Deutschlandlied

"Über Alles" redirects here. For other uses, see Über Alles (disambiguation).

Das Lied der Deutschen

English: The Song of the Germans
Facsimile of Hoffmann von Fallersleben's manuscript of "Das Lied der Deutschen"
National anthem of Germany
Also known as	Deutschlandlied (English: The Song of Germany) Deutschland über alles (English: Germany above all)
Lyrics	August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1841
Music	Joseph Haydn, 1797
Adopted	1922
Audio sample
"Deutschlandlied" (instrumental) file help

National anthem of Germany

The "Deutschlandlied" ("Song of Germany", German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃlantˌliːt]; also known as "Das Lied der Deutschen" or "The Song of the Germans"), was the national anthem of Germany since 1922, except in East Germany, whose anthem was "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" ("Risen from Ruins") from 1949 to 1990.

Since World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany, only the third stanza has been used as the national anthem. The stanza's incipit, "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" ("Unity and Justice and Freedom") are considered the unofficial national motto of Germany, and are inscribed on Bundeswehr belt buckles and the rims of some German coins.

The music was written by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn in 1797 as an anthem for the birthday of Emperor Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1841, the German linguist and poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics of "Das Lied der Deutschen" to Haydn's melody, lyrics that were considered revolutionary at the time.

The song is also well known by the incipit and refrain of the first stanza, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" (literally, "Germany, Germany above all"), but this has never been its title. The line "Germany, Germany above all" meant that the most important goal of the Vormärz revolutionaries should be a unified Germany overcoming the perceived anti-liberal Kleinstaaterei. Along with the Flag of Germany, 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.

Melody

Portrait of Haydn by Thomas Hardy, 1792

Main article: Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser

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".

It has been conjectured that Haydn took the first four measures of the melody from a Croatian folk song. Supporters of this theory note that a similar melody appears in a composition by Telemann. This hypothesis has never achieved unanimous agreement; the alternative theory is that Haydn's original tune was adapted into a folk song.

The same melody was later used by Haydn 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. The melody in this movement is also termed the "Emperor's Hymn."

Historical background

Main article: Unification of Germany

The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was already weak when the French Revolution and the ensuing Napoleonic Wars altered the political map of Central Europe. Hopes for the Enlightenment, human rights, republican government, democracy, and freedom after Napoleon I's defeat in 1815 were dashed, however, when the Congress of Vienna reinstated many monarchies. In addition, with the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, Chancellor Prince Metternich and his secret police enforced censorship, mainly in universities, to keep a watch on the activities of professors and students, whom he held responsible for the spread of radical liberal ideas. Particularly since hardliners 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 whether a republic or a constitutional monarchy would be the best solution for Germany.

The German Confederation or German Union (Deutscher Bund) was a loose confederation of thirty-five monarchical states and four republican (but hardly democratic) free cities, with a Federal Assembly in Frankfurt. They began to remove internal customs barriers during the Industrial Revolution, though, 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.

After the March Revolution of 1848, the German Confederation handed over its authority to the Frankfurt Parliament, and Eastern Prussia joined the Confederation. For a short period in the late 1840s, Germany was united with the borders described in the anthem, with a democratic constitution in the making, and with the black-red-gold flag to represent it. The two big monarchies put an end to this period of national unification, and waged the Austro-Prussian War against each other.

Hoffmann's lyrics

August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841

August Heinrich Hoffmann (who called himself Hoffmann von Fallersleben after his home town to distinguish himself from others with the same common name of "Hoffmann") wrote the text in 1841 on vacation on the North Sea island Heligoland, then a possession of the United Kingdom.

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.

In the era after the Congress of Vienna, which was influenced by Prince Metternich and his secret police, Hoffmann's text had a distinctly revolutionary, and at the same time liberal, connotation, since the demand for a united Germany was most often made in connection with demands for freedom of the press and other liberal rights. Its implication that loyalty to a larger Germany should replace loyalty to one's personal sovereign was in itself a revolutionary idea.

