October 1836 to life-long imprisonment. In January 1837, however, six managed to escape from the Konstabler guardhouse in Frankfurt, thereby creating yet another public sensation. The song celebrates the breakout, telling—with much schadenfreude—of the duping of state officials such as the “Kerkermeister” (jailor) and the “Gendarmenschwarm” (swarm of policemen): “Ihr seid angeschmieret, Spott wird euch, und Schmach” (You’ve been conned, all you’ll get is / Mockery and disgrace).