Old German Songbooks, No. 7: Weeber & Krauss, Liedersammlung für die Schule (three editions: 1850s, 1870s, 1900s)

One of the most durable and long-lasting songbooks for schools in Germany was surely the Liedersammlung für die Schule [...] in stufenmäßig geordneter Folge conceived and compiled by Johann Christian Becker and Friedrich Krauss. The very first edition consisting of five booklets came out in 1852 and from then on this series remained in print at least until 1915. 

Johann Christian Weeber (1808-1877) worked as a teacher for music, composer, organist andMusikdirektor in the town of Nürtingen in Swabia (see Schwaebische-orgelromantik.de). Weeber had already published a collection for schools a couple of years earlier of which there are apparently no extant copies: Liederbuch für die deutsche Schul-Jugend, Stuttgart 1847 (see Hofmeister XIX, Januar 1847, p. 16). His co-editor Friedrich Krauß (1816-1872) was a pastor who later would compile other song collections, for example 42 Rhythmische Choräle der evangelischen Kirche aus dem 16. und 17. Jahrhundert and or 8 Grabgesänge für 4-stimmigen Männerchor (see Hofmeister XIX, März 1853, p. 291 & November 1860, p. 187).

There is at least one extant copy of the original edition the Liedersammlung. It is available in the WLB Stuttgart (Paed.oct.4482-1/5, see SWB-catalog for Vol. 3) although unfortunately it has not yet been digitized. I happened to find an early reprint, the 3rd edition from 1854, with all five booklets bound together in one volume:

• J. Chr. Weeber & Friedrich Krauß, Liedersammlung für die Schule. Vier Abtheilungen, in stufenmäßig geordneter Folge. I. Heft zum Gebrauch der Elementarklasse. II. Heft zum Gebrauch der Mittelschule. III. Heft zum Gebrauch der Oberschule. IV. Heft zum Gebrauch der gehobenen Oberklasse. Mit einem Anhang: V. Heft: Liedersammlung für Knabenschulen, 3./3./3./2./1. Stereotyp-Auflage, In Kommission bei der Ebner'schen Kunst- und Musikalienhandlung, Stuttgart 1854/54/54/54/52
  Now available at the Internet Archive (my own scan of a book from my collection)

This collection - cheaply produced and therefore relatively inexpensive - apparently became very popular and was then reprinted regularly. For example a 4th edition came out already in 1857 (see catalog UB Frankfurt: Mus 1932/577 Nr. 3) and in the early 70s the 7th edition was published. All the five booklets are identical to the original version:

• J. Chr. Weeber & Friedrich Krauß, Liedersammlung für die Schule. Vier Abtheilungen, in stufenmäßig geordneter Folge. I. Heft zum Gebrauch der Elementarklasse. II. Heft zum Gebrauch der Mittelschule. III. Heft zum Gebrauch der Oberschule. IV. Heft zum Gebrauch der gehobenen Oberklasse. Mit einem Anhang: V. Heft: Liedersammlung für Knabenschulen, 7./7./8./7./5. Stereotyp-Auflage, In Kommission bei Eduard Ebner, Stuttgart 1873/73/72/73/68
  Now available at the Internet Archive (my own scan of a book from my collection)

This is in fact a very interesting collection. Here we can find for example the usual amount of patriotic and religious pieces, some songs by composers like Schulz, Kreutzer, Silcher, Mozart, Haydn, Nägeli and even Gluck as well as a generous amount of so-called "Volkslieder". Thankfully they also included some foreign songs - with German words of course. In the third booklet there is for example "Des Sommers letzte Rose", an adaption of Moore's "The Last Rose Of Summer" (No. 29, p. 33) and in Heft 5 a version of Robert Burns' "My Heart's In The Highland" ("Das Hochland", No. 14, pp. 12-13) that was borrowed from Friedrich Silcher who had published it first in 1837 in the 2nd Volume of his Ausländische Volksmelodien. Neither Silcher nor poet Ferdinand Freiligrath - the translator of Burns' text - received any credit: 

Most interesting was what may have been the very first publication of "Heimath, Ade!", a new text for the popular tune of "Robin Adair". This song later became a standard in German and Swiss school songbooks:

Krauß and Weeber died in 1872 respectively 1877 but their songbook remained in use and was reprinted in the original form during the next two decades. But in the 90s the publisher hired one Karl Friedrich Breuninger (1836-1904, see Schwäbische Orgelromantik), a music teacher, organist and choirmaster from Stuttgart for a revised edition. He added an additional booklet, a supplement to Vol. 1 & 2, but also corrected and expanded the other volumes. This way the whole collection grew from nearly 200 to just under 300 pages. For example Heft 3 now included 69 instead of 50 "Liedchen und Lieder". I was able to find an edition printed shortly after the turn of the century:

•  J. Chr. Weeber, Liedersammlung für die Schule. Vier Abteilungen, in stufenmäßig geordneter Folge. I. Heft zum Gebrauch in Elementarklassen. Ergänzungsheft zu I. II. von Breuninger. II. Heft zum Gebrauch in Mittelklassen. III. Heft zum Gebrauch in Mittel- und Oberklassen. IV. Heft zum Gebrauch in Oberklassen, Fortbildungsschulen, Frauenvereinen u. s. w. V. Anhang (Ergänzungsheft zu Heft III),neu durchgesehen von K. Fr. Breuninger, 14./2./13./16./12./14. Auflage, J. B. Metzler'scher Verlag, Stuttgart 1903/01/04/04/03/03
  Now available at the Internet Archive (my own scan of a book from my collection)

All in all this song collection seems to have been modernized rather carefully but still it looked a little bit old-fashioned. In the preface to the 3rd volume he noted that he had deleted some of the less popular songs as well as some that may have been too difficult for the pupils. I also got the impression that the number of patriotic pieces and "Heimatlieder" was raised considerably. I haven't counted them but - of course - that was during the Kaiserreich when the poor kids were permanently plagued with these kind of propaganda disguised as songs. At least the editor spared them Hoffman von Fallersleben's atrocious ditty about Kaiser Wilhelm I ("Wer ist der greise Siegesheld…") that can be found in many other songbooks from this era .

On the other hand some particularly popular standards were added, like the "Lorelei" (here III, No. 53, p. 45) which had not been included in the original edition. In fact at that time no songbook was complete without this beloved song:

Interestingly "Mein Herz ist im Hochland" now found a place in Vol. III (No. 48, p. 41), but not with the uncommon tune from the early editions but with the German "Volksweise" that was most often used at that time for this text: 

Breuninger's new edition was not the end of this collection's life span. In 1915 publisher Auer from Stuttgart brought out one more new edition, now revised by H. Schlegel and F. Schuler (see DNB 56102099X). Apparently this time only the first three volumes were updated. But as far as I know no further editions or reprints followed. After more than 60 years this legendary series came to an end. One may assume that it remained in use for at least a few more years. But at that time it was surely eclipsed by many much more sophisticated and ambitious school songbooks. Nonetheless its longevity is very impressive and numerous generations of children must have learned singing with these handy booklets.