How this German song became a Christmas classic
The melody of “Macht hoch die Tür” comes from Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen
Quelle: picture alliance / Stephan Goerlich
The most popular Christmas carol after “Silent Night” is “Power up the door”. Its triumphal procession began in Prussia at the beginning of the 17th century. It prepares the congregation for the coming of Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve.
Et was the Advent season of the year 1623. And on the extreme eastern edge of Prussia, which was occasionally plagued by Tatar raids, a new church was to be festively inaugurated. To honor the high occasion, the pastor Georg Weissel sat down and wrote a new hymn.
Weissel had no idea that his occasional poem for the inauguration of the Altroßgärter church in the Pregelstadt district of Königsberg would become a classic that is still being sung 400 years later – by Lutherans, like Weissel, as well as by Catholics.
As a basis, Weissel chose a quote from Psalm 24, which Martin Luther had translated as follows: “Open the gates and open the doors of the world, so that the King of honor may come in!” This suited the opening of a new church as well as the Advent season, in which one mentally prepares for the coming of Jesus Christ at Christmas.
It was an obvious artistic choice. By the beginning of the 17th century, the psalm, originally written in Hebrew and referring to the entry of the Ark of the Covenant into the temple in Jerusalem, had long since become part of the liturgy on the first Sunday in Advent. To this day, the verses are then read in the service.
Weissel’s version celebrates the entry of a gentle, holy and merciful “king” into the world, city and country and, last but not least, the very personal “heart”. This turning of the highest saint to an individual fits that a lyrical I rejoices: “Praise be my God!” This I now also speaks clearly what everyone has long suspected – the king is Jesus: “Come, o my Savior Jesus Christian.”
But the song owes its continued popularity not only to Pastor Weissel’s poetic skills, but also to the melody. As with many folk and church songs or poem settings, there are several variants. The original music by Johann Stobäus, bassist in the Brandenburg elector’s Königsberg chapel, was not a hit.
Melody and text did not finally come together until 1704, when Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen published a new melody in a hymnal. With this music, the song was also translated into English by Catherine Winkworth in 1853. It says “Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates”.
![Under the direction of Kreuzkantor, Roderich Kreile, the Dresdner Kruzianer (Dresdner Kreuzchor) will rehearse together with the Dresden Philharmonic on December 14, 2011 for the Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach in the Kreuzkirche in Dresden. Photo: Arno Burgi [ Rechtehinweis: (c) dpa ]](https://img.welt.de/img/kultur/klassik/mobile204318478/2122502687-ci102l-w1024/Saengerknaben-im-Weihnachtsstress-2.jpg)
The currently most beautiful German variant, freed from the sweet chorus, instead in all spiritual jubilation, can be found on a recording for children of all things. It is the companion CD to the musical Advent calendar picture book “Am Christmas Tree” by Franziska Biermann, Nils Kacirek and Susanne Koppe – a classic that has long been celebrated by parents by word of mouth.
Among the 24 songs are other gems like “O Tannenbaum” (as samba), long smothered under a fat layer of stickiness, which are heard here as new without being violently and provocatively modernized.