O, Germany Pale mother (1933)

"O Deutschland, bleiche Mutter" /"O Germany, Pale Mother !" by Bertolt Brecht

Skulptur von Fritz Cremer

The bronze sculpture "O Deutschland, bleiche Mutter" ("O Germany, pale mother") by Fritz Cremer, standing on the green space north of the Berlin Cathedral on Museum Island in Berlin-Mitte. The title is borrowed from the poem "Germany" (1933) by Bertolt Brecht. This is a copy of the memorial Cremer created in 1965/1966 for the former concentration camp Mauthausen. Another copy is located at the Forest Cemetery in Magdeburg at the grave site of victims of national socialism. The Berlin copy has been standing at its current site since 2004. From 1987 to 1991, it stood in the nearby Lustgarten, in front of the Old Museum.

The poem below was written by the great Bertolt Brecht in 1933; Communist, German dramatist, stage director, and poet of the 20th century.

Bert Brecht's Poem

'Let others speak of her shame,
I speak of my own.'

O Germany, pale mother!
How soiled you are
As you sit among the peoples.
You flaunt yourself
Among the besmirched.

The poorest of your sons
Lies struck down.
When his hunger was great.
Your other sons
Raised their hands against him.
This is notorious.

With their hands thus raised,
Raised against their brother,
They march insolently around you
And laugh in your face.
This is well known.

In your house
Lies are roared aloud.
But the truth
Must be silent.
Is it so?

Why do the oppressors praise you everywhere,
The oppressed accuse you?
The plundered
Point to you with their fingers, but
The plunderer praises the system
That was invented in your house!

Whereupon everyone sees you
Hiding the hem of your mantle which is bloody
With the blood
Of your best sons.

Hearing the harangues which echo from your house,
men laugh.
But whoever sees you reaches for a knife
As at the approach of a robber.

O Germany, pale mother!
How have your sons arrayed you
That you sit among the peoples
A thing of scorn and fear!

Bertolt Brecht