Little wonder this [Beethoven's Ninth Symphony] was the work Leonard Bernstein chose to perform in the former East Berlin Schauspielhaus on Christmas Day, 1989, to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall, substituting the word "Freiheit" (freedom) for Schiller's "Freude" (joy). (The two words were as connected for Beethoven and Schiller as for Bernstein.) Earlier that same year, student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square blared Beethoven's music over their loudspeakers as they stood up to armed Chinese troops.
Can anyone comment on the connection between Freiheit and Freude? Is there any etymomlogical connection?
(The above quote is from a magnificent article, about the symphony, in today's Wall Street Journal. I don't know if it is available to non-subscribers.)
No, frei 'free' and Freund 'friend' are related, both from PIE *pri- 'to like, feel well-disposed, friendly' (also here). Freude 'joy' is from froh 'glad, happy' is from another PIE root preu- 'to jump'. The latter is related to Frosch 'frog' and frog.
