The Happy Wander or Mein Vater war ein Wandermann is a very popular song known to many people in choruses as a camping or walking song covered by Frank Weir, The Stargazers, and even The Muppet's; however what people do not know the song's connection to a German environmental movement and the history of the choir who put music to the words of a poem written by Florenz Fredrick Sigismund. Often mistaken as a German Folk Song it's music was written by Friedrich-Willheim Moller for his sister Edith who ran a choir of children in Northern Germany who were orphans during World War Two.
After the war in 1953, the BBC broadcasted the Obernkirtchen Children's Choir singing the song which landed number two on popular music stations and even appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. It also became an anthem for the revival of the Wandervogel, an environmental group that fought against industrialization by hiking in the woods. When German-Americans brought the concept to America we now know it as either the Boy Scouts or the Hippie Movement in the 1960's which in Germany and Austria was a perfect time to revitalize Volksmusik and bring back Eche (real or traditional) Volksmusik into not just to a younger generation, but also into the record stores of America. It was also the beginning of a new genre called Schlager that would borrow concepts from American pop and novelty music and blend it with folk instrumentation.
The English version of the song is different in many ways from its original German version; for example, the German version's fourth verse has the brook going through a tube instead of the English version's brook dancing in the sun. The German version also asks us to listen to the birds, the stream, and that hiking creates fresh desire and helps us breathe. In the English version, they seem as if their distractions which is why we should learn the song in its original form because it's important for us a German-Americans to know our language before it's too late; like the original German version says...
Ein Wanderburshe Sein/ Be A Wander!
