Search for classical music on YouTube and you'll find countless videos of musical flash mobs, where hundreds - sometimes thousands - of people gather in squares, amphitheatres and streets to listen at, o sing together, a piece of music composed two centuries ago: the chorus from the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, known as the Ode to Joy.
Since 1985, this has been the official anthem of the European Union. It has been inspiring spontaneous performances in European cities from Copenhagen to Madrid, from Nantes to Berlin, from Rome to Riga.
But its reach extends far beyond: in recent years, crowds demanding democracy and embracing European ideals have raised their voices in Odessa and Kyiv, Ukraine, and in Tbilisi, Georgia, using their united voices in chanting the Ode to Joy as a powerful symbol of resistance. Around the world, people have sung this German text, set to German music, to express universal values and aspirations, to stand up for democracy and to remind us that true freedom is not an individual pursuit but a collective achievement.
But: Why this particular piece?
What makes it so universal?
How did it become the anthem of Europe?
This is the story of a musical revolution, a story of words that stir the heart and music that embodies the finest ideals that this old, complex, sometimes provincial continent has given to the world. It's a European story, yes - but it's also a universal one.
Vienna, May 1824
On 7 May 1824, Vienna was blessed with sunshine and almost summer-like temperatures. Those who could - the aristocracy and nobility - had already left Vienna for their country homes to enjoy the summer weather. Yet, the premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's new work was eagerly awaited: for two years it had been said that what the musician was composing would be groundbreaking.
There had even been a minor revolt in the Viennese cultural world a few months earlier when Beethoven himself had suggested that the premiere should take place in Berlin. But thirty of the musician's most important Austrian admirers - influential, prominent people - signed a petition asking him to consider Vienna as the "capital of truth and beauty", the one that deserved to hear the great symphony first.
Beethoven had a peculiar character, but he wasn't immune to flattery. And so he gave in to his audience. The new symphony was to be performed for the first time in Vienna, at the Theater am Kärntnertor.
On the evening of the 7th of May in 1824, the theatre was sold out - filled with admirers, curious spectators and fellow musicians, including Franz Schubert.
Beethoven himself decided to conduct the orchestra that evening, despite being deaf - and having written this new symphony using only his musical imagination. The impresario and the orchestra were so concerned that they prepared a substitute conductor. Even Caroline Unger, the hired alto, was visibly perplexed. Beethoven, true to his status as a musical star, did not care about the doubts of others.
He appeared on stage in an old dark green frock coat, blatantly ignoring the Viennese tradition of conductors wearing black. He did not care. Besides, he was not in the best financial shape at the time. There was no money to buy new, shiny clothes. And anyway, it was the music that had to speak, wasn't it? It spoke. It really did speak.
As the fourth and final movement began, maestoso, with cellos and basses introducing the Ode to Joy theme - still soft and interwoven with fragments of previous movements - the audience held its breath. As the volume rose and all the instruments joined in, something unprecedented happened: a chorus began to sing! Never before had anyone heard a symphony with a chorus. And what a chorus it was!
The melody, composed of just a few notes, was instantly memorable, with one note per syllable - so simple that even those with no musical training could grasp it immediately. It was like the best popular music, but… two centuries ahead of its time.
The text moved people to tears with its call for unity, fraternity and joy, inviting all to embrace as one under a common divine presence. Europe was recovering from decades of chaos—wars, revolutions, and Napoleon’s shadow. A quarter century of conflict ended only a decade earlier with the Congress of Vienna - which had ended the wars, but restored an oppressive and outdated order. The audience understood both the music and the words, and felt that they were witnessing more than just a masterpiece.
As the final chord of 'Ode to Joy' faded, there was a roar of applause. People rose to their feet, clapping and crying out Beethoven's name.
Knowing he couldn't hear them, they waved white handkerchiefs - transforming the theatre into something resembling a modern sports stadium. At first, Beethoven wasn't aware of the audience's reaction; despite the initial applause, he continued conducting until singer Caroline Unger gently touched his arm and turned him around. There he saw 2,000 people on their feet, giving at least four thunderous ovations. The response was so overwhelming that the local police had to intervene to prevent the joy from sparking a riot, demanding silence from the crowd.
