The "Silent Night" phenomenon

A song that was not supposed to become famous, and yet has been touching people for 200 years, and whose story of origin reads like a suspense novel. Read all about the “Silent Night” phenomenon.

On the search for peace

“Silent Night” came into being in difficult times: French troops, occupation and violent crimes were part of everyday life in Austria at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Austrian people were completely at the mercy of the prevailing economic and political conditions, and their longing for peace, hope and brotherhood was great. Perhaps this dramatic situation was the very reason the people were so receptive to this new song. 

The history and stories surrounding “Silent Night!”

1792 – 1815: The people in Austria and Bavaria endure more than twenty years of violence and hardship during the Napoleonic Wars.

1815: Following Napoleon’s defeat in 1814, the Congress of Vienna redraws the map of Europe, which affects also the provinces of SalzburgerLand, Tirol and Upper Austria.

1815: Napoleon returns to power from his exile on the island of Elba for one hundred days; the Battle of Waterloo, in Belgium, marks his final defeat.

1816: After years of being ruled alternately by Austria and Bavaria, Salzburg is returned to imperial Austria once and for all.

1816: In Mariapfarr in SalzburgerLand, the young assistant priest Joseph Mohr writes a poem with six verses. In the original German it bears the title “Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!”.

24 December 1818: Joseph Mohr is transferred to Oberndorf and becomes friends with the Arnsdorf teacher Franz Xaver Gruber. Mohr asks Gruber to set his poem to music. Following the Napoleonic Wars, Oberndorf is plagued by hunger and despair.

Franz Xaver Gruber composes his melody in D major for two voices and guitar accompaniment; later he considers it to be an occasional composition and attaches little importance to it. That very evening, Mohr and Gruber sing the song for the first time following the Christmas Eve mass.