The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at the St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village on the Salzach river, part of the former Archbishopric of Salzburg, which had just passed from the Kingdom of Bavaria to the Austrian Empire in 1816.
The song was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at the St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf bei Salzburg. The small town on the Salzach river, part of the former Archbishopric of Salzburg, had just passed from the Kingdom of Bavaria to the Austrian Empire in 1816.