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Looking Back: Teaching Landeskunde with Liedermacher Songs
Author(s) -
Rundell Richard
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
die unterrichtspraxis/teaching german
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1756-1221
pISSN - 0042-062X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1221.2008.00004.x
Subject(s) - german , politics , sociology , history , literature , media studies , art , linguistics , political science , law , philosophy
Popular music is a lingua franca for young people. The songs of German Liedermacher lend themselves to classroom uses. Liedermacher are cultural commentators who entertain and edify with their songs. Focusing on social and political aspects of postwar Germany, Liedermacher songs have been a “gesungene Landeskunde” resource since the early 1960s. Some songs took a retrospective view of the 20th century, e.g. Degenhardt's “Zeit‐Zeuge Jahrgang 00,” Mey's “Das Foto vor mir auf dem Tisch”, and Wader's “Familienerbe”. Each of these three songs takes personalized stock of a dense century as history “von unten,” each with a strikingly distinct voice accompaniment.