A musical revolution based on an ideal and the words that carried it.
The police rightly sensed something subversive in what they were hearing. As the guardians of order, they were naturally suspicious of the text's call for freedom - and that was indeed the heart of those verses.
This is also the reason why, two centuries later, the Ode to Joy has become not only the anthem of Europe, but also a universal hymn for all those who cherish freedom.
But why did Beethoven create this refrain? Was he simply looking for something new and inspiring to add to his musical imagination? On the contrary: the Ninth Symphony was born with the aim of providing a framework for a poem that Beethoven had fallen in love with as a young man and that he had decided that sooner or later he would set to music: Friedrich Schiller's "Ode an die Freude" (Ode to Joy). Written in 1785, on the brink of the French Revolution, Schiller's Ode to Joy expresses a longing for peace and brotherhood: "All men will become brothers... Be embraced, you millions!" and was all about the spirit of Illuminism.
Beethoven was fifteen years old at the time, growing up in his hometown of Bonn and immersing himself in transcendental idealism and Enlightenment philosophy. He audited Kant's lectures at the University of Bonn and kept his hands busy not only with piano and music sheets but also with books—particularly Goethe and Schiller.
In a volume of Schiller, the young Beethoven discovered a poem that electrified him: the "Ode to Joy" — a manifesto of Enlightenment ideals that touched on all the themes dear to Ludwig.
Let's explore these verses together, imagining the idealistic teenage Beethoven, convinced that art's mission, including music, was not to simply entertain, but to elevate humanity. Let us picture him, alongside us, reading these verses for the first time:
An die Freude Freude,
schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum.Joy, beautiful spark of divinity,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly one,
your sanctuary!Deine Zauber binden wieder,
Was die Mode streng geteilt
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.Your magic binds again
What custom has strictly divided
All humans become brothers
Where your gentle wing stands.Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,
Eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
Wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
Mische seinen Jubel ein!Whoever has been lucky enough
to be a friend of a friend,
Whoever has won a loving wife,
Let them add their joy to ours!
Further ahead:
Freude trinken alle Wesen
An den Brüsten der Natur;
Alle Guten, alle Bösen
Golgen ihrer Rosenspur!All beings drink joy
From the chest of nature;
All good, all bad
Follow her path of roses!
Finally:
Seid umschlungen, Millionen!
Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!
Brüder, über'm Sternezelt Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen
Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such' ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muss er wohnen!Be embraced, you millions!
A kiss for the whole world!
Brothers, above the stars
A loving Father must dwell
Do you bow yourselves, oh millions?
Do you sense the Creator, world?
Seek Him above the firmament!
Above the stars He must dwell!
When you read these words - in German or translated - it is easy to see why the Ode to Joy has become Europe's anthem. These verses speak of love and universal brotherhood, not of pride or war. They invoke images of starry skies and happy lives, not of nations asking their people to die for them. They are a distillation of the Enlightenment ideals on which Europe was built, and the desire for peace, for which the political Europe was born, after tragic centuries of war.
The Anthem of Europe
When the European Community was looking for an anthem to complement its existing starred flag and motto of "united in diversity", the Ode to Joy seemed the perfect choice. The decision was made in 1972, but it took time to become official - well, like everything in the European machine…
Furthermore, in 1985 it was decided to officially adopt only the musical theme, leaving the citizens free to sing it in the original language or in a local version. They were aware of the linguistic challenges that the German text might pose, but this created a paradox given Beethoven's willingness to set his music to this poem.
None other than Herbert von Karajan was commissioned to write three instrumental arrangements - for solo piano, for strings and for full orchestra. Since then, there have been many versions of the fourth movement, but the most moving remain the choral versions, which bring the original text to life.
From Heaven to Heaven, a Universal Hymn
It is wonderful to know that the Ode to Joy is so closely associated with Europe and its best face. But it is even more wonderful to know that Schiller's verses, set to Beethoven's music, have risen, like the cherubs of his Ode, from heaven to heaven, from continent to continent, to invoke peace, brotherhood and freedom on all continents, sung by all kinds of people.
