ron reed | silent night: austria, 1818

For twelve terrible years, the Napoleonic Wars ravaged Europe.  Napoleon's troops looted and set fire to great stretches of land through a series of wars and military campaigns. Like much of Europe, Austria was devastated: half a million of its citizens were killed on the battlefield. At least another half million were dead from disease, wounds, starvation, and other causes.  Young Joseph Mohr grew up without a father in a terrifying time when French troops, occupations and violent crimes were part of everyday life. Parents feared to let their children out of the house, and struggled to even feed them. 

Joseph Mohr became an assistant priest, and the year after the war's end he was assigned to his first parish. 1816 was known as "The Year Without A Summer." A volcanic eruption in Indonesia triggered dramatic climate changes across Europe: temperatures fell, and the harvest withered away in the ceaseless rain and summertime snowfall. In light of the failed harvests and famines, farmers fell into despair and apathy. People saw the catastrophe as punishment from God.  The young priest did not. In the midst of that dark and hopeless time, with reminders of the terrible wars everywhere, the young priest wrote a simple poem that began with the words "Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright..."

 

Two years later, Joseph was transferred to a tiny church twenty kilometrs north of a war-ravaged Salzburg. The town of Oberndorf  was divided - politically, by the wars, but also by the river Salzbach that separated the prosperous part of town from the impoverished parish where Joseph Mohr was assigned.  That winter, the heavy rains caused the river to flood, cutting the town in half.  The organ in the little parish church of Saint Nicholas became unplayable.  

On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Joseph made his way to the home of his friend Franz Gruber, who lived in an apartment over the schoolhouse, bringing a copy of the poem he had written two years before.  "Could you set this to music? So we will have something to sing at the service tonight?" A melody the congregation could sing, accompanied by simple chords on Gruber's guitar.  

We are still singing it, 200 years later.