Old German Songbooks, No. 4: Zander & Fischer, Liederschatz. Sammlung vierstimmiger Chorlieder für Knaben und Mädchen, H. 1 (1907, 1914)

Here is another nice and somehow rare songbook that I have acquired recently. It is only available in very

few libraries and also not that easy to find in second hand bookshops. As far as I know this booklet has not yet been digitized.

• Adolf Zander & Dr. L. H. Fischer (ed.), Liederschatz. Sammlung vierstimmiger Chorlieder für Knaben und Mädchen, Heft 1, 23. Auflage, L. Oehmigke's Verlag, Berlin n. d. [1914?]
  Now available at the Internet Archive (my own scan of a book from my collection)

This collection - the first volume of a four-part series - was originally published in 1901 (see Hofmeister 1901, p. 195, at the Internet Archive). A 7th edition with, according to the preface, 39 additional songs appeared in 1907. This 23th edition - which is identical to the 7th - seems to have been printed in 1914 (see DNB 99434662X).

Adolf Zander (1843-1914, see Wikipedia) was a highly respected composer, organist and choirmaster in Berlin. The co-editor Dr. Fischer worked, also in Berlin, as a schools inspector. The latter had organized concerts with all pupils of the first grade from the schools in his district singing as a big choir - "das letztemal über 2200 Kinder" - and the "Liederschatz" served as a songbook for these events (see p. 3, preface 1st. ed.). Later shows were apparently even more successful:

"Die im März 1903 und 1906 im Zirkus Busch unter starker Beteiligung und lebhaften Beifall des Publikums wiederholten Gesangsaufführungen, die auch durch den Besuch der Kaiserlichen Majestäten beehrt wurden, haben eine weitere Verbreitung unseres Liederschatzes auch über Berlin hinaus zur Folge gehabt" (p. 4, preface 7th ed.). 

The repertoire in this booklet - all arranged for four voices - is not untypical for these years. First there is a considerable number of religious songs and then a lot of patriotic pieces like "Auf Kaiser Wilhelm I.", "Kaiserlied", "Soldatenlied", "Das treue deutsche Herz" and "Vaterlandssänger" which would be rather indigestible today. The rest of the collection is made up of the popular standards (i. e. "volkstümliche Lieder" and some "Volkslieder") that are mostly known from other collections as well as some works by Zander himself. Apparently the editors had a special preference for spring songs: "Frühlingschor", "Frühlingsglocken", "Frühlingsgruß" and more. The only foreign song included here is "Robin Adair", interestingly with both German texts: "Treu und herzinniglich" and "Heimat Ade":