Edelweiss Flower: A Symbol of Resistance, and "The Sound of Music"

Edelweiss flower

The edelweiss has captivated audiences worldwide since "The Sound of Music," but it is also the national flower of many Alpine countries, a symbol of purity, and has a history with Hitler and Nazism.

Edelweiss: A Simple and Elegant Alpine Flower

The edelweiss flower symbolises nature in its most sublime form for the Alpine nations. The scientific name is Leontopodium alpinum, and with its wool-coated white petals and yellow crust, this flower had an easy walk to gain entry into the list of favourite flowers of mankind.

These earthy and natural stars and high-altitude angels of the Alpine peaks once imbibed the valour of a group of teenagers in Germany, fittingly called the Edelweiss Pirates, as they resisted the Nazi rule. In this article, I will come to that story, but I will also give an overview of what this gorgeous flower means to the people of the Alps.

The Ice Age Migration of Edelweiss Flower

The Edelweiss flower migrated from areas within Asia—like Siberia or the Himalayas—and into the Alps of Europe during the Ice Age, according to plant historians. The plant is supposed to have originated in the Himalayas. Originally, the Alps and the Himalayas were part of the Alpine belt of mountains that border the south side of Eurasia and include the Atlas, the Alps, the Caucasus Mountains, the Alborz, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and the Himalayan mountain ranges.

On the edges of meadows and on the limestone rocks that overlook the valleys, Edelweiss blooms in the months of July, August, and September. Beneath the delicate exterior of this flower, there is a fighter and survivor who can overcome extreme weather. The roots are capable of resisting uprooting from the high winds that frequent the peaks of the Alps. As they stand exposed to the sun, the hairy petals are protected from UV rays because they're coated in micro-hairs.

Throughout history, the flower has been described by many names. The most common are:

• Wool Flower

• Small Lion’s foot

• Star of the Glacier

• Everlasting Flower of the Alps

The name Edelweiss is German and means “noble white”.

Edelweiss Flower in Literature

The American writer Mark Twain was no fan of this flower when he visited the Alps in 1881, and he even went so far as to call it ugly. He observed that the “fuzzy blossom is the colour of bad cigar ashes.”

The flower had a mystery and aura surrounding it, and people even believed that it was inaccessible, a myth originating from its habitat being the high-altitude peaks of the Alps. In 1861, German writer Berthold Auerbach wrote a novel titled Edelweiss in which the protagonist goes in search of the flower to prove his love and courage to his beloved.

Some innumerable German stories and songs depict the same theme. The Austrian village folk believed that, when burnt as incense, his flower would drive away evil spirits, especially those that cause udder diseases in cattle. The flower was also believed to have miraculous healing powers, and the tea made of it was used to treat indigestion and respiratory problems. Asterix in Switzerland by René Goscinny was the 16th volume of a comic book series that incorporated the magical healing powers of edelweiss into its plot.

And in her poem, "Edelweiss: An Alpine Rhyme" Mary Lowe Dickinson wrote,

"The Edelweiss grew on that rocky steepThe brave child-feet had climbed too fast and farAnd so had come to her this blessed sleepThe blessed waking beneath the morning star"

The 19th century saw this flower being positioned as a symbol of the purity and beauty of village life against the growing urbanisation. Edelweiss ironically was depicted as the favourite flower of Adolf Hitler but also served as a symbol of resistance against Nazi ideology when it was adopted as an identification mark by the resistance movement, the Edelweiss Pirates.

Hitler and the Edelweiss Song

“Adolf Hitler's Favourite Flower is the Simple Edelweiss” is a song composed by Otto Rathke in 1933. The lyrics were written by Emil Gustav Adolf Stadthagen, and this song was part of the German Opera, Tenor Harry Steier.

Germans loved this song, and it remained evergreen until it was banned by the Nazi government in 1939. Alongside Jazz music and songs created by Jewish composers and singers, this song was branded as anti-national, which was, in those days, synonymous with anti-Hitler and anti-Nazi.