The year after he wrote "Das Deutschlandlied", Hoffmann von Fallersleben lost his job as a librarian and professor in Breslau, Prussia, 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 and translation

The following provides the lyrics of the "Lied der Deutschen" as written by Hoffmann von Fallersleben.

Only the third verse is currently the Federal Republic of Germany's national anthem.

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt, Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze Brüderlich zusammenhält. Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt,  |: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,   Über alles in der Welt! :|	Germany, Germany above all, Above all in the world, When for protection and defense, it always takes a brotherly stand together. From the Meuse to the Memel, From the Adige to the Belt,  |: Germany, Germany above everything,   Above everything in the world! :|
Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue, Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang Sollen in der Welt behalten Ihren alten schönen Klang, Uns zu edler Tat begeistern Unser ganzes Leben lang.  |: Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,   Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang! :|	German women, German loyalty, German wine and German song Shall retain in the world Their old beautiful chime And inspire us to noble deeds During all of our life.  |: German women, German loyalty,   German wine and German song! :|
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Für das deutsche Vaterland! Danach lasst uns alle streben Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand! Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Sind des Glückes Unterpfand;  |: Blüh' im Glanze dieses Glückes,   Blühe, deutsches Vaterland! :|	Unity and Justice and Freedom For the German Fatherland! Let us all strive for this purpose Brotherly with heart and hand! Unity and Justice and Freedom Are the Pledge of Happiness;  |: Bloom in the Glow of Happiness,   Bloom, German Fatherland! :|

Note: The last two lines, between the repeat signs of |: and :|, are repeated once when sung.

Geography

Geography according to the first stanza, with modern borders (dark green) and territories where German is an official language today (light green)

In 1841, when the text was written, the German Confederation was not a unified state in the modern sense. It also included a few regions inhabited largely by non-German speakers, but excluded large areas inhabited primarily by German-speakers, like parts of Eastern Prussia. Hoffmann, who in his research had collected German writings and tales, based his definition of Germany on linguistic criteria: he described the approximate area where a majority of German speakers lived at the time, as encountered in his studies. 19th century nationalists generally relied on such linguistic criteria to determine the borders of the nation-states they desired. Thus, the borders mentioned in the first stanza (from the Meuse to the Memel, from the Adige to the Belt) loosely reflected the breadth of territory across which German speakers were spread at the time.

The German Confederation

• In the west, the river known as the Maas or the Meuse ran through the Dutch-ruled and Limburgish-speaking Duchy of Limburg which was joined to the German Confederation between 5 September 1839 and 23 August 1866. The modern German border is close to the river in that area.
• In the east, the lower part of the Memel, known in other languages as the Neman, was located within East Prussia, part of the Kingdom of Prussia, which actually stretched north beyond the river, and beyond the city of Memel (Klaipėda). In 1920, the area north of the river was detached from Germany and became known as Memelland. Only a few German speakers remained in the area after 1945.
• In the south, the Adige river (German: Etsch) runs to the Adriatic Sea. In 1841, the Austrian Empire ruled all of its length, and much of the population of its area was German. Historically, the river was the southern border of the medieval Duchy of Carinthia, and centuries later it marked the border between Austrian Venetia and Napoleonic Italian Republic; in the middle, it was divided among the Republic of Venice, the Bishopric of Trent and Austria. After the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the river's southern part became part of Italy, while the northern one remained part of Austrian Tirol; but it then became part of Italy too, after 1918. Now, as then, the town of Salorno (German: Salurn), marks the linguistic border between the German and the Italian speaking population in the valley.
• To the north, the strait of the Baltic Sea known as the Little Belt (Danish: Lillebælt) ran alongside the ethnically mixed Danish Duchy of Schleswig, part of an area subject to a highly complex dispute, known as the Schleswig-Holstein Question, between Denmark and its neighbors. After the Second Schleswig War in 1864, the Danish-German border ran through the strait until 1920, but ultimately, the Schleswig Plebiscite moved the border to its current location, south of the Little Belt.

