Bread and Roses

Whether it’s Brot und Rosen, Als ich fortging or No More War, the Ernst Busch Choir Berlin knows how to sing about peace and solidarity, hope and the fight for social justice.

The Ernst Busch Choir is a mixed Berlin seniors’ choir with around 55 singers that has been in existence since 1973. Since its beginnings as a veterans’ choir, it has cultivated the tradition of the workers’ singing movement, which has its roots in the liberation struggles of previous centuries. Against this background, the choir was named after the singer and actor Ernst Busch in 1983. With his haunting, convincing art of performance and his humanist commitment, he is both a role model and an incentive for the choir singers. Since 1995, a major concert has been held annually in January to mark the birthday of the man who gave the choir its name.

Ernst Busch’s songs – many of which were written by Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler – are an integral part of the repertoire, which now includes almost 300 songs from all over the world and is performed in around 15 concerts each year. The choir sings in around ten languages about peace and solidarity, hope, outrage, grief and the fight for social justice. But it also includes contemporary songs of joie de vivre and classical music.