In Berlin’s Tegarten Park, on the other side of the Brandenburg Gates, the sounds of yodeling travel through century-old trees and bounce off the cobblestone ground — far enough away to excite police officers.

What caught their ears?

Among the vocal modifications characteristic of yodeling, the women singing dropped in some unconventional lyrics: “F*ck the AfD.”

Elena Guzman and Gaia Schulz are part of the group Jojeda, and they sing as a counter-protest to the March for Life across the street, opposing abortion.

Guzman described it as an “anti-feminist march.”

“We sing together against these people who want to destroy our lives in some way,” Guzman said. “I think it’s very important that we come together instead of being alone in front of your screen and feeling angry.”

Guzman and Schultz also belong to the “Esels Alptraum”. The singing duo’s name translates to “donkey’s nightmare.”

While the name is fun, Schulz’s reason for joining the duo and participating in the protests is serious.

“The rise of these right-wing parties makes me completely nervous. I am now 65 years old and have lived my whole life in peace and democracy. People can laugh as they want, and be as they want. This is the kind of freedom I have lived in,” Schulz said.

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“At the end of my life, there will be a lot of trouble and we will get rid of our freedom that we had all along and it makes me very nervous.

“I’m afraid of him. I’m very afraid of him.”

They fight this fear through Jogida, which they describe as a gang formed to fight fascism through song.

“This combination is not terrible for us. Because you raise your voice and you free your voice to yodel. A very liberal and kind society is the same,” Guzman explained.

“So political struggle and singing are connected for us.”

Guzman says most people associate singing with conservative thinking and want to rebel against that. “For us, we’re saying we’re not giving this great global vocal technology to conservative people, so we’re saying ‘take back the yodel.’”

Dr. Sidney Hutchinson, a research associate at Humboldt University’s Institute of Musicology and Media Studies, says there is evidence of yodeling being used as an indoctrination tool during the Nazi regime, and the appropriation of German folklore.

“Yodeling is part of German folklore and German traditional music,” Hutchison explained. “They (the Nazis) used traditional music and group singing at a lot of different events, and there would be group singing at mass marches, at Hitler Youth events and especially at hiking activities.”

Hutchinson, who sings with Guzman and Schultz, says that as she delved into yodeling, she discovered a growing number of people throughout the German-speaking world trying to figure out what they could do to “reclaim” the genre. “To use it in different ways and try to bring it back,” Hutchinson said.

One of these people is Berliner Doreen Kutzky.

She became a yodel presenter when she was 19 years old. As a DJ, she mixed traditional yodelling and techno music in the nightclubs where she performed. “I’m a little embarrassed,” Kutzky said.

Kutzke has now ditched the discomfort as he seeks to bring yodeling to the mainstream. She says she wants to strip away the preconceptions people have about her.

“Yes, that has always been my mission, to bring yodeling back into mainstream music but also into experimental music,” Kotzky said.

Kutzke has a platform to spread her message. Because of Yodeling, she travels around the world.

She has received invitations to sing inside an empty aquarium in Iceland, inside a battle tank and a water silo in California, and has taught in Japan.

She even composed topographical compositions that involved looking at mountains and modulating her voice across the terrain.

“Exactly, I was singing peaks and valleys,” Kutzky said.

Her next big adventure? Create a Yodel board game.

“With dice and cards and you have to sing…it’s going to be so big,” Kotzke said with a smile on her face.

She encourages people to get rid of stereotypes they may have about yodeling, “and think twice and listen twice, because it’s beautiful music,” she says.

Returning to Tiergarten Park, Jojeda’s group packed up and, at the request of police officers, moved to another location to continue their protest.

They came, they saw, they sang.

While they are far from any alpine terrain, Guzman and Schultz are determined to climb any political mountains to spread their musical message.

Gloria Henriquez is in Germany as part of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship Program.

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