Kummer is a beautiful German word for "sorrow," "grief," or "worry." It's more profound than simple sadness, often describing a deep, lingering emotional pain or heavy-heartedness.
In the song, Max Raabe sings, "Jeder Mensch hat einen Kummer" (Every person has a sorrow), offering comfort to someone burdened by it. Learning this word gives you a more poetic and empathetic way to talk about life's troubles.
This song is like a warm hug from a good friend. Max Raabe starts by singing about something everyone knows: "Jeder Mensch hat einen Kummer" (Every person has a sorrow). He points out that some sadness is old, while other pain "beißt und schmerzt / Als ob es Gestern wär" (bites and hurts / as if it were yesterday). He even gets specific, reminding us how we sometimes hurt the people "Die man am meisten liebt" (that one loves the most).
But this isn't a sad song! The whole point is the simple, kind solution he offers in the chorus. He just says, "Komm mal her / Setz dich zu mir hin" (Come over here / Sit down next to me). He doesn't try to solve the problem or pretend it's easy. Instead, he offers company and a beautiful, direct reassurance: "Es ist gut, dass es dich gibt" (It's good that you exist). It's a sweet reminder that sometimes, just being there for someone is the most important thing you can do.
Max Raabe was born Matthias Otto in Lünen, Germany, in 1962, and trained as a classical baritone before reinventing himself as the singing voice of another era entirely. While studying in Berlin in the mid-1980s, he and a group of fellow students formed the Palast Orchester, building their repertoire out of German dance-hall and cabaret arrangements from the 1920s and 30s that they dug up in flea markets. He still fronts the band today, gliding into a poised falsetto with the deadpan calm of someone who has never once cracked a smile on purpose.
Raabe's version of "Kein Schwein ruft mich an" turned him into a national name in 1992, and he has spent the decades since moving comfortably between his own German-language songs and English standards by Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, playing Carnegie Hall more than once along the way. A songwriting partnership with Annette Humpe produced the platinum album "Küssen kann man nicht alleine" in 2011, and Berlin later awarded him its Order of Merit for the act he built almost by accident as a student.