Deutschlandlied
| English: The Song of Germany | |
|---|---|
 Facsimile of Hoffmann von Fallersleben's manuscript of "Das Lied der Deutschen" | |
National anthem of  Germany[a] | |
| Also known as | "Das Lied der Deutschen" (English: "The Song of the Germans") |
| Lyrics | August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1841 |
| Music | Joseph Haydn, 1797 |
| Adopted | 1922–1945 |
| Readopted | 1952 |
| Preceded by | "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" (German Empire, 1871–1918) "Horst-Wessel-Lied" (Nazi Germany, 1933–1945) Auferstanden aus Ruinen (East Germany, 1949–1990) |
| Audio sample | |
 "Deutschlandlied" (Instrumental, one verse)
| |
The "Deutschlandlied" (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃlantˌliːt] (
listen); "Song of Germany"), officially titled "Das Lied der Deutschen" ("The Song of the Germans"), or part of it, has been the national anthem of Germany since 1922. In East Germany, the national anthem was "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" ("Risen from Ruins") between 1949 and 1990.
After World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany, only the third stanza has been used as the national anthem. That stanza's incipit "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" ("Unity and Justice and Freedom") is considered the unofficial national motto of Germany,[1] and is inscribed on modern German Army belt buckles and the rims of some German coins.
The music is the hymn "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", written in 1797 by the Austrian composer Joseph Haydn as an anthem for the birthday of Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and later of Austria. In 1841, the German linguist and poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics of "Das Lied der Deutschen" as a new text for that music, counterposing the national unification of Germany to the eulogy of a monarch, lyrics that were considered revolutionary at the time. Along with the flag of Germany, which first appeared in its essentially "modern" form in 1778, it was one of the symbols of the March Revolution of 1848.
In order to endorse its republican and liberal tradition, the song was chosen as the national anthem of Germany in 1922, during the Weimar Republic. West Germany adopted the "Deutschlandlied" as its official national anthem in 1952 for similar reasons, with only the third stanza sung on official occasions. Upon German reunification in 1990, only the third stanza was confirmed as the national anthem.
Title[]
The song is also well known by the beginning and refrain of the first stanza, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" ("Germany, Germany above all"), but this has never been its title. The line "Germany, Germany above all" originally meant that the most important goal of 19th-century German liberal revolutionaries should be a unified Germany which would overcome loyalties to the local kingdoms, principalities, duchies and palatines (Kleinstaaterei) of then-fragmented Germany.[2]
Melody[]
The melody of the "Deutschlandlied" was written by Joseph Haydn in 1797 to provide music to the poem "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save Francis the Emperor") by Lorenz Leopold Haschka. The song was a birthday anthem honouring Francis II (1768–1835), Habsburg emperor, and was intended as a parallel to Great Britain's "God Save the King". Haydn's work is sometimes called the "Emperor's Hymn". It is often used as the musical basis for the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken".
It has been conjectured that Haydn took the first four measures of the melody from a Croatian folk song.[3] This hypothesis has never achieved unanimous agreement; the alternative theory reverses the direction of transmission, positing that Haydn's melody was adapted as a folk tune. For further discussion see Haydn and folk music.
Haydn later used the hymn as the basis for the second movement (poco adagio cantabile) of his Opus 76 No. 3, a string quartet, often called the "Emperor" or "Kaiser" quartet.
Historical background[]
The Holy Roman Empire, stemming from the Middle Ages, was already disintegrating when the French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic Wars altered the political map of Central Europe. However, hopes for human rights and republican government after Napoleon's defeat in 1815 were dashed when the Congress of Vienna reinstated many small German principalities. In addition, with the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich and his secret police enforced censorship, mainly in universities, to keep a watch on the activities of teachers and students, whom he held responsible for the spread of radical liberalist ideas. Since reactionaries among the monarchs were the main adversaries, demands for freedom of the press and other liberal rights were most often uttered in connection with the demand for a united Germany, even though many revolutionaries-to-be had different opinions about whether a republic or a constitutional monarchy would be the best solution for Germany.
