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{{Short description|Austrian and German composer (1898–1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Hanns Eisler
| image         = Eisler1940.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Eisler in 1940
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1898|07|06|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Leipzig]], Saxony, [[German Empire]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1962|09|06|1898|07|06|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[East Berlin]], [[East Germany]]
| spouse        = 
| children      = 
| education     = 
| occupation    = Composer
| works         = }}

'''Hanns Eisler''' (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was a German-Austrian composer. He is best known for composing the [[Auferstanden aus Ruinen|national anthem]] of [[East Germany]], for his long artistic association with [[Bertolt Brecht]], and for the scores he wrote for films. The [[Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin]] is named after him.

==Family background==
Johannes Eisler was born in [[Leipzig]] in [[Saxony]], the third child of [[Rudolf Eisler]], a professor of philosophy, and Marie Ida Fischer.{{sfn|Betz|1982|p=311}} His father was an [[atheist]] of Jewish descent and his mother was [[Lutheran]] of [[Swabians|Swabian]] descent.<ref name="Levi-Erik_1998-08" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LV0eAAAAMAAJ|title=The Men in the Trojan Horse|last=Singer|first=Kurt D.|year=1953|publisher=Beacon Press}}{{page needed|date=April 2022}}{{Request quotation|date=April 2022}}</ref> In 1901, the family moved to [[Vienna]]. His older brother [[Gerhart Eisler|Gerhart]] was a Communist journalist,<ref name="NYT_1949-05-22" /><ref name="TimeMag_1947-02-17" /> and his older sister [[Ruth Fischer|Elfriede]] was a leader of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] in the 1920s. After emigrating to [[North America]], she turned into an [[anti-Stalinism|anti-Stalinist]], his sister testified against him and his brother before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]].

==Early years==
[[File:Hanns Eisler 1917.jpg|thumb|upright|Eisler in uniform, 1917]]
As his family could not afford music lessons nor a piano, Eisler had to teach himself music.<ref>I. I. Selbstbiografie, HEGW, III/2, p. 363.{{full citation needed|date=December 2024}}</ref> At age 14, Eisler joined a socialist youth group.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2018/10/hanns-eisler-communist-composer-artist-brecht|title=The Karl Marx of Music|magazine=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]}}</ref>

In 1917, one year after Eisler graduated high school, then 18-year-old Eisler was drafted into the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] to fight during [[World War I]], where served as a front-line soldier. He found this time physically demanding, due to his poor health and small stature, and was injured several times in combat.

Returning to Vienna after Austria's defeat, he studied from 1919 to 1923 under [[Arnold Schoenberg]]. Eisler was the first of Schoenberg's disciples to compose in the [[Twelve-tone technique|twelve-tone]] or [[Serialism|serial]] technique.

Eisler married [[Charlotte Demant]] in 1920; they separated in 1934. In 1925, he moved to Berlin, which was then a hothouse of experimentation in music, theater, film, art and politics. There he became an active supporter of the [[Communist Party of Germany]] and became involved with the [[November Group (German)|November Group]]. In 1928, he taught at the Marxist Workers' School in Berlin and his son [[Georg Eisler]] was born. His music became increasingly oriented towards political themes and, to Schoenberg's dismay, more "popular" in style with influences drawn from [[jazz]] and [[cabaret]]. At the same time, he became close with [[Bertolt Brecht]], whose own turn towards [[Marxism]] happened at about the same time. The collaboration between the two artists lasted for the rest of Brecht's life.{{sfn|Betz|1982|p=230}}

In 1929, Eisler composed the song cycle ''Zeitungsausschnitte'', Op. 11. The work is dedicated to the singer Margot Hinnenberg-Lefebre.<ref>Eisler, Hanns. ''Zeitungsausschnitte''. Hackensack, New Jersey: Boonin, 1972.</ref> Though not written in the twelve-tone technique, it was perhaps the forerunner of a musical art style later known as "News Items" (or perhaps better characterized as "news clippings") – musical compositions that parodied a newspaper's content and style, or that included lyrics lifted directly from newspapers, leaflets, magazines or other written media of the day. The cycle parodies a newspaper's layout and content, with the songs comprising it given titles similar to headlines. Its content reflects Eisler's socialist leanings, with lyrics memorializing the struggles of ordinary Germans subject to post–World War I hardships.<ref name=TT>Thomas, H. Todd. ''News Items: An Exploratory Study of Journalism in Music''. Abilene, Texas: 1992.</ref>

