Auf, auf zum Kampf

Auf, auf zum Kampf is identified in the novel’s notes as a song of the workers’ movement. The note connects its quoted words to a specific act of political commemoration: Berthold Brecht wrote the text in 1919 in honor of the murdered Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

Identification and Attribution

The note gives the song’s German title and the English gloss “Up, up, let’s fight.” It identifies the passage as lines from a workers’ movement song, while specifying that the text quoted here was written by Brecht in 1919. This distinction grounds the citation without claiming more about the song’s authorship or composition than the note establishes.

Commemorative Significance

The note places the words in the aftermath of the murders of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, presenting the text as an act of political remembrance. Its brief explanation gives the song a historical reference beyond its call to fight: the quoted lines belong to a workers’ movement tradition shaped, in this instance, by the deaths of two political figures.