The German Confederation (Deutscher Bund 1815–1866) was a loose federation of 35 monarchical states and four republican free cities, with a Federal Assembly in Frankfurt. They began to remove internal customs barriers during the Industrial Revolution, and the German Customs Union (Zollverein) was formed among the majority of the states in 1834. In 1840 Hoffmann wrote a song about the Zollverein, also to Haydn's melody, in which he praised the free trade of German goods which brought Germans and Germany closer.[4]
After the 1848 March Revolution, the German Confederation handed over its authority to the Frankfurt Parliament. For a short period in the late 1840s, Germany was economically united with the borders described in the anthem, and a democratic constitution was being drafted, and with the black-red-gold flag representing it. However, after 1849 the two largest German monarchies, Prussia and Austria, put an end to this liberal movement toward national unification.
Hoffmann's lyrics[]
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the text in 1841 on holiday on the North Sea island of Heligoland,[5] then a possession of the United Kingdom (now part of Germany).
Hoffmann von Fallersleben intended "Das Lied der Deutschen" to be sung to Haydn's tune, as the first publication of the poem included the music. The first line, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" (usually translated into English as "Germany, Germany above all, above all in the world"), was an appeal to the various German monarchs to give the creation of a united Germany a higher priority than the independence of their small states. In the third stanza, with a call for "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (unity and justice and freedom), Hoffmann expressed his desire for a united and free Germany where the rule of law, not monarchical arbitrariness, would prevail.[6]
In the era after the Congress of Vienna, influenced by Metternich and his secret police, Hoffmann's text had a distinctly revolutionary and at the same time liberal connotation, since the appeal for a united Germany was most often made in connection with demands for freedom of the press and other civil rights. Its implication that loyalty to a larger Germany should replace loyalty to one's local sovereign was then a revolutionary idea.
The year after he wrote "Das Deutschlandlied", Hoffmann lost his job as a librarian and professor in Breslau, Prussia (now Wrocław, Poland), because of this and other revolutionary works, and was forced into hiding until being pardoned after the revolutions of 1848 in the German states.
Lyrics[]
| German original | Literal translation |
|---|---|
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, |
Germany, Germany above all, |
Use before 1922[]
The melody of the "Deutschlandlied" was originally written by Joseph Haydn in 1797 to provide music to the poem "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" ("God save Franz the Emperor") by Lorenz Leopold Haschka. The song was a birthday anthem to Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor of the House of Habsburg, and was intended to rival in merit the British "God Save the King".
After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" became the official anthem of the emperor of the Austrian Empire. After the death of Francis II new lyrics were composed in 1854, Gott erhalte, Gott beschütze, that mentioned the Emperor, but not by name. With those new lyrics, the song continued to be the anthem of Imperial Austria and later of Austria-Hungary. Austrian monarchists continued to use this anthem after 1918 in the hope of restoring the monarchy. The adoption of the Austrian anthem's melody by Germany in 1922 was not opposed by Austria.
"Das Lied der Deutschen" was not played at an official ceremony until Germany and the United Kingdom had agreed on the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty in 1890, when it appeared only appropriate to sing it at the ceremony on the now officially German island of Heligoland. During the time of the German Empire it became one of the most widely known patriotic songs.
