In 1963, Kleine Wilhelmstraße in the Bierstadt district of Wiesbaden was renamed Anton-Günther-Straße. As early as 1960, the Sudeten German Association had proposed to the local council that the folk poet, singer, and composer Anton Günther (1876–1937) be honored by naming a street in Bierstadt after him. The renaming in 1963 was one of several that took place due to duplicate street names in Bierstadt and Wiesbaden-Mitte.

Anton Günther was born on June 5, 1876, in Gottesgab (today Boži Dar in the Czech Republic) in the Ore Mountains, the son of Hans Günther, a linen embroiderer and draftsman. In his hometown, Günther first attended elementary school and then transferred in 1888 to the Bürgerschule in Joachimstahl (Jachymov), from which he graduated in 1892. He then completed a three-year apprenticeship as a lithographer in Buchholz, Saxony. In 1895, Günther moved to Prague and worked at the A. Haase Court Lithography Institute.

That same year, he began writing his own folk songs in the local dialect, which he performed at evening events in Prague. Among them was one of his best-known songs, titled “Drham isʼ drham” (“Home Is Home”). Due to the great attention this song attracted, Günther began printing his lyrics on postcards he designed himself and self-publishing them. These song postcards brought the singer nationwide fame.

After his father’s death, Anton Günther returned to his hometown in 1901 and took over his parents’ farm. In addition to his work, Günther continued to perform at song recitals and wrote more songs. A defining feature of Günther’s lyrics is their strong connection to his homeland, the Ore Mountains, which is why they contain nationalistic elements. The approximately 200 songs he composed were written in the local dialect and performed by him at so-called “Erzgebirge evenings” throughout Saxony. Even before World War I, Günther’s lyrics were marked by a strong sense of German nationalism.

For example, one of his best-known songs, “Deitsch on frei woll’ n mer sei” [“We Want to Be German and Free”] from 1908, includes the lines: “…for it is, after all, the best, the highest good; our last drop of blood is for our old German homeland. German and free we want to be, and we’ll stick to that, because we are people of the Erzgebirge! “ (It is, after all, the best, the highest good. Our last drop of blood is for our old German homeland. We want to be German and free, and we’ll stick to that, because we’re from the Erzgebirge.)

In 1914, Günther’s homeland was part of Austria-Hungary, which is why the folk poet fought in World War I as an Austrian soldier. During the war, Günther composed marching songs such as the “Landstrom March” and “Hurra! ʼs gieht lus.”

As a result of the war, the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, and the postwar European order established at Versailles, the German-speaking minority was unable to establish “German Austria.” The Czechs occupied the Bohemian territories, thereby preventing the German-speaking community—which had previously been the backbone of the state—from participating in the founding of the Austrian state. Anton Günther’s homeland, too, became part of the newly founded Czechoslovakia. The German-speaking community was subsequently discriminated against through laws and regulations, which led to a radicalization of relations between Germans and Czechs. Günther can be regarded as a literary exponent of the “patriotic,” German nationalist movement within the German minority in Czechoslovakia. In 1933, as a result of the denial of co-determination and self-governance rights to the German community in Czechoslovakia, a Sudeten German movement was founded under Konrad Henlein.

Nevertheless, Günther is usually portrayed in the literature as an “apolitical artist” who suffered from being co-opted by the “patriotic” Henlein movement and the National Socialists. In fact, Anton Günther appeared at a campaign rally in 1935 for Konrad Henlein and his National Socialist Sudeten German Party.

After the founding of Czechoslovakia, the song “Deitsch on frei woll’ n mer sei,” written in 1908, found particular resonance amid the intensifying ethnic conflict.

The song was used equally by völkisch groups, the Sudeten German Henlein Movement, and the National Socialists. In particular, pieces in which Günther addressed the theme of homeland evolved, through a demonstratively völkisch and nationalist interpretation, into an aggressive declaration of allegiance.
Later biographies speculate that the folk songwriter committed suicide due to the Nazi movement’s use of his works and the resulting pressure on him. In fact, the reasons for Günther’s suicide on April 29, 1937, remain unclear. Apparently, the singer suffered from financial problems and bouts of depression.

To this day, his songs have retained a certain popularity. According to a report by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, “Deitsch on frei woll’ n mer sei” remains the “unofficial anthem of the Ore Mountains,” though it was also used by the nationalist NPD during campaign rallies. In the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland region, numerous public spaces were named after Günther. After World War II, representatives of displaced persons kept the memory of Günther alive in West Germany as well.

Due to Günther’s appearance at a campaign rally for the Sudeten German Party in 1935—and his public articulation of National Socialist ideology and his support for Konrad Henlein—the Historical Expert Commission on the Review ofpublic spaces, buildings, and facilities in the state capital of Wiesbaden named after individuals. The city administration followed this recommendation with a resolution dated March 24, 2026.