Es waren zwei Königskinder
Berlin AlexanderplatzEs waren zwei Königskinder is a seventeenth-century folk song based on the legend of Hero and Leander. The reference identifies the song’s historical and legendary lineage, while the wider book sets everyday Berlin life amid cinemas, amusement, street work, and cafés.
Identification
A note identifies Es waren zwei Königskinder as a seventeenth-century folk song. The evidence establishes its period and genre but does not provide lyrics or describe a performance of the song.
Legendary Background
The song is based on the legend of Hero and Leander. That connection places it within a narrative tradition older than the urban scenes elsewhere in the book; the available reference does not specify which details of the legend the folk song retains.
Popular Culture in the Book
The book’s broader social panorama includes mass entertainment and ordinary public scenes: a crowded cinema showing a film, an amusement gathering at Neue Welt, and customers at a Berlin café. It also turns attention to spectators watching construction work at Alexanderplatz. These distinct settings establish the range of modern popular and public life around the song’s historical reference, without showing that the song is performed or directly connected to any one of them.