The ban came when the ruling Nazis realised that this song had more satirical elements in it than adoration for Hitler. Here were the lyrics:

"High on steep cliff walls blooms a rare kind of flower,to which the Kanzler quietly turns his thoughts.A queen of the Alps this is his heart’s joy.Adolf Hitler’s favourite flower is the simple Edelweiss.Take this song through all the districts,plant it forth from mouth to mouth,Take a piece of the German soul around the whole world.Plant it in hearts for the leader to praise and cherish.Adolf Hitler’s favourite flower is the simple Edelweiss."

The Edelweiss Pirates

"Edelweiss are faithful" was the motto of the Edelweiss Pirates, who were a small cell of underground resistance against the Hitler government in Germany. As a mark of identification, teenagers who hailed from working-class families wore cheap Edelweiss flower pins on their coats. They also sometimes wore wristbands with an edelweiss design imprinted on them.

For young people, it was dangerous in Nazi Germany to become organised outside the official Hitler Youth programme. Still, these brave hearts met in parks, forests, and mountains and went together on camping and trekking trips. They would play the guitar and sing folk songs, defying the strict discipline and control of the Hitler Youth and the Nazi secret service.

These groups would have both girls and boys in them in contrast to the gender-segregated Hitler youth programmes. Many of these courageous young people were captured, punished, sent to concentration camps and even hanged in public in a show of power by the ruling Nazis. Still, these small groups survived and sprouted anew in different parts of Germany and continued their work until the downfall of Nazism.

The Sound of Music

The legendary musical and movie The Sound of Music popularised the edelweiss flower like never before with a song dedicated to its beauty. It was originally written for the Broadway production of The Sound of Music and is performed by the patriarch of the Von Trapp family, Captain Georg. The song is representative of his national patriotism in the immediate aftermath of Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria. Here are some of the lyrics:

"Edelweiss, EdelweissEv'ry morning you greet meSmall and WhiteClean and brightYou look happy to meet meBlossem of snow may you bloom and growBloom and grow foreverEdelweiss, edelweissBless my homeland forever"

This song was written by Oscar Hammerstein II and composed by Richard Rodgers. The film version of the song went straight to the heart of a global audience in the poignant though dubbed voice of Bill Lee; the character was portrayed by Christopher Plummer.

Fun Fact

When the president of Austria, Rudolf Kirschlager, visited the United States during the time of Ronald Reagan, "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music was played during the welcome ceremony.

Many critics observed, under the wrong impression, that this song was played as it was the Austrian National Anthem when really it was just from the popular film and had nothing to do with Austrian national identity or aspirations. The Austrian people were more unaware of and had fewer associations between this song, the film, and the flower.

A Flower of National Ethos

The two-cent Euro coin has the picture of an edelweiss flower imprinted on it, and previously, the Austrian one-schilling coin also had the flower. One of the first environmental protection laws of Europe was enacted to protect the edelweiss as Alps adventurers began to uproot the plants en masse to take them home as souvenirs and threatened their very existence.

The canton of Obwalden, one of the 26 cantons that constitute the Swiss Confederation, banned picking edelweiss' as early as 1878. During the 1990s, Switzerland as a nation redefined itself in terms of its national identity and culture and adopted the flower to represent the Swiss identity. In Switzerland, this flower adorns all kinds of cultural spaces, insignia, and pictorial representations.

Alpine Countries and Edelweiss

Edelweiss is a national symbol for many countries, including Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Romania. The Bavarian traditional tracht (traditional wear) has the flower embroidered on it, and the Bavarian mountain troops have this flower as part of their emblem.

In 2017, the Austrian extreme-right Freedom Party replaced its symbol, the cornflower, with the edelweiss—controversy ensued. The cornflower was the symbol of Austrian Nazis, and yet Freedom Party members used to wear these flowers on their coats. The change in flowers was adopted by Freedom Party as they were entering a coalition government with the centre-right conservatives. Media and political analysts interpreted this as an attempt to tone down their Nazi heritage.

It seems as though the edelweiss will carry more political meaning than its delicate petals have already endured.