Conny Froboess's “Zwei kleine Italiener” is a German Schlager song. It was the German entry into the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, and it not only reached a mass audience in Germany but also in other European countries
Conny Froboess's “Zwei kleine Italiener” (Two Little Italians) is a classic German Schlager song. It was the German entry into the 1962 Eurovision Song Contest, and afterwards, it not only reached a mass audience in Germany but also in other European countries. Like most Schlager songs, it has a fairly simple composition. This song in particular is constructed around the opposition between being home and being an immigrant, emphasized through the repeated mention of both the “two little Italians” and the “others” (andre) during the chorus. The “others” are the “normal” north-western Europeans of the early 1960s, while the eponymous Italians are migrant workers who yearn to go back home.
The song starts off arguing that, to north-western Europeans, a trip to the South is merely a fancy, something “schick und fein,” a vacation at the usual holiday destinations; while to the Italians, a “Reise in den Süden” is much more, it means going back home. This juxtaposition is signalled by the word “doch” in “… doch zwei kleine Italiener möchten gern zuhause sein.” The song focuses on the universal theme of homesickness, which, for example, played a major role in German romantic poetry during the 18th century. The German word “Heimat” (similar to “homeland” in English, though there is no exact equivalent) still has strong romantic connotations, as it is used in the following lines: “Zwei kleine Italiener/vergessen die Heimat nie.” In the case of Froboess's song, the topic of homesickness is combined with the more prosaic contemporary issue of economic migrants. Judging from the lyrics’ somewhat naïve tone, this matter was less problematic in the early sixties than it is nowadays.
Although the singer tells the story almost completely in the third person plural “die,” it is clear that the Italians are the center of attention. They are called “little,” which could be interpreted as negative or disrespectful, but which is meant endearingly in this context. They, being “little,” are contrasted to the big abstract “andre.” The singer seems to feel sorry for the Italians, who not only miss their home but also their girlfriends (or wives): “Oh Tina, oh Marina/ wenn wir uns einmal wieder sehen (…)/ dann wird es wieder schön.” In these lines, the song even switches from the third person plural to the first person plural “wir,” indicating the singer’s emphatic identification with the “kleine Italiener.” As the lyrics point out, when the Italians and their girlfriends Tina and Marina see each other again (“wieder sehen”) everything will be good again (“wieder schön”), which indicates that the situation is not so good at the moment. Later, the singer refers to the Italians’ city as “Napoli,” which is another proof of her empathy with them, since the normal German name for the city is “Neapel.” “Zwei kleine Italiener” may be a rather simple popular song on universal themes, but it is also a document about labour migration and travel across Europe during the 1960s.
