Zehn kleine Jägermeister

"Zehn kleine Jägermeister"
Single by Die Toten Hosen
from the album Opium fürs Volk
Released	6 September 1996
Genre	Reggae rock, pop punk
Length	4:45 (album version) 4:21 (single version)
Label	JKP
Writer(s)	Andreas Frege Wolfgang Rohde Hanns Christian Müller
Die Toten Hosen singles chronology
"Bonnie & Clyde" (1996) "Zehn kleine Jägermeister" (1996) "Alles aus Liebe (live)" (1997)

"Zehn kleine Jägermeister" (German: Ten little hunters/Jägermeisters) is a song by German punk rock group Die Toten Hosen. It was released in September 1996 as the fourth single from the album Opium fürs Volk. It is the band's biggest hit, reaching number one on German, Austrian and Swiss charts.

Content

It's a drinking song, and the fact that drinking songs are a tradition for Die Toten Hosen is ironized on the album version as an interview in the beginning and end of the song. The song's title and theme are a parody of "Zehn kleine Negerlein" (Ten little negroes, the English version of this song is called "Ten Little Indians"), which is a song about how out of ten characters only one was left in the end. The chorus also makes use of the German translation of the Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno, "Einer für alle, alle für einen", as well as alluding to the board game Mensch ärgere dich nicht.

Music video

The music video was directed by Ralf Schmerberg and drawn by Andreas Hykade. It is an adult-animated illustration of the lyrics that depicts deers as Jägermeisters. During the chorus the liquid's path through the mouth is shown, along the way, the band members are seen, drinking.

The video follows the lyrics and is divided into sections beginning with a group of Jägermeisters performing a dance routine. Their number decreases verse by verse, as they each get into different situations which always end with a violent death of one of them. At the end of the video, the only very last surviving one of the Jägermeisters invites the other nine to celebrate Easter.

Track listing

1. "Zehn kleine Jägermeister" (Rohde/Müller, Frege) − 4:21
2. "We Love You" (Jagger/Richards) − 3:10 (The Rolling Stones cover)
3. "Der König aus dem Märchenland" (The king from the fairytale land) (Breitkopf/Frege) − 4:15

Charts

Chart (1996)	Peak position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[1]	1
Germany (Official German Charts)[2]	1
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[3]	1

References

1. "Austriancharts.at – Die Toten Hosen – Zehn kleine Jägermeister" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
2. "Musicline.de – Die Toten Hosen Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
3. "Swisscharts.com – Die Toten Hosen – Zehn kleine Jägermeister". Swiss Singles Chart.