Louis Fürnberg

Louis Fürnberg (24 May 1909 – 23 June 1957) was a Czech-German writer, poet and journalist, composer and diplomat. He wrote the Lied der Partei ("The Party is Always Right"), the song that served for years as the official anthem of the East German ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Life Fürnberg was born into a German-speaking Jewish family of textile factory owners in the Moravian city of Jihlava (German: Iglau), then part of the Austria-Hungary. His mother, Berta, died shortly after his birth. His father, Jakob Fürnberg, moved the family when he married for a second time. Thus, Louis Fürnberg spent his childhood and youth in Karlovy Vary (German: Karlsbad). His lyrics were often addressed to his comrades in the cause for examples, "Was ich singe, sing ich den Genossen. Ihre Träume gehen durch mein Lied." (What I sing, I sing to the comrades. Your dreams go through my song.).

Fürnberg mostly wrote poems, narratives and novels. His novella 'Die Begegnung in Weimar' (The Encounter in Weimar) deals with the meeting of Adam Mickiewiczs and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Fürnberg's dramas, festival works and cantatas show his communist beliefs, which he held until his death.

Even today, Fürnberg's name is most strongly associated with the song "Die Partei" (The Party is always right), which he wrote after he was insulted not to be invited to the 9th Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in May 1949. Due to the fame of the song, his other works are less well known. After the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956, several of his songs were edited to remove references to Stalin as part of the ideological shift of the Soviet Union and associated countries. This included removal of Stalin from the lyrics of Die Partei, the renaming of the song "Lied von Stalin" (Stalin's Song) to "Lied vom Menschen" (Song from the People), and the renaming of "Dieses Lied weihe ich Stalin" (This song I dedicate to Stalin) to "Dieses Lied weihe ich den Sowjets" (This song I dedicate to the Soviets). Other changes include replacing a reference to Stalin and Lenin with a reference to Marx and Engels. Fürnberg's poetry was also altered, and the poems"Stalins Geburt," "Der junge Stalin," and "Der größte Schüler" ("Stalin's Birth", "The Young Stalin", "The Greatest Student") were removed from collections of his work.

Fürnberg occasionally used the pseudonyms Nuntius or Nuncius after 1932.

Cultural references to Fürnberg's work German band Puhdys referenced Fürnberg's work "Alt möcht ich werden" in their 1976 hit song "".