The song is part of the German Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch, the Catholic Gotteslob and many songbooks.
Maria Ferschl [de], an Austrian teacher who worked for the reform of Catholic liturgy, wrote the text of "Wir sagen euch an den lieben Advent" in Riedhausen in 1954.
She based it on the order of service at the time, with relation of the four stanzas to the prescribed biblical readings on the four Sundays in Advent.
[1] The melody was composed the same year by Heinrich Rohr [de], Kirchenmusikdirektor in Mainz.
[3] The song was intended with the verses sung by a small schola and the refrain with the congregation joining.