Bauklötze is such an amazing song. It can be interpreted as if it’s about Eren, everything he lost when the wall fell and what he became because of it.
But recently, when looking at both contexts in which it was used, I think it can also be interpreted as a giant metaphor for the true Survey Corps but especially Levi and his heart. The first time it was used was when the original Squad Levi, especially Petra from what I can remember, was begging Eren to trust in them. Eren does and it all goes tragically wrong and Levi’s looses some of his most beloved companions.
The next time we hear it, it’s Hange’s outro song. She wants Levi and co. to trust her decision to buy them enough time and this time, it goes tragically right. She succeeds but she dies in the process - and she’s the last of Levi’s most beloved companions from a time the rest of them can’t remember.
“I like playing with blocks, I build carefully with bricks. Take a look at my empty box of bricks.” A wall has been built, slowly, purposefully, around someone’s heart. “You innocently break my wall down with dirty hands.” Despite how distant Levi tries to be because of previous loss, he can’t help letting people in and he cares deeply despite the inevitable pain. The dirty hands bit - the lyric also really fits with Bert being an innocent kid with blood on his hands, but there’s also Levi with his comrades, soldiers covered in dirt and blood and grim and Hange is known to neglect her personal hygiene without Levi’s intervention.
“And that day was a fiery sunset.” In contrast to the breaking of the wall, the day Levi lost Hange in the Anime was a fiery sunrise. “I hide the blocks from you. A sad memory of my childhood.” The loss of his mother, his first loss from what we know, what caused his first wall. He’s hiding the blocks from the broken wall, hiding how much it hurts to lose someone, Isabel, Farlan, his first squad, Erwin, now Hange.
“Is that the destroyer or the creator?” Eren with all manner of things he could do with access to the founder, he’s using it to destroy the world and create a new one for loved ones who don’t want him to commit such a massive atrocity in their names. “With the fervour of hate, we weild our swords. Is that our fate or our will? We’ll fight until the hot wind takes our wings away.” Don’t even get me started on that final line. That’s Hange, through and through. She’s the only one who wears the classic Survey Corps cape in that episode, wings of freedom on the back. It’s the first thing to catch fire from the heat of the wall colossal titans. It’s so damn literal. I can’t help but wonder if Isayama based her outro around this line or if Isayama had any say in what kind of lyrics he wanted in certain songs.
“I don't put anything into the box of bricks. I don't want to lose anything. I hide the toy blocks from you. I carefully build walls of bricks again” he doesn’t want to lose Hange but he’s hiding how much her decision is hurting him so as not to disrupt her bravery or interfere with her choice. He’s so used to rebuilding the walls that keep being broken around his heart. To love is painful and it’s as Hange says when she hugs Mikasa on that rooftop in Shinganshina:
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
origamiaround
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
dailybridgerton
