GREAT LITTLE TOWN OF HISTORY

by Juergen Jaensch and Gerald Block



Great little town of history
I love You too much as far as I can see
you are the place where I like to be
īcause death is the master of Germany.

I was born in you but I had to escape
out of the former GDR
my fate as a stranger I had to weape
īcause the Nazis had just lost the war.

Great little town of history
Death is the master of Germany

I raised up in a town which means nothing to me
but I found friends and I could grow up free
I didnīt knew what happened around
from the national hymn I just learned the sound.

Beauty arts grew in the East and West
I was born as an artist to do my best
Iīm a wandering genious between the chairs
trying to climb up the divine stairs.

Great little town of history
Death is the master of Germany

Nazis and Communists are one and the same
half a Century filled up with shame
the Eastgermans built up the Berlin Wall
so I saw it raise and I saw it fall
I will return to the town I love best.

So I will return to the town I love best
but commercial desaster grows in East and West
Japanese Tourists walk through the Goethe-Park
and unemployed inhabitants living in the dark.

Great little town of history
Death is the master of Germany

Politicians are prisoners of their stupidity
Ex-Stasis have easy game with criminality
the big wars are over for ever and a day
but small wars went on and the little man must pay.

The little Jew who wrote the Bible lives in a monastry
come over great master of song and poetry
to the town with Buchenwald-commemorative place
and give this town of poetries a brave and truely face

Great little town of history
you are the place where I like to be


© by Juergen Jaensch (lyrics) and Gerald Block (music). Reprinted with permission.
In December 1997 Jaensch and Block released a tribute album to Leonard Cohen.
Thanks to Judith Braun for help in making this page.




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