The Legacy of ‘Silent Night’

While hordes of tourists flow through Mozart’s birthplace here and crowd buses for “Sound of Music” tours, fewer connect the Salzburg area with the famous hymn. Visits to sites connected with “Silent Night” deepen its meaning and allow a view of modern Austria and a strong sense of the 18th century.

Oberndorf, Austria — December 22, 1818
It was just two days before Christmas in 1818 when the organ bellows at St. Nikolas Church in Oberndorf, 11 miles north of Salzburg, rotted through making the organ inoperable.  Father Joseph Mohr, Parish Priest wrote a poem and asked organist and choir director, Franz Gruber, and the parish choir to set it to music, knowing the congregation would expect music on Christmas Eve at midnight mass.  In his study in the village of Arnsdorf, Franz Gruber looked out over the snowy fields from his window.  Then, as he read the poem, he began to hum and then sing the poem, “Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht….”. A few hours before midnight mass, Franz headed back to the church to reherse the hymn with Father Mohr and teach the refrain to the choir.

Happy Birthday Jesus !

Christmas Eve, 1818, Franz Gruber sung the bass and Father Josef Mohr sung the tenor and accompanied on the guitar. This was the birth of our, now, most famous and popular Christmas Hymn.

The organ builder who repaired the St. Nikolas bellows then carried the song to his home, 200 miles away near Innsbrook.  Two family singing groups performed it in the organ builder’s town.  Later the families introduced “Silent Night” in a performance in New York, on Christmas Eve, in 1839.

In 1827, Father Mohr took a position in Wagrain where in the next 21 years until death, he built the Joseph Mohr School and Joseph Mohr Home for the Aged.  The old Nikolas church was destroyed by a flood but the townspeople constructed a memorial on the site of the old church in 1837.  Father Mohr met his death in 1848.

Franz Gruber accepted an organist position in 1833 in the larger town of Hallein, 10 miles south of Salzburg. He resided there until his death in 1863, at the age of 75.

Where ever these two important men in history hung their hats, are memorialized and there are museums throughout areas of Austria.

This story was originally written and published in The Milwaukee Journal on December 19, 1993, by Jim Johnson in a tribute to the 175th anniversary of this hymn.