"Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit" (Brothers, to the sun, to freedom) is a German song, a re-writing of the Russian revolutionary song Bravely, comrades, in step! (), which wrote during 1895/96 while he was in Taganka Prison, Moscow.
History Radin used the student song Slowly moving time , to which Ivan Sawvich Nikitin wrote the text in September 1857, published in 1858 under the title ("song") in the Russian magazine Russian Conversation . Radin also changed the rhythm of the previous slow waltz melody to a brisk and combative march.
The Russian song was first sung by political prisoners on the march to the Siberian exile in 1898. The song quickly became known for its rousing nature, but also because of the origin of its melody: In the 1905 Russian Revolution and the October Revolution 1917 it became an anthem in Russia. Radin himself never experienced either; he died in 1900 at the age of 39.
The German conductor Hermann Scherchen, director of a workers' choir, learned the song in Russian captivity in 1917 and created a German version in 1918. The Schubert Choir premiered it in Berlin on September 21, 1920. While Radin wrote seven stanzas, Scherchen's German version only included three. During the time of the Weimar Republic a fourth and a fifth stanza by unknown authors were written.
In 1921 the song even appeared in a religious hymn book. The edited by Eberhard Arnold, until today the hymn book of the Pacifist Anabaptist Bruderhofgemeinschaft (Brotherhood Community), uses the song as hymn 63.Markus Baum: Eberhard Arnold. Ein Leben im Geist der Bergpredigt [A life in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount]. Neufeld Verlag, Schwarzenfeld 2013, p. 155. The last line of the third stanza was, however, changed by Erich Mohr (1895–1960).For Erich Mohr see For Hermann Scherchen, the German translator of the workers' song, the final verse is [Brothers, now the hands united to one, / Brothers, laughing at death! / Forever, an end to slavery, / holy be the last battle!];"Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit", lieder-archiv.de. Retrieved 6 October 2026. in the Sun Songs the last verse reads [Holy be the power of love!]See Sonnenlieder, no. 63; see also p. 207 (comment on hymn 63).
The Nazi Party reappropriated the popular song, first with a specially adapted fourth stanza, then in 1927, it was converted to "Brüder in Zechen und Gruben" [Brothers in Pits and Mines], one of the best known propaganda songs in Nazi Germany,"Nationalsozialismus: Quellen, Vorläufer, Ideologie, Organisationsformen, Gründe des Erfolgs", Institute für Musikwissenschaft, University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar as well as "Brüder formiert die Kolonnen" [Brothers Form the Columns], a song by the Sturmabteilung. In the propaganda song "Volk ans Gewehr" [People to the rifle!], the second line also refers to this song: [a sign of freedom, to the sun!].
Melody
References
Further reading Eckhard John: Brüder zur Sonne, zur Freiheit. Die unerhörte Geschichte eines Revolutionsliedes. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2018, Norbert Linke: "Über Schwierigkeit und Notwendigkeit, melodische Herkunftsnachweise zu sichern". In Deutsche Johann Strauss Gesellschaft (ed.): Neues Leben, issue 53 (2016/Nr. 3), , .</ref>