Video from Junoa1979
Performance by Claire Pommet, known professionally as Pomme is a French singer, songwriter and musician.
"Bien sur, ce n'est pas la Seine,Ce n'est pas le bois de Vincennes,Mais c'est bien joli tout de meme,A Gottingen, a Gottingen.Pas de quais et pas de rengainesQui se lamentent et qui se trainent,Mais l'amour y fleurit quand meme,A Gottingen, a Gottingen.Ils savent mieux que nous, je pense,L'histoire de nos rois de France,Herman, Peter, Helga et Hans,A Gottingen.Et que personne ne s'offense,Mais les contes de notre enfance,"Il etait une fois" commenceA Gottingen.Bien sur nous, nous avons la SeineEt puis notre bois de Vincennes,Mais Dieu que les roses sont bellesA Gottingen, a Gottingen.Nous, nous avons nos matins blemesEt l'ame grise de Verlaine,Eux c'est la melancolie meme,A Gottingen, a Gottingen.Quand ils ne savent rien nous dire,Ils restent la a nous sourireMais nous les comprenons quand meme,Les enfants blonds de Gottingen.Et tant pis pour ceux qui s'etonnentEt que les autres me pardonnent,Mais les enfants ce sont les memes,A Paris ou a Gottingen.O faites que jamais ne revienneLe temps du sang et de la haineCar il y a des gens que j'aime,A Gottingen, a Gottingen.Et lorsque sonnerait l'alarme,S'il fallait reprendre les armes,Mon coeur verserait une larmePour Gottingen, pour Gottingen.Mais c'est bien joli tout de meme,A Gottingen, a Gottingen.Et lorsque sonnerait l'alarme,S'il fallait reprendre les armes,Mon coeur verserait une larmePour Gottingen, pour Gottingen." from video introduction.
"Göttingen is a French song, a hymn to peace, to Germany, and to the Franco-German friendship. It is one of the most important international hits of Barbara’s career.
Hans-Gunther Klein, the then director of the Junge Theater Göttingen, had experienced the well-known French chansonnière Barbara at a concert in early 1964 and subsequently invited her to Göttingen for a guest performance. Because of her life story and her own flight from the Nazis, she initially declined the invitation, but then reluctantly accepted the following day. She demanded that they provide her with a grand piano for the performance. But when she arrived at the theatre on 4 July 1964, there was an upright piano on stage. Barbara was extremely upset and categorically refused to give the concert. It seemed impossible to meet her demand, although Hans-Gunther Klein tried everything. Finally, it was possible to procure a grand piano, which an old lady had provided and which ten students carried through the city. Despite the artist’s initial disgruntlement and the almost two-hour delay until the concert began, Barbara was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience, which impressed her greatly.
Due to the great success of her first performance and the unexpectedly warm atmosphere in the city, she extended her engagement by a week. On the afternoon before her last concert, she summarised the impressions she had gathered in the previous days, which were unexpectedly positive for her, in the rough version of the chanson Göttingen, which she wrote in the garden of the Junge Theater, and performed it (at first not yet fully formulated and with a different melody) that same evening. The success of the chanson was sudden and overwhelming. She then returned to Paris where she completed work on the text and composition..." from the website: Genius.com