How it all began...
A heavenly coincidence brings two people together in Oberndorf, near Salzburg. The teacher Franz Xaver Gruber is the organist in Saint Nicholas’ church, and Josef Mohr is the priest there from 1817 to 1819. When he arrives, he already has the words for the carol with him; he had written them as a poem. A year later, Gruber composes a moving melody to accompany it. On the evening of December 24, 1818, it gets its first performance. The world’s most popular Christmas carol is born!
At that time, the Napoleonic Wars had just devastated Europe and redrawn national borders. Oberndorf, too, belonged to different nations during this period. Moreover, the boatmen of Oberndorf had been going through hard times for years. Against this general mood of oppression, Mohr and Gruber wanted to give some hope. The world that came later knows that they succeeded.