litigation
No “Thank you for the smoked meat dumplings”: hymns must not be satirized
The musician and composer Martin Gotthard Schneider in 2010 with the single “Thank you”
The director Kurt Palm used the hymn “Thank You” for his theater production “This is the End, My Friend” – with changed text. That did not suit the heirs of the song composer at all.
The heirs of the German composer Martin Gotthard Schneider from Konstanz have again taken action against the use of his well-known hymn “Thank you for this good morning” in a modern piece. The Austrian author and director Kurt Palm incorporated the melody with modified lyrics in his work “This is the End, my Friend”, which premiered on March 17 at the Theater Phönix in Linz. The use of the song in the production, which Palm describes as “dystopian horror clothes”, corresponds “in no way to the author’s theological intentions”, criticized the community of heirs on Saturday.
For this reason, and because Palm did not obtain permission, the heirs prohibited further use. The theater announced that the song had been dropped from the play.
“Thanks for the smoked meat dumplings”
According to Schneider’s (1930-2017) heirs, the theater maker justified the use of it by saying that as a child he was an altar boy and a member of the Catholic youth group. Among other things, Palm had written the new line “Thanks for this smoked meat dumpling”.
Two years ago, pressure from the heirs forced the song to be removed from the contemporary opera “Orlando” by Olga Neuwirth, which was performed at the Vienna State Opera. At one point in the work, believing children sang the song and fell into the arms of a priest who abused them.