Down in the lowlands,
there, it’s nice.
Down in the lowlands,
there, it’s nice.
Sloes in the hills,
grapes in the lowlands,
down in the lowlands,
that’s where I want to be.
Down in the Neckar valley,
there, it’s good.
Down in the Neckar valley,
there, it’s good.
Even if, up on the hills,
it’s sometimes too strange for me,
I always have a good time,
down in the lowlands.
It’s cold up on the hills,
it’s warm down in the lowlands;
it’s cold up on the hills,
it’s warm down in the lowlands.
Up on the hills, the people are so rich,
their hearts are not soft,
look at me unfriendly,
don’t get close.
But down there,
the people are poor.
But down there,
the people are poor,
but so happy and free,
and so faithful in love,
that’s why, down in the lowlands,
the hearts are so warm.
The melody of this song is a Swabian folk song that was printed for the first time in 1842. Gottlieb David Ludwig Weigle wrote the lyrics in 1835 about his home, the Neckar valley. Usually in Europe, people living on the meagre hills are pictured as poor but open and honest, while those living in the fertile lowlands are pictured as rich but cold-hearted. These lyrics paint the opposite picture.