Brahms composed these motets as a nationalistic response to the Drei -Kaiser-Jahr of 1888 in which the German national spirit was upset by the death of two successive Kaisers. Brahms originally wanted to call these pieces either National or Deutsche Fest- und Gedenksprüche (National or German Festival and Commemorative Sayings), but dropped the opening adjective at the suggestion of his publisher. These are large works more in the expansive and antiphonal style of the late-sixteenth-century composer Heinrich Schütz than the tightly contrapuntal Bach style of the motets. Some musicologists have equated Brahms' division of the chorus into two four-part choirs with the political division of the German people into Volk (liberal) and Reich (conservative). Although dramatic and effective, Brahms did not hold these pieces in particularly high regard.

1. Unsere Väter hofften auf dich (Our Fathers Trusted In You). Clearly invoking Schütz's style, this grand chorus opens with antiphonal responses between the divided choral parts and culminates in an eight-part contrapuntal passage.

2. Wenn ein starker Gewappneter (When a Strong Man). Simpler in design than the first setting, this chorus is in a clear A B A design. The dramatic and chaotic effect of the central section may have been intended to depict the state of German politics and the return to the stricter A section representative of the imposed order of the Reich. 3. Wo ist ein so herrlich Volk (What Nation Is There So Great). Here Brahms aims for integration and brings the antiphonal choirs into effective combinations that offset their original opposition.

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