Winter 1948/49. The city of Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains, like many other cities in Europe, is slowly being rebuilt. Many windows are still boarded up. In one of these windows there is a poster for the 1949 World Peace Conference in Paris with Pablo Picasso’s lithograph “La Colombe”, the dove of peace. “That was in March 1949 – I am …
Winter 1948/49. The city of Nordhausen in the Harz Mountains, like many other cities in Europe, is slowly being rebuilt. Many windows are still boarded up. In one of these windows there is a poster for the 1949 World Peace Conference in Paris with Pablo Picasso’s lithograph “La Colombe”, the dove of peace. “That was in March 1949 – I went on, and then suddenly I had the text and the melody. But at first I only had one verse, that was the second. ‘You should fly, dove of peace, tell everyone here, never again We want war, we want peace. ‘ Only later did I write the other stanzas. ” Erika Schirmer tells about the creation of one of the most famous children’s songs in the GDR. The second was soon followed by other stanzas – the first: “Little white dove of peace, fly over the country; you are well known to all people, big and small.” The third and fourth: “Fly over the great water, over mountains and valleys; bring peace to all people, greet them a thousand times. And we wish you joy and good luck on the journey; little white dove of peace, come back very soon.”
The song spread quickly – and almost without the help of the young kindergarten teacher: “That was my first kindergarten in Nordhausen. The response came from my eight students who did an internship with me. There was no grade yet, nothing at all. You have it Song sung and taken away – and then the first calls came: We’re all singing this song. That’s how it came about. I didn’t do anything to it. “
She has remained modest to this day, as shortly before her 95th birthday she invites you to a chat in Ilfeld in the Harz region, “although it has all been written so often”. The contact was arranged by the bookseller Kathrin Jakob from Oelsnitz in Vogtland, who for many years has been decorating her bookstore with Erika Schirmer’s song on the World Day of Peace.
Born on July 31, 1926 in Polish Nettkow, today Czerwiensk, Erika Erna Mertke got to know the war and later the escape from Silesia as a young adult. Her parents raised her strictly, “but there was a lot of music in the family”. Her father was a blacksmith and built a guitar and a mandolin himself, her mother was an avid singer. Then the escape … “was a terrible experience. I was driven from home with my mother in the night and fog. After a week we came to Thuringia, were unloaded in Eichsfeld. Nobody wanted us. I got no work. Open We didn’t get our ration cards; ‘Nothing is sold to Poles’, they said. But we weren’t Poles. That was really bad. ” She wrote applications and got a job as a kindergarten teacher on Rügen. “An orphanage was opened there, run by a former concentration camp inmate. I worked for him for a year. He was a great educator.” She looked after 48 orphans between the ages of three and 16 years. “The children had nothing, I had nothing. I am still in contact with many children today. But some committed suicide – they couldn’t cope with life outside. Later the church took over the home – and I went back to Thuringia in 1951 I got married, we had a daughter in 1952. That’s how it started. “
Her song about the dove of peace was already famous. Erika Schirmer graduated as a primary school teacher and later worked as a teacher for disabled children and young people. The GDR border regime found her unjust, but otherwise she had no problems with the country. And she has always written poems and songs, limericks, short stories, and from 1998, when her husband died, also made filigree paper cutouts and flower pictures. Til today. Her role models: Hundertwasser, Heinrich Heine; She has already read Thomas Mann’s “Josef und seine Brüder” three times.
Erika Schirmer lives in the Sonnenhof in Ilfeld, a modern care facility for the elderly. Your one-room apartment is reminiscent of your former apartment with a large bookcase and lots of pictures. Your favorite place is at the desk in front of the window, where your computer is. Her pictures, often with her own texts, have already been shown in around 200 exhibitions, in Germany, but also in Poland, where she has been campaigning for reconciliation between the two peoples for decades. She was invited to countless rounds of talks. And the mid-90s always advertises with a warm smile and modestly eloquent for peace, respect and compassion – meanwhile highly decorated. Schirmer is an honorary citizen of the city of Nordhausen and its native city of Czerwiensk. On October 6, 2016, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her long-term commitment to peace, humanity, the education of values and democracy. She wanted to refuse it first when it was announced to her. But, “the answer came straight from Erfurt – that doesn’t work. Shortly afterwards I was invited to a grammar school in Weimar. And at first the grammar school students looked at me like ‘What does the old woman want?’ The first questions came hesitantly. Then I should say something about my award and I said, ‘I don’t deserve this award. My mother would have deserved it.’ And I told them about March 1945. We were in an attic. The next day there was a knock on the door, there were two deserted soldiers. Mother hid them for a fortnight and we shared our little bread with them. Across the street they had been sent away as traitors. The students were as quiet as a mouse and not a single one left prematurely, as they sometimes did in the past. “
Erika Schirmer can reach and inspire people with her words. Her courage to face life, her optimism, also how she accepts old age as a station in life that still has something to offer – that is thrilling and touching. She cannot say where this positive attitude to life comes from: “It is in a person. It cannot be explained.”
Her song about the little white dove of peace is sung in many languages. “The best translation comes from Finland,” says Erika Schirmer. “Rauhankyyhky” is the name of the song there, and the famous first line, “Pieni kaunis rauhankyyhky” means, literally translated, “Little beautiful dove of peace”: the melody also fits here perfectly. There were “a lot of nice reactions” to the song, “and I got to know a lot of valuable people.” The song did not prevent the increasing militarization of the education system in the GDR and the world has not become much more peaceful either, but Erika Schirmer did not expect that either. People have to make peace themselves: “You don’t have to write a song, but if everyone would stand up a little for peace, then a lot would be better. You don’t have to perform heroic deeds. In silence – that is sometimes more valuable and better. For others be there – that is very important. ” And her wish for the world, not just for her birthday: “That it will be more peaceful, more humane, that it is no longer just about prosperity.”
A video with a short portrait of Erika Schirmer can be found at www.freipresse.de/schirmer
A video with the song in a version by singer Dirk Michaelis See here: