As a Gassenhauer, a hit or evergreen, a very successful and in any case known song, is called colloquially. In part, the term is also used as a synonym for Schlager. Originally the Gassenhauer between the 16th and 18th century meant the song of the litter, and the wandering around and strollers. It is also possible that the Gassenhauer was derived from the Kontratanz. The contrat is a dance, according to the announcement, the sequences being danced in the rhythm of the music in lines, the so-called lanes, which were mostly sung or played, from which the later folk songs were derived. In Romanticism (cf. Literaturepochen), the term is often used derogatory, meaning primarily Schlager, which is characterized by constant primitive repetitions and often appears hackneyed, angry, dishonorable or even trivial, and thus opposes the popular song, which was perceived as noble , Later, however, the term was also used for particularly catchy pieces from operetta, opera, or singing, and already resembles today’s meaning of the term.
The term is a determinative composite, which is composed of the noun alleyways as well as the verb. It is probable that it was originally the (night) strollers in the streets, who strolled around and thereby the pavement, which meant in the original meaning or entered. Later, the word also spoke of the song that they had on their lips. The term was, however, abolished, as Johann Christoph Adelung, a German librarian, a lexicographer, and a Germanist, pointed out in his grammatical critical dictionary (1793-1801): ”
The Gassenhauer is a bad song sung by the mob in all the streets; a lane. In like manner the melody of such a song known in all alleys.
History of the Gassenhauer
Already in the 16th century popular songs or folk songs were called Gassenhawerlin. The use is, for example, shown in a music print published by the music publisher Christian Egenolff (1502-1555) about 1535 and entitled Gassenhawer vnd Reutterliedlin. Reutterliedlin (Reiterliedchen) means here the songs of the Reisish servants, thus the songs of the mounted (partly also armed) companions of a gentleman (Volltext: digitale-sammlungen.de).
As late as the eighteenth century, when the term was increasingly negatively occupied, the Gassenhauer was still simply a poem for the folk song. It was only when Johann Gottfried Herder coined the term Volkslied and distinguished from other forms that the Gassenhauer got his negative taste, which from then on adhered to it and which still resonates today.
Nowadays, however, the term means, above all, a catchy song, hit or evergreen, which is whistled and sung in all its alleys in a transcendental sense, and appears to be very catchy, and consequently omnipresent. As a prominent example from the 20th century, the song Lili Marleen could be cited, which in the version of Lale Andersen in 1939 became the first German million-singer and, moreover, an international classical soldier. The following is an interpretation by Marlene Dietrich.
Short overview: The most important part of the term at a glance
As a Gassenhauer, a hit or Evergreen, a very successful and well-known song, is called colloquially. In part, the term synonymous to Schlager is used. For the time being, the term was used neutrally, but was then rather negatively occupied in the 18th century and is only used in the last decades for a popular song of every kind.
Originally the word meant the strollers and wanderers, who (in the night) to the alleys and later also the song, which they sang. The verb can be interpreted as a step or a step.
Note: In addition, a Renaissance Bidenhänder is called a Gassenhauer, ie a sword, which is led with two hands. This made it literally possible to hit an alley, a narrow path, into the ranks of rushing enemies.