In the south and west, Hoffmann's definition of Germany coincided with the borders of the German Confederation as it existed then. Hoffmann went beyond the Confederation boundaries of 1841 in the north and in the east, as neither South Schleswig nor East Prussia (although both German-speaking) belonged to it at that time yet, but joined before 1866. Thus, when the German Empire was finally founded in 1871, both were parts of the German Empire, whereas Luxemburg, Limburg, Liechtenstein and Austria were not (see Kleindeutsche Lösung). Hoffmann picked only one marker in the south and, possibly to avoid confrontation, made no mention of other areas inhabited by German speakers, like Alsace, Switzerland, or the Eastern part of the Austrian Empire.

Use before 1933

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, the song "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser"—the predecessor of the "Deutschlandlied"—became the official anthem of the emperor of the Austrian Empire and the subsequent Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of the Austrian monarchy in 1918. The first line of the anthem changed with each new emperor until 1918. Austrian monarchists continued to use this anthem after 1918 in the hope of restoring the monarchy. The adoption of the hitherto Austrian anthem by Germany in 1922 was not opposed by Austria, as this helped the government in weakening the monarchist causes.

"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 did become one of the more frequently printed 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 16, attacked the British lines singing the song, suffering heavy casualties. They are buried in the Langemark German war cemetery. The official report of the army embellished the event as one of young German soldiers heroically sacrificing their lives for the fatherland. In reality the untrained troops were sent out to attack the British trenches side by side and were mown down by machine guns and rifle fire. This report, also known as the "Langemarck Myth", was printed on the first page in newspapers all over Germany. It is doubtful that the soldiers would have sung the song in the first place: carrying heavy equipment, they might have found it difficult to run at high speed toward enemy lines while singing the slow song. Nonetheless, the story was widely repeated.

The melody used by the "Deutschlandlied" was still in use as the anthem of the Austrian Empire until its demise in 1918. On 11 August 1922, President Friedrich Ebert made the "Deutschlandlied" the official German national anthem, as one element of a certain political negotiation. In 1919 the black, red, and gold, the colors of the 19th century liberal revolutionaries advocated by the political left and center were adopted (rather than the previous black, white, and red); now the political right was granted the nationalistic anthem. Ebert already advocated using only the anthem's third stanza, which was done after World War II.

Use during Nazi rule

During the Nazi era, only the first stanza was used, followed by the SA song "Horst-Wessel-Lied". The anthem 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 the "Deutschlandlied". In this way, the first verse of the anthem became closely identified with the Nazi regime.

Use after World War II

After the Second World War ended in 1945, singing "Das Lied der Deutschen" was banned along with other symbols of Nazi Germany by the Allies.

After its founding in 1949, West Germany did not have a national anthem for official events for some years despite the growing need for proper diplomatic procedures. Different songs were discussed or used, such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Ode An die Freude (Ode To Joy). Though the black, red and gold colors 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 sung on official occasions. 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.

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 after the DDR abandoned its goal of uniting Germany under the East's leadership. The lyrics of "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" can be sung to the melody of "Deutschlandlied" and vice versa.

When West Germany won the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland, the lyrics of the first stanza dominated when the crowd sang along to celebrate the surprise victory that was later dubbed Miracle of Bern.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, efforts were made by conservatives in Germany to reclaim all three stanzas for the anthem; the Christian Democratic Union of Baden-Württemberg, for instance, attempted twice (in 1985 and 1986) to make German high school students study all three stanzas, and in 1989 CDU politician Christean Wagner decreed that all high school students in Hesse were to memorize the three stanzas.

On 7 March 1990, months before reunification, the Constitutional Court declared only the third stanza of Hoffmann von Fallersleben's poem to be protected as a national anthem under 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.

In November 1991, President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed in an exchange of letters to declare the third stanza alone the national anthem of the enlarged republic. On official occasions, Haydn's music is used, and only the official anthem, that is the third stanza of the song, is supposed to be sung.

The word "FREIHEIT" (freedom) on Germany's 