Eisler wrote music for several Brecht plays, including ''[[The Decision (play)|The Decision (Die Maßnahme)]]'' (1930), ''[[The Mother (Brecht play)|The Mother]]'' (1932) and ''[[Schweik in the Second World War]]'' (1957). They also collaborated on protest songs that celebrated, and contributed to, the political turmoil of [[Weimar Republic|Weimar Germany]] in the early 1930s. Their "[[Solidarity Song]]" became a popular militant anthem sung in street protests and public meetings throughout Europe, and their "Ballad of Paragraph 218" was the world's first song protesting laws against abortion. Brecht-Eisler songs of this period tended to look at life from "below"—from the perspective of prostitutes, hustlers, the unemployed and the working poor. From 1931 to 1932, he collaborated with Brecht and director [[Slatan Dudow]] on the working-class film ''[[Kuhle Wampe]]''.{{sfn|Betz|1982|pp=104–106}}

==Exile==
After 1933, Eisler's music and Brecht's poetry were banned by the [[Nazi Party]]. Both artists went into exile. While Brecht settled in [[Svendborg]], Denmark, Eisler traveled for a number of years, working in [[Prague]], [[Vienna]], [[Paris]], [[London]], and [[Moscow]], and living briefly in [[Spain]], [[Mexico]], and [[Denmark]]. He made two visits to the United States, with speaking tours from [[East Coast of the United States|coast]] to [[West Coast of the United States|coast]].

In 1934, Eisler composed music for a song written by Brecht called the "[[Einheitsfrontlied|United Front Song]]". The song was simple to follow to allow workers with limited musical training to be able to sing it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hirschfeld |first=Eugene |date=2010-07-31 |title=Marxist Theory of Art: United Front Song (Einheitsfrontlied) |url=http://marxist-theory-of-art.blogspot.com/2010/10/united-front-song-einheitsfrontlied.html |access-date=2024-09-22 |website=Marxist Theory of Art}}</ref>

In 1938, Eisler finally managed to emigrate to the United States with a [[United States visa|permanent visa]]. In [[New York City]], he taught composition at [[The New School|The New School for Social Research]] and wrote experimental chamber and documentary music. In 1942, he moved to [[Los Angeles]] where he joined Brecht, who had arrived in [[California]] in 1941 after a long trip eastward from Denmark across the Soviet Union and the Pacific Ocean.

In the US, Eisler composed music for various documentary films and for eight Hollywood film scores, two of which – ''[[Hangmen Also Die!]]'' and ''[[None but the Lonely Heart (film)|None but the Lonely Heart]]'' – were nominated for [[Academy Award|Oscars]] in 1944 and 1945 respectively.<ref name="OscarNominee1944" /><ref name="OscarNominee1945" /> Also working on ''Hangmen Also Die!'' was Bertolt Brecht, who wrote the story along with director [[Fritz Lang]]. From 1927 to the end of his life, Eisler wrote the music for 40 films, making film music the largest part of his compositions after vocal music for chorus and/or solo voices.

On 1 February 1940, he began work on the "Research Program on the Relation between Music and Films" funded by a grant from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], which he got with the help of film director [[Joseph Losey]] and The New School. This work resulted in the book ''Composing for the Films'' which was published in 1947, with [[Theodor W. Adorno]] as co-author.

In several chamber and choral compositions of this period, Eisler returned to the twelve-tone method he had abandoned in Berlin. His ''Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain'', composed for [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s 70th birthday celebration, is considered a masterpiece of the genre.<ref>[https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Karyn-Levitt-to-Perform-ERIC-BENTLEYS-BRECHT-EISLER-SONG-BOOK-23-20140127 "Karyn Levitt to Perform Eric Bentley's Brecht–Eisler Song Book, 2/3"] by Diana Heisroth, ''[[BroadwayWorld]]'', 27 January 2014</ref>

Eisler's works of the 1930s and 1940s included ''[[Deutsche Sinfonie]]'', a choral symphony in 11 movements based on poems by Brecht and [[Ignazio Silone]],<ref name="Pistiak2009" /> and a cycle of art songs published as the ''Hollywood Songbook''. With lyrics by Brecht, [[Eduard Mörike]], [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]], it established Eisler's reputation as one of the 20th century's great composers of German [[lied]]er.

==HUAC investigation==
Eisler's promising career in the U.S. was interrupted by the [[Cold War]]. He was one of the first artists placed on the [[Hollywood blacklist]] by the [[film studio]] bosses. In two interrogations by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee|House Committee on Un-American Activities]],<ref name="Andrew-Lang-2005" /><ref name="Schebera_USA" /><ref name="HUAC_official" /> the composer was accused of being "the Karl Marx of music" and the chief Soviet agent in [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]]. Among his accusers was his sister [[Ruth Fischer]], who also testified before the Committee that her other brother, Gerhart, was a Communist agent.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

