In 1928, the Frankfurter Sender commissioned a new work from Kurt Weill. The result was the Berliner Requiem, based on existing texts from Bertolt Brecht's Hauspostille. Weill was working at the time on the opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, and used the Berliner Requiem as a welcome opportunity for a stylistic study for the longer opera. But the Berliner Requiem is also a powerful and important work in its own right. “The title The Berliner Requiem is in no way ironic – rather, we wanted to try to express what the citydweller thinks about death. The piece is a series of laments, memorials and epitaphs – so, in the end, a secular requiem.” (Weill) The version most often played in concert halls has six parts – 1. Chorale of Thanks Lobet die Nacht, 2. Ballad of the drowned girl, 3. Shrine – Hier Ruht die Jungfrau, 4. First report and 5. Second Report on the unknown soldier under the triumphal arch, 6. Chorale of Thanks Lobet die Nacht. ... (da capo). An alternative authorised version (the Lucerne version) also includes the sections Die Rote Rosa and Zu Potsdam Unter Den Eichen.