On December 31, 1975, the Chilean women prisoners of Tres Alamos Camp, sang a Spanish version of "Ode To Joy". They wanted to be heard by a young girl who had been released and lived in a nearby neighborhood. Amelia Negrón recalled that moment in a 2014 interview:
"She had been with us a few months and when the day of her release came, she cried and cried and cried. At last she was getting out, but she was taking the sadness of leaving us behind with her."
The voices of nearly 120 women political prisoners in the Tres Álamos concentration camp rose to the sky with 'Ode to Joy'. Their song carried across the compound to reach their male comrades in the other pavilions and echoed throughout the neighbourhood. Amelia remembered:
"Although closed, the gates were powerless to stop our voices and the voices of all our neighbours at the concentration camp. That night a single choir was formed, free of walls and fences."
In Tiananmen Square in 1989, students played the Ninth Symphony over improvised loudspeakers as troops moved in to crush their pro-democracy movement. Borrowing car batteries from supporters in nearby neighborhoods, they set up a pirate radio system and broadcast the Ode to Joy to counter the droning music and speeches of the Chinese Communist Party.
The students had no weapons - music and gesture were their only fragile means of resistance and their way of telling the world, through the universal language of music, what their struggle meant. We all remember the image of the young man facing the tank in Tiananmen Square. Other images also circulated around the world, surprising international audiences: these young people, facing annihilation at the hands of the dictatorship, sang and continued to sing under fire.
On Christmas Day 1989, Leonard Bernstein celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall with a concert that went down in history: at the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt in East Berlin, he conducted an orchestra representing the two Germanies and the former occupying powers, with artists from Berlin, Bavaria, Dresden, Leningrad, London, New York and Paris. The "Ode to Joy" ("Ode an die Freude") was renamed "Ode to Freedom" ("Ode an die Freiheit"), and everyone felt certain that Ludwig van Beethoven would have approved.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra did something similar in 2023, when it premiered Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with a Ukrainian translation of Schiller's text into Ukrainian, changing "Joy" to "Slava", Glory, the battle cry for Ukrainian freedom.
In Japan, the piece has traditionally been performed between Christmas and New Year's Eve as a symbol of rebirth and hope for the future. In 2011, a unique event took place: ten thousand Japanese singers gathered in a large indoor arena for what became the largest-ever performance of the Ninth Symphony. This historic concert honored those who lost their lives in the Tōhoku tsunami—a catastrophe that claimed nearly 20,000 lives.
The list could continue indefinitely. Yet we must also acknowledge the darker moments when the Ode to Joy was misused and dishonored—for example, by the Nazis who forced Beethoven's music to be played in concentration camps, or less tragically and more recently, in 2019, when the European Parliament witnessed one of its lowest points. On July 1st of that year, Nigel Farage and his Brexit party MEPs turned their backs during the European anthem at the parliament's opening ceremony.
But what really matters are the personal moments that each of us associates with the Ode to Joy. Some of these are private experiences, but more often they are collective celebrations that we can watch endlessly on YouTube and social media. Here in Berlin in 2019, as Nigel Farage's MPs turned their backs on Europe and its anthem, we gathered to celebrate 30 years since the fall of the Wall.
A wonderful singalong version was recorded in August 2019 in front of the Konzerthaus in Berlin, on the same square where Leonard Bernstein had conducted the 1989 Christmas concert 30 years earlier:
My personal singalong, which I'll never forget, was part of the same celebration. On 10 November 2019, on an already wintry cold evening, we gathered on the Glienicke Bridge - you probably know that as the "Bridge of Spies" from the Tom Hanks film.
This bridge, which had marked the border between West Berlin and Potsdam (then part of East Germany), was opened as the last gate of the Berlin Wall at 6pm on that historic day. At that exact hour, 30 years later, the music began. And we, armed with printed lyrics and phone flashlights to illuminate the words in the darkness, began to sing.
It is rough and unpolished, but the recording I made that night remains unforgettable to me. Here it is:
This piece is dedicated to
the brave people of Georgia
who are fighting for their self-determination
and for the European dream.
BEETHOVEN IN VIENNA
Wien.info: Beethoven in Vienna
Visitingvienna.com: Beethoven locations in Vienna
Haus der Musik: Beethoven City Map
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