Berliner Luft. Zur Karriere einer Stadthymne

Abstract

Berlin’s music history is rich in popular songs, so called „Gassenhauer“, that deal with the peculiarities of city life. One of them, Paul Lincke’s „Das ist die Berliner Luft“ from 1904, served as an unofficial city anthem throughout the 20th Century and allowed Berliners to construct and maintain a certain image of their city and a collective identity as Berliners. The article follows the career of this song by analysing its origins in the context of the operetta and popular music boom in Berlin around 1900 and its consistent popularity across the different regime changes of the 20th Century up until today.