Hände waschen

This is a hygiene lesson disguised as a game, and a very successful one. Every child must wash their hands until they are clean — and then comes the joke that makes it a song rather than a rule: there is no towel to be found, so the only thing to do is shake, shake, shake the hands dry, wiggling them wildly until they are done. Kindergartens add verses of their own; the single verse printed here is the one carried by the sources consulted.

It is not a folk song. Its words and melody are credited to Gerda Bächli (1921–2013), a Zürich-born composer, music educator and music therapist whom German Wikipedia describes as a pioneer of elementary music teaching in Switzerland; the song appears on her collection Dumpa Du, and a published song sheet names her as its author. That Swiss authorship is why this page files the song under Switzerland, even though it is sung in German-speaking nurseries far beyond it. When she wrote it is not documented in the sources consulted. Its usefulness is obvious: it takes a dull daily routine and gives it a tune, a laugh and a burst of movement, so that a small child learns to wash up not because they are told to, but because it comes with a song and a good shake.