The song became very popular after the 1914 Battle of Langemarck during World War I, when, supposedly, several German regiments, consisting mostly of students no older than 20, attacked the British lines on the Western front singing the song, suffering heavy casualties. They are buried in the Langemark German war cemetery in Belgium.[8]
Official adoption[]
The melody used by the "Deutschlandlied" was still in use as the anthem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until its demise in 1918. On 11 August 1922, German President Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat, made the Deutschlandlied the official German national anthem. In 1919 the black, red and gold tricolour, the colours of the 19th century liberal revolutionaries advocated by the political left and centre, was adopted (rather than the previous black, white and red of Imperial Germany). Thus, in a political trade-off, the conservative right was granted a nationalistic composition – though Ebert advocated using only the lyrics' third stanza (which was done after World War II).[9]
During the Nazi era only the first stanza was used, followed by the SA song "Horst-Wessel-Lied".[10] It was played at occasions of great national significance such as the opening of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin when Hitler and his entourage, along with Olympic officials, walked into the stadium amid a chorus of three thousand Germans singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles". In this way, the first verse became closely identified with the Nazi regime.[11]
Use after World War II[]
After its founding in 1949, West Germany did not have a national anthem for official events for some years, despite a growing need to have one for the purpose of diplomatic procedures. In lieu of an official national anthem, popular German songs such as the "Trizonesien-Song", a carnival song mocking the occupying Allied powers, were used at some sporting events. Different musical compositions were discussed or used, such as the fourth movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which is a musical setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem "An die Freude" ("Ode to Joy"). Though the black, red and gold colours of the national flag had been incorporated into Article 22 of the (West) German constitution, a national anthem was not specified. On 29 April 1952, Chancellor Konrad Adenauer asked President Theodor Heuss in a letter to accept "Das Lied der Deutschen" as the national anthem, with only the third stanza being sung on official occasions. However, the first and second verses were not outlawed, contrary to popular belief. President Heuss agreed to this on 2 May 1952. This exchange of letters was published in the Bulletin of the Federal Government. Since it was viewed as the traditional right of the President as head of state to set the symbols of the state, the "Deutschlandlied" thus became the national anthem.[12]
Meanwhile, East Germany adopted its own national anthem, "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" ("Risen from Ruins"). As the lyrics of this anthem called for "Germany, united Fatherland", they were no longer officially used from about 1972,[13] after the GDR abandoned its goal of uniting Germany under communism. With slight adaptations, the lyrics of "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" can be sung to the melody of the "Deutschlandlied" and vice versa.
In the 1970s and 1980s, efforts were made by conservatives in Germany to reclaim all three stanzas for the national anthem. The Christian Democratic Union of Baden-Württemberg, for instance, attempted twice (in 1985 and 1986) to require German high school students to study all three stanzas, and in 1989 CDU politician Christean Wagner decreed that all high school students in Hesse were to memorise the three stanzas.[14]
On 7 March 1990, months before reunification, the Federal Constitutional Court declared only the third stanza of Hoffmann's poem to be legally protected as a national anthem under German criminal law; Section 90a of the Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch) makes defamation of the national anthem a crime – but does not specify what the national anthem is.[15] This did not mean that stanzas one and two were not – at that time – part of the national anthem at all, but that their peculiar status as "part of the [national] anthem but unsung" disqualified them for penal law protection because the penal law must be interpreted in the narrowest manner possible, and was not explicit in their regard.
In November 1991, President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed in an exchange of letters to declare the third stanza alone to be the national anthem of the reunified republic.[16] Hence, effective since then, the national anthem of Germany is unmistakably the third stanza of the Deutschlandlied, and only this stanza, with Haydn's music.
The opening line of the third stanza, "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" ("Unity and Justice and Freedom"), is widely considered to be the national motto of Germany, although it was never officially proclaimed as such. It appears on Bundeswehr soldiers' belt buckles (replacing the earlier "Gott mit uns" ("God with Us") of the Imperial German Army and the Nazi-era Wehrmacht). "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" appeared on the rim of 2 and 5 Deutsche Mark coins and is present on 2 euro coins minted in Germany.
Criticisms[]
Geographical[]
The first verse, which is no longer part of the national anthem and is not sung on official occasions, names three rivers and one strait – the Meuse (Maas in German), Adige (Etsch) and Neman (Memel) Rivers and the Little Belt strait – as the boundaries of the German Sprachbund. As the song was written before German unification, there was never an intention to delineate borders of Germany as a nation-state. Nevertheless, these geographical references have been variously criticized as irredentist or misleading.[17] Of these the Meuse and the Adige were parts of the German Confederation during the time when the song was composed. The Belt (strait) and the Neman later became actual boundaries of Germany (the Belt until 1920, the Neman between 1920 and 1939), whereas the Meuse and Adige were not parts of the German Reich as of 1871. Today, no part of any of the four places mentioned in the "Deutschlandlied" lies in Germany.
