BEST OF THE PROLETENPASSION

“Wir haben eure Geschichte geschluckt, jetzt machen wir unsere Geschichte. Wir wollen die Wahrheit, die ganze Wahrheit haben, durch eure Lügen ging sie uns verschütt.” (We’ve swallowed all your stories, now it’s us who’ll forge our history; we want the truth, the whole truth, that your lies have kept a mystery).
Georg Herrnstadt, singer Beatrix Neundlinger and multi-instrumentalist Peter Marnul together composed many of the songs on “Proletenpassion” (Passion of the Proletariat), the classic political folk-rock album. And in their opinion, many of these songs are still “shockingly relevant” today. The Proletenpassion is a political oratorio from the Austrian political-rock band Schmetterlinge. Along with Herrnstadt, Willi Resetarits and Heinz Rudolf Unger were also heavily involved in its creation.
The work was first performed as a dramatic piece. It premiered in 1976 at the Wiener Festwochen, under the direction of Dieter Haspel, and soon gained cult status. The album was released in 1977. It has been reprised many times since that first performance, a sign of its ongoing relevance.