Müller-Guttenbrunn, Adam
Banat Poet, Prose Writer & Theatrical Director
Born 1852, died 1923 in Guttenbrunn. Worked for many years as a theater director and writer in Vienna. He was in the forefront of the struggle against the assimilation of the Danube Swabians into the Hungarian ethnic culture, and for the preservation of the German cultural life in the Banat, becoming the speaker and poet of the Danube Swabians. In the poem, ‘motherland’ refers to Germany; ‘fatherland’ refers to Hungary. Many proponents of an ethnic Hungarian identity referred to German-speaking Banaters as ‘foreigners’. As used in the poem, both ‘German’ and ‘Swabian’ refer to Banat Swabians or Danube Swabians in general.
Well-known prose-writer of the Swabian ethnic community in the Banat. Died in Guttenbrunn (Zabrani) in the Banat, 1923 in Vienna.
Banater Schwabenlied
von Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn
Es brennt ein Weh, wie Kindertränen brennen,
wenn Elternherzen hart und stiefgesinnt.
O, daß vom Mutterland uns Welten trennen
und wir dem Vaterland nur Fremde sind.
Von deutscher Erde sind wir abgeglitten
auf diese Insel weit im Weltenmeer.
Doch wo des Schwaben Pflug das Land durchschnitten,
wird deutsch die Erde, und er weicht nicht mehr.
O Heimat, deutschen Schweißes stolze Blüte,
du Zeugin mancher herben Väternot,
wir segnen dich, auf daß dich Gott behüte,
wir stehn getreu zu dir in Not und Tod!
Song of Banat Swabians
translated by Nick Tullius
There burns a hurt, like tears of children crying,
When parents’ hearts are like they’re made of stone.
That from our motherland the worlds do part us
And we’re called strangers in our fatherland.
From German soil our ancestors departed
To this small island in the global sea.
But where a Swabian’s plough the land made fertile,
The soil is German, and he will not leave.
O homeland, proudest bloom of German effort,
You witness of our fathers’ hardy deeds,
We bless you so that God may keep you,
We stand in faith with you in life and death!
Adam Müller Guttenbrunn House email banater_forum@rdslink.ro
Address: 10-12 Gheorghe Lazar Street, Timisoara
Photos taken by Jody McKim, May 2004
Exhibition to the Memory of
Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn
(well-known prose-writer of the Swabian ethnic community in the Banat) Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn, poet and theatrical director, born 1852 died in Guttenbrunn (Zabrani) in the Banat, 1923 in Vienna.
We were greeted by a friendly staff.
Visit the satellite branch
Democratic Forum for the Germans
of Billed
Banater Homes
Remembering the Baragan Steppe
Sources:
- Nick Tullius
- Photos by Jody McKim Pharr
- Deutsche Literatur im Banat (1840-1939) der Beitrag der Kulturzeitschriften zum banatschwäbischen Geistesleben. Author: Engel, Walter. Publisher: Julius Groos Verlag, Heidelberg, 1982. ISBN-10: 387276280X / ISBN-13: 978-3872762801 [Published by Jody McKim Pharr, DVHH.org 10 Nov 2009]
Last updated: 07/23/2025