In an ethnic sense, none of these places formed a distinct ethnic border. The Duchy of Schleswig (to which the Belt refers) was inhabited by both Germans and Danes, with the Danes forming a clear majority near the strait. Around the Adige there was a mix of German, Venetian and Gallo-Italian speakers, and the area around the Neman was not homogeneously German, but also accommodated Prussian Lithuanians. The Meuse (if taken as referencing the Duchy of Limburg, nominally part of the German Confederation for 28 years due to the political consequences of the Belgian Revolution) was ethnically Dutch with few Germans.
Nevertheless, such nationalistic rhetoric was relatively common in 19th-century public discourse. For example: Georg Herwegh in his poem "The German Fleet" (1841),[18] gives the Germans as the people "between the Po and the Sund" (Øresund), and in 1832 Philipp Jakob Siebenpfeiffer, a noted journalist, declared at the Hambach Festival that he considered all "between the Alps and the North Sea" to be Deutschtum.[19]
Textual[]
The song has frequently been criticised for its generally nationalistic tone, the immodest geographic definition of Germany given in the first stanza, and the alleged male-chauvinistic attitude in the second stanza.[20][21] A relatively early critic was Friedrich Nietzsche, who called the grandiose claim in the first stanza ("Deutschland über alles") "die blödsinnigste Parole der Welt" (the most idiotic slogan in the world), and in Thus Spoke Zarathustra said, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles – I fear that was the end of German philosophy."[20] The pacifist Kurt Tucholsky was also negative about the song, and in 1929 published a photo book sarcastically titled Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, criticising right-wing groups in Germany.
German grammar distinguishes between über alles, i.e. above all else, and über allen, meaning "above everyone else". However, for propaganda purposes, the latter translation was chosen by the Allies during World War I.[22]
Modern use of the first stanza[]
As the first stanza of the Deutschlandlied is historically associated with the Nazi regime and its historical horrors, the singing of the first stanza is considered taboo within modern German society.[23][24][25] Although the first stanza is not forbidden within Germany (based on the law of Germany), any mention of the first stanza is considered to be incorrect, inaccurate and improper, during official settings and functions, within Germany or at international events.[26][27]
In 1977, German pop singer Heino produced a record of the song, including all three verses, for use in primary schools in Baden-Württemberg. The inclusion of the first two verses was met with criticism at the time.[28]
In 2009, Pete Doherty started to sing the German national anthem live on radio at Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich. As he sang the first verse, he was booed by the audience.[29] Three days later, Doherty's spokesperson declared that the singer was "not aware of the historical background and regrets the misunderstanding". A spokesperson for Bayerischer Rundfunk welcomed the response, stating that further cooperation with Doherty would not have been possible otherwise.[30]
When the first verse was played as the German national anthem at the canoe sprint world championships in Hungary in August 2011, German athletes were reportedly "appalled".[31][32] Eurosport, under the headline of "Nazi anthem", erroneously reported that "the first stanza of the piece [was] banned in 1952."[33]
Similarly, in 2017, the first verse was mistakenly sung by Will Kimble, an American soloist, during the welcome ceremony of the Fed Cup tennis match between Andrea Petkovic (Germany) and Alison Riske (U.S.) at the Center Court in Lahaina, Hawaii. In an unsuccessful attempt to drown out the soloist, German tennis players and fans started to sing the third verse instead.[34]
Variants and additions[]
Additional or alternative stanzas[]
Hoffmann von Fallersleben also intended the text to be used as a drinking song; the second stanza's toast to German wine, women and song are typical of this genre.[35] The original Heligoland manuscript included a variant ending of the third stanza for such occasions:
...
Sind des Glückes Unterpfand;