===His supporters===
Eisler's supporters—including his friend [[Charlie Chaplin]] and the composers [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Aaron Copland]]<ref>{{cite web |title=McCarthy Hearings |url=http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83870.html |work=McCarthy Hearings 1953–54 Vol. 2 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=1 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611165521/http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83870.html |archive-date=11 June 2011 }}</ref> and [[Leonard Bernstein]]—organized benefit concerts to raise money for his defense fund, but to no avail. Eisler was deported early in 1948. His deportation disrupted a number of collaborations, such as composing a new film score for Chaplin's 1928 ''[[The Circus (1928 film)|The Circus]]'', the last ''Tramp'' movie, which Chaplin had requested.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hanns Eisler trifft Charlie Chaplin, ORF-Radiothek, Le Weekend, 12 Oct 2024 |url=https://oe1.orf.at/player/20241012/772507 |access-date=2024-10-12 |website=oe1.orf.at |language=de-at}}</ref> Eisler turned the score in the 1950s into concert music, which would be performed. Folksinger [[Woody Guthrie]] protested the composer's deportation in his lyrics for "[[Eisler on the Go]]"—recorded 50 years later by [[Billy Bragg]] and [[Wilco]] in the 1998 album ''[[Mermaid Avenue]]''. In the song, an introspective Guthrie asked himself what he would do if called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities: "I don't know what I'll do / I don't know what I'll do / Eisler's on the come and go / and I don't know what I'll do."<ref name="Guthry_Eisler_lyrics" />

===On departing from the U.S.===
On 26 March 1948, Eisler and his wife Lou departed from [[LaGuardia Airport]] and flew to [[Václav Havel Airport Prague|Prague]]. Before he left, he read the following statement:

<blockquote>I leave this country not without bitterness and infuriation. I could well understand it when in 1933 the Hitler bandits put a price on my head and drove me out. They were the evil of the period; I was proud at being driven out. But I feel heartbroken over being driven out of this beautiful country in this ridiculous way.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://eislermusic.com/depart.htm|title=Subject: Hanns Eisler – A Composer's Life – Statement on leaving the USA|access-date=7 September 2016|archive-date=14 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914204332/http://eislermusic.com/depart.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

==In East Germany==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-19204-2132, Berlin, Bertolt Brecht und Hanns Eisler.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Hanns Eisler (left) and [[Bertolt Brecht]], his close friend and collaborator, East Berlin, 1950]]
Eisler returned to [[Austria]], and later moved to [[East Berlin]]. In [[East Germany]], he composed the [[Auferstanden aus Ruinen|national anthem]] of the [[German Democratic Republic]], as well as a cycle of [[cabaret]]-style songs to satirical poems by [[Kurt Tucholsky]], and incidental music for theater, films, television and party celebrations.

His most ambitious project of the period was the opera ''Johannes Faustus'' on the [[Faust]] theme. The [[libretto]], written by Eisler himself, was published in the autumn of 1952. It portrayed Faust as an indecisive man who betrayed the cause of the [[working class]] by not joining the [[German Peasants' War]]. In May 1953, Eisler's libretto was attacked by a major article in [[Neues Deutschland]], the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]] organ,<ref name="ND_1953-05-14" /> which disapproved of the negative depiction of Faust as a renegade and accused the work of being "a slap in the face of German national feeling" and of having "formalistically deformed one of the greatest works of our German poet Goethe" ([[Walter Ulbricht|Ulbricht]]). Eisler's opera project was discussed in three of the bi-weekly meetings "Mittwochsgesellschaft" [Wednesday club] of a circle of intellectuals under the auspices of the [[Berlin Academy of Arts]] beginning on 13 May 1953. The last of these meetings took place on Wednesday, 10 June 1953.<ref name="Bunge1991_01" />

[[File:Grab Hanns-u-Steffy-Eisler Blumen-fuer-Hanns-Eisler 50ster-Todestag LWS1029.JPG|thumb|[[Ehrengrab|Grave of honor]] of Eisler and his third wife Stephanie (Steffy) Wolf at the [[Dorotheenstadt Cemetery]]]]
A week later, the [[East German uprising of 1953]] pushed those debates from the agenda. Eisler fell into a deep depression, and consequently did not write the music for the opera. In his last work, "Ernste Gesänge" ('Serious Songs'), written between spring 1961 and August 1962, Eisler attempted to work through his depression, taking up the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] with its demise of the Stalin cult, as a sign of hope for a future enabling to "live without fear". Although he continued to work as a composer and to teach at the [[Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler"|East Berlin conservatory]], the gap between Eisler and the cultural functionaries of East Germany grew wider in the last decade of his life. During this period, he befriended musician [[Wolf Biermann]] and tried to promote him,<ref name="Biermann-interview" /> but in 1976, Biermann would be stripped of his GDR citizenship while on concert tour in [[West Germany]].

Eisler collaborated with Brecht until the latter's death in 1956. He never recovered completely from his friend's demise, and his remaining years were marred by depression and declining health.

==Illness and death==
On 6 September 1962, he died of a fatal heart attack<ref name="Jackson-Margaret_2003" /> in East Berlin at the age of 64, and is buried near Brecht in the [[Dorotheenstadt cemetery]]. Previously, he had been bedridden for 3 months after his first heart attack. He had been a heavy smoker since he was a child,<ref>HEGW III 2, p. 399.</ref> smoking up to 100 cigarettes a day on occasion. He became a heavy drinker later in life and developed [[alcoholism]]. He had slept very little and ate poorly, and as a result he also suffered from [[Chronic Fatigue|chronic fatigue]] and [[malnutrition]].

==Compositions==
* 1918: ''Gesang des Abgeschiedenen'' ("Die Mausefalle") (after [[Christian Morgenstern]]); "Wenn es nur einmal so ganz still wäre" (after [[Rainer Maria Rilke]])
* 1919: ''Drei Lieder'' (Li-Tai-Po, [[Klabund]]); "Sehr leises Gehn im lauen Wind";
* 1922: Allegro moderato and Waltzes; Allegretto and Andante for Piano
* 1923: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 1
* 1923: Divertimento; Four Piano Pieces
* 1923: Divertimento for wind quintet, Op. 4
* 1924: Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 6
* 1925: Eight Piano Pieces
* 1926: ''Tagebuch des Hanns Eisler'' (''Diary of Hanns Eisler''); ''11 Zeitungsausschnitte''; Ten Lieder; Three Songs for Men's Chorus (after [[Heinrich Heine]])
* 1928: "Drum sag der SPD ade"; "Lied der roten Matrosen" ("Song of the Red Sailors", with [[Erich Weinert]]); ''Pantomime'' (with [[Béla Balázs]]); "Kumpellied"; "Red Sailors' Song"; "Couplet vom Zeitfreiwilligen"; "Newspaper's Son"; "Auch ein Schumacher (verschiedene Dichter)"; "Was möchst du nicht" (from [[Des Knaben Wunderhorn]]); "Wir sind das rote Sprachrohr"
* Between 1929 and 1931: "[[Solidaritätslied]]"
* 1929: ''Tempo der Zeit'' (''Tempo of Time'') for chorus and small orchestra, Op. 16; Six Lieder (after Weinert, Weber, Jahnke and Vallentin); "Lied der Werktätigen" ("Song of the Working People"; with Stephan Hermlin)
* 1930: ''[[The Decision (play)|Die Maßnahme]]'' (''The Measures Taken'', Lehrstück, text by [[Bertolt Brecht]]), Op. 20; ''Six Ballads'' (after Weber, Brecht, and [[Walter Mehring]]); ''Four Ballads'' (after [[B. Traven]], [[Kurt Tucholsky]], Wiesner-Gmeyner, and Arendt); ''Suite No. 1'', Op. 23
* 1931 incidental music for ''Die Mutter'' (''[[The Mother (Brecht play)|The Mother]]'') by Bertolt Brecht (after [[Maxim Gorky]]), for small theatre orchestra
* 1931: "Lied der roten Flieger" (after [[Semyon Kirsanov]]); ''Four Songs'' (after Frank, Weinert) from the film ''Niemandsland''; film music for ''[[Kuhle Wampe]]'' (texts by Brecht) with the famous "Ballad of the Pirates", "Song of Mariken", ''Four Ballads'' (with Bertolt Brecht); ''Suite No. 2'', Op. 24 ("Niemandsland"); Three Songs after Erich Weinert; "Das Lied vom vierten Mann" ("The Song of the Fourth Man"); "Streiklied" ("Strike Song"); ''Suite No. 3'', Op. 26 ("Kuhle Wampe")
* 1932: Kleine Sinfonie, Op. 29
* 1932: "Ballad of the Women and the Soldiers" (with Brecht); ''Seven Piano Pieces''; ''Suite No. 4'', Music for the Russian film ''Pesn' o geroyakh'' (Song of Heroes) by [[Joris Ivens]] with "Song from the Urals" (after [[Sergei Tretyakov (writer)|Sergei Tretyakov]]); reissued as instrumental piece Op. 30 ("Die Jugend hat das Wort")
* 1934: "[[Einheitsfrontlied]]" ("United Front Song"); "Saarlied" ("Saar Song"), "Lied gegen den Krieg" ("Song Against War"), "Ballade von der Judenhure Marie Sanders" ("Ballad of the Jews' Whore Marie Sanders"), songs from ''[[Round Heads and Pointed Heads|Die Rundköpfe und die Spitzköpfe]]''; "Sklave, wer wird dich befreien" ("Slave, who will liberate you"; with Brecht); "California Ballad"; ''Six Pieces''; ''Prelude and Fugue on [[BACH motif|B–A–C–H]]'' (string trio); ''Spartakus 1919'', Op. 43
* 1935: ''Die Mutter'' (''[[The Mother (Brecht play)|The Mother]]'') rewritten as [[cantata]] for chorus, solo voices and two pianos for a New York stage production
* 1935: ''Lenin Requiem'' for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
* 1936: Cantata ''Gegen den Krieg''
* 1937: Seven cantatas based on texts taken from [[Ignazio Silone]]'s novels ''[[Bread and Wine (novel)|Bread and Wine]]'' and ''[[Fontamara]]'' for solo voice, strings and woodwind instruments
: ''Die Römische Kantate'', Op. 60;
: ''Kantate im Exil'' (Man lebt von einem Tag zu dem andern), Op. 62;
: ''Kantate "Nein"'' (Kantate im Exil No. 2);
: ''Kantate auf den Tod eines Genossen'', Op. 64;
: ''Kriegskantate'', Op. 65;
: ''Die den Mund auf hatten'';
: ''Die Weißbrotkantate''.
* "Friedenssong" ("Peace Song", after Petere); "Kammerkantaten" ("Chamber Cantatas"); Ulm 1592; "Bettellied "("Begging Song", with Brecht); "Lenin Requiem" (with Brecht)
* 1938: ''Cantata on Herr Meyers' First Birthday''
* 1938: String Quartet
* 1938: Fünf Orchesterstücke
* 1938: Theme and Variations "Der lange Marsch"
* 1939: Nonet No. 1
* 1940: Music for the documentary film ''White Flood'' (Frontier Films)
* 1941: Music for the documentary film ''A Child went forth'' (directed by [[Joseph Losey]]), reissued as Suite for Septet No. 1, op. 92a<ref name="IHEG_Rockefeller-film-2" />
* 1940/41: Film music for ''[[The Forgotten Village]]'' (directed by [[Herbert Kline]] and [[Alexander Hammid]], written by [[John Steinbeck]])
* 1940/41: Nonet No. 2
* 1941: ''[[Woodbury, Connecticut#The Woodbury Songbook|Woodbury-Liederbüchlein]]'' (''Woodbury Songbook'', 20 children songs for female choir written in [[Woodbury, Connecticut]]); "14 Arten den Regen zu beschreiben" (14 ways to describe rain) (inspired by the [[Joris Ivens]] film ''[[Rain (1929 film)|Rain]]'' (1929), later dedicated to [[Arnold Schoenberg]] for his 70th birthday)
* 1942: "Hollywood-Elegien" ("Hollywood Elegies"; with Brecht) in the ''Hollywooder Liederbuch'' (''Hollywood Songbook'')
* 1943: Film music for ''[[Hangmen Also Die!]]''; Piano Sonata No. 3
* 1943: Songs for ''[[Schweik in the Second World War]]''; "Deutsche Misere" (with Brecht)
* 1943: Piano sonata no. 3
* 1943: Kammer-Sinfonie, Op. 69<ref name="IHEG_Rockefeller-film-1" />
* 1945: Film score for ''[[The Spanish Main]]'', directed by [[Frank Borzage]]
* 1946: "Glückliche Fahrt" ("Prosperous Voyage", after [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]); Songs and ballad for Brecht's play ''[[Life of Galileo]]''.
* 1946: Film scores for ''[[A Scandal in Paris]]'' and ''[[Deadline at Dawn]]''
* 1947: Septet No. 2
* 1947: Music for ''[[The Woman on the Beach]]'', film directed by [[Jean Renoir]]
* 1948: Incidental music for [[Johann Nestroy]]'s play ''Höllenangst''
* 1948: "Lied über die Gerechtigkeit" ("Song of Justice", after W. Fischer)
* 1948: Ouvertüre zu einem Lustspiel
* 1949: ''Berliner-Suite''; ''Rhapsody''; "Lied über den Frieden" ("Song about Peace"); ''[[Auferstanden aus Ruinen]]'' (National Anthem of the DDR (text by [[Johannes R. Becher]])); "Treffass"
* 1950: ''{{ill|Neue deutsche Volkslieder|de}}'', collection of songs to texts by Becher
* 1950: "Mitte des Jahrhunderts" (after Becher); Four Lieder on ''Die Tage der Commune''; Children's Songs (with Brecht)
* 1950: "[[Kinderhymne]]" to a poem by Brecht
* 1952: "Das Lied vom Glück" ("The Song of Happiness"; after Brecht); "Das Vorbild" (after Goethe)
* 1954 : ''Winterschlacht-Suite''
* 1955: ''[[Night and Fog (1956 film)|Night and Fog]]'', music for the film ''[[Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (1960 film)|Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti]]''; ''Puntila-Suite''; "Im Blumengarten" ("In the flower garden"); "Die haltbare Graugans"; Three Lieder after Brecht; music for the 1955 film ''[[Bel Ami (1955 film)|Bel Ami]]''
* 1956: ''Vier Szenen auf dem Lande'' (''Katzgraben'') ("Four Scenes from the Country", after Erwin Strittmatter); Children's Songs (after Brecht); "Fidelio" (after Beethoven)
* 1957: ''Sturm-Suite für Orchester''; ''Bilder aus der Kriegsfibel''; "Die Teppichweber von Kujan-Bulak" ("The Carpetweavers of Kujan-Bulak", with Brecht); "Lied der Tankisten" (text by Weinert); "Regimenter gehn"; "Marsch der Zeit" ("March of Time", after [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]); Three Lieder (after Mayakovsky and [[Peter Hacks]]); "Sputnik-Lied" ("Sputnik Song", text of Kuba (Kurt Barthel)); film music for ''Les Sorcières de Salem'' (''[[The Crucible (1957 film)|The Crucible]]'')
* 1935–1958: ''[[Deutsche Sinfonie]]'' (after texts of Bertolt Brecht and Ignazio Silone)
* 1958: "Am 1. Mai" ("To May Day", with Brecht)
* 1959: 36 more songs on texts by [[Kurt Tucholsky]] for [[Gisela May]] and [[Ernst Busch (actor)|Ernst Busch]];
* 1962: "Ernste Gesänge" ("Serious Songs"), seven ''Lieder'' after [[Friedrich Hölderlin]], [[Berthold Viertel]], [[Giacomo Leopardi]], Helmut Richter, and [[Stephan Hermlin]]
{{Further|:de:Liste der Werke von Hanns Eisler|label1=List of works by Hanns Eisler (in German)}}
[[Brilliant Classics]] issued in 2014 the 10-CD collection ''Edition Hanns Eisler''.<ref>[https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/h/hanns-eisler-edition/ ''Hanns Eisler Edition''], [[Brilliant Classics]] 2014, 10 CDs {{EAN|5029365943024}} [https://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/594812/9430-Hanns-Eisler-Edition-Liner-Notes-download.pdf "Liner notes"]; [https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7987406--hanns-eisler-edition?srsltid=AfmBOorLN3OXg2RUdHuDaOqZobRZv-jJjnNdx1IpeoQhL1syNQGZVS-2 "Audio samples"], Presto Music</ref>

==Writings==
*''A Rebel in Music: Selected Writings''. New York: International Publishers, 1978 {{OCLC|2632915}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="Levi-Erik_1998-08">{{cite web
|url=http://eislermusic.com/eriklevi.htm
|title=Hanns Eisler: Life: BBC Composer of the Month
|first=Erik
|last=Levi
|date=August 1998
|publisher=North American Hanns Eisler Forum
|work=eislermusic.com
|access-date=30 September 2012
|archive-date=14 September 2017
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914204106/http://eislermusic.com/eriklevi.htm
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

<ref name="NYT_1949-05-22">{{cite web
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/05/22/archives/a-communists-career-the-story-of-eisler-for-thirty-years-his-has.html
|title=A Communist's Career – The 'Story of Eisler – For Thirty Years His Has Been a Life of Adventure on Three Continents
|work=[[The New York Times]]|page=132
|first=Ira Henry
|last=Freeman
|date=22 May 1949
|access-date=30 September 2012}} ([https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/05/22/96458624.pdf Article PDF])
</ref>

<ref name="TimeMag_1947-02-17">{{cite magazine
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,778951,00.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080825050209/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,778951,00.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=25 August 2008
|title=Communists: The Man from Moscow
|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]
|date=17 February 1947
|quote=Gerhart Eisler&nbsp;... had just been accused of being the No. I U.S. Communist
|access-date=30 September 2012}}
</ref>

<ref name="Jackson-Margaret_2003">{{Cite web
 |url         = http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11172003-180442/unrestricted/MargaretJackson.pdf
 |title       = Workers, Unite! The Political Songs of Hanns Eisler, 1926–1932
 |last        = Jackson
 |first       = Margaret R.
 |page        = 16
 |publisher   = Florida State University School of Music
 |year        = 2003
 |access-date  = 19 August 2010
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20060913094244/http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11172003-180442/unrestricted/MargaretJackson.pdf
 |archive-date = 13 September 2006
}}
</ref>

<ref name="Pistiak2009">
{{Cite book
|author=Arnold Pistiak
|language=de
|chapter=Skovbostrand 1937: Nein und Ja. Erinnerung an Hanns Eislers Kantaten auf Texte von Ignazio Silone und Bertolt Brecht
|trans-chapter=Skovbostrand 1937: No and yes. Remeniscences to Hanns Eisler's cantatas on texts by Ignazio Silone and Bertolt Brecht
|year=2009
|title=Feuchtwanger und Exil. Glaube und Kultur 1933 – 1945. "Der Tag wird kommen"
|trans-title=Feuchtwanger and Exile. Belief and Culture 1933–1945. "The day will come"
|editor=Frank Stern
|series=Feuchtwanger Studies, Volume 2
|publisher=Peter Lang
|location=Bern
|publication-date=2011
|isbn=978-3-03-430188-6
|pages=305–331}}
</ref>

<ref name="Andrew-Lang-2005">{{cite web
|url=http://eislermusic.com/huac.htm
|title=Hanns Eisler: Life: Eisler in the McCarthy Era
|first=Andrew
|last=Lang
|publisher=North American Hanns Eisler Forum
|quote=To the rising anticommunist star [[Richard Nixon]], then serving his first term as a U.S. Congressman, 'the case of Hanns Eisler' was 'perhaps the most important ever to have come before the committee'.
|work=eislermusic.com
|year=2005
|access-date=30 September 2012
|archive-date=1 May 2015
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501220420/http://eislermusic.com/huac.htm
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

<ref name="Schebera_USA">{{cite book
| last                  = Schebera
| first                 = Jürgen|author-link=:de:Jürgen Schebera
| title                 = Hanns Eisler im USA-Exil: zu den politischen, ästhetischen und kompositorischen Positionen des Komponisten 1938–1948
|trans-title=Hanns Eisler in the US-American Exile. The positions of the composer regardting politics, estetics, and composition from 1938 to 1948
| type                  = originally written as 1976 PhD thesis
| year                  = 1978
| publisher             = Akademie Verlag, and Hain
| location              = Berlin (GDR), and Meisenheim an der Glan (FRG)
| language              = de
| isbn                  = 3-445-01743-3
}} Includes a German translation of the HUAC hearings</ref>

<ref name="HUAC_official">{{cite book
| title                 = Hearings regarding Hanns Eisler. Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eightieth Congress, first session, Public law 601 (section 121, subsection Q (2) ) Sept. 24, 25, and 26, 1947.
| year                  = 1947
| publisher             = U.S. Government Printing Office
| location              = Washington, DC
| oclc                  = 3376771
| lccn                  = 48050031
| page                  = iii
}}</ref>

<ref name="Guthry_Eisler_lyrics">{{cite web
|url=http://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Eisler_on_the_Go.htm
|format=lyrics
|title=Eisler on the Go
|first=Woody
|last=Guthrie
|work=woodyguthrie.org
|publisher=Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. administered by Bug Music
|year=1948
|access-date=30 September 2012}}
</ref>

<ref name="ND_1953-05-14">{{Cite journal
|title=''Das "Faust"-Problem und die deutsche Geschichte''. Bemerkungen aus Anlaß des Erscheinens des Operntextes "Johann Faustus" von Hanns Eisler
|language=de
|trans-title=''The "Faust"-Problem and the German History''. Remarks occasioned by the publication of the opera text "Johannes Faustus" by Hanns Eisler
|author=Redaktionskollegium "Neues Deutschland"
|journal=Neues Deutschland
|date=14 May 1953}}
</ref>

<ref name="Bunge1991_01">Transcript of those sessions together with related documents in {{Cite book
|last=Bunge
|first=Hans
|editor-last=Brecht-Zentrum Berlin
|author-link=Hans Bunge
|title=Die Debatte um Hanns Eislers "Johann Faustus": eine Dokumentation
|language=de
|trans-title=The debate on Hanns Eisler's "Johann Faustus": a documentation
|year=1991
|isbn=978-3-86163-019-7
|pages=45–248|publisher=BasisDruck
}}
</ref>

<ref name="Biermann-interview">{{cite interview
|url=http://eislermusic.com/biermann.htm
|title=Hanns Eisler: Life: Interview with Wolf Biermann (also about Gerhart Eisler)
|subject=[[Wolf Biermann]]
|interviewer=James K. Miller
|work=eislermusic.com
|publisher=North American Hanns Eisler Forum
|date=October 1983
|quote=Eisler is part of the most precious legacy which they must appropriate. And if I can contribute something to that, by telling people here (in America) about Eisler – from my very limited perspective, of course – then it's a good thing and I'm happy about it. Ja.
|access-date=30 September 2012
|archive-date=10 June 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610232750/http://eislermusic.com/biermann.htm
|url-status=dead
}} – Originally published in ''Communications'', vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 21–35, International Brecht Society.</ref>

<ref name="IHEG_Rockefeller-film-1">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.hanns-eisler.de/DVD/index/index.php?Seite=White&Sprache=en
 |title       = Hanns Eisler DVD-Edition Rockefeller Filmmusik Projekt 1940–42: White Flood
 |publisher   = Internationale Hanns-Eisler-Gesellschaft
 |work        = hanns-eisler.de
 |year        = 2012
 |access-date  = 25 September 2012
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20111006173010/http://www.hanns-eisler.de/DVD/index/index.php?Seite=White&Sprache=en
 |archive-date = 6 October 2011
}}
</ref>

<ref name="IHEG_Rockefeller-film-2">{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.hanns-eisler.de/DVD/index/index.php?Seite=Child&Sprache=en
 |title       = Hanns Eisler DVD-Edition Rockefeller Filmmusik Projekt 1940–42: A Child went forth
 |author      = Internationale Hanns-Eisler-Gesellschaft
 |work        = hanns-eisler.de
 |year        = 2012
 |access-date  = 25 September 2012
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20111006172524/http://www.hanns-eisler.de/DVD/index/index.php?Seite=Child&Sprache=en
 |archive-date = 6 October 2011
}}
</ref>

<ref name="OscarNominee1944">{{cite web
| url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1944
| title=Oscar Legacy • 16th Academy Awards Winners
| year= 1944
| publisher= Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
| access-date=29 January 2013}}
</ref>

<ref name="OscarNominee1945">{{cite web
| url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1945
| title=Oscar Legacy • 17th Academy Awards Winners
| year = 1945
| publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
| access-date=29 January 2013 }}
</ref>

}}

===Works cited===
* {{cite book|last=Betz|first=Albrecht|title=Hanns Eisler – Political Musician|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKHiwNqBUdoC|year=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24022-2}}

==Further reading==
* Alonso, Diego. (6 December 2019) [http://www.musau.org/parts/neue-article-page/view/76 "From the People to the People: The Reception of Hanns Eisler's Critical Theory of Music in Spain through the Writings of Otto Mayer-Serra]", in: ''Musicologica Austriaca. Journal for Austrian Music Studies'' ({{ill|Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft|de}})
* {{cite book
| last                  = Betz
| first                 = Albrecht
| title                 = Hanns Eisler. Musik einer Zeit, die sich eben bildet
|trans-title=Hanns Eisler. Music of a time in formation
| year                  = 1976
| publisher             = edition text+kritik
| location              = Munich
| language              = de
| isbn                  = 3-921402-17-4
| pages                 = 252|ref=none}}
* Boyd, Caleb (2013). [http://gradworks.umi.com/15/36/1536841.html ''"They Called Me An Alien": Hanns Eisler's American Years, 1935–1948'']. M.A. thesis. Arizona State University.
* {{cite web
| url     = https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/wire-playlist-hanns-eisler-fighting-songs-from-1930s-shellac-to-1970s-free-jazz
| last    = Crépon
| first   = Pierre
| title   = The Wire playlist: Hanns Eisler fighting songs
| date    = March 2023
| website = [[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]]
| ref     = none}}
* Horn, Eva, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326215031/http://magazines.documenta.de/attachment/000000622.pdf "Bertolt Brecht and the Politics of Secrecy"], p.&nbsp;17
* {{cite web
| url     = https://www.sequenza21.com/2023/07/eisler-at-125/
| last    = Schell
| first   = Michael
| title   = Eisler at 125
| date    = July 2023
| website = Sequenza21.com
| ref     = none}}
* {{cite book
| last                  = Weber
| first                 = Horst
| title                 = "I am not a hero, I am a composer". Hanns Eisler in Hollywood.
| year                  = 2012
| publisher             = Olms Verlag
| location              = Hildesheim
| language              = de
| isbn                  = 978-3-487-14787-1|ref=none}}
* {{cite book
| last                  = Wißmann
| first                 = Friederike
| others                = Preface by [[Peter Hamm]]
| title                 = Hanns Eisler – Komponist, Weltbürger, Revolutionär
| trans-title           = Hanns Eisler – Composer, Cosmopolitan, Revolutionist
| year                  = 2012
| publisher             = Edition Elke Heidenreich bei Bertelsmann
| location              = Munich
| language              = de
| isbn                  = 978-3-921402-17-7|ref=none}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Hanns Eisler}}
* [http://www.hanns-eisler.de/index.php/de/ The International Hanns Eisler Society]
* {{IMSLP|author=Eisler, Hanns|cname=Hanns Eisler}}
* [http://eislermusic.com/ North American Hanns Eisler Forum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707131808/http://www.eislermusic.com/ |date=7 July 2019 }}
* [http://orelfoundation.org/index.php/composers/article/hanns_eisler/ Orel Foundation] Hanns Eisler – biography, bibliography, works and discography.
* [https://www.breitkopf.com/work/8223/hanns-eisler-gesamtausgabe-hega Hanns Eisler Complete Edition] (projected publication of all his scores and writings)
* {{IMDb name|0006058|Hanns Eisler}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130823091648/http://www.tonttu.com/projects/page22 Hanns Eisler Project]
* [http://www.georgeisler.at/ Georg Eisler Gallery]
* [http://vault.fbi.gov/Hanns%20Eisler Hanns Eisler FBI File]

{{Twelve-tone composers}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eisler, Hanns}}
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[[Category:20th-century German composers]]
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[[Category:German political music artists]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to East Germany]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin]]
[[Category:20th-century German male musicians]]
[[Category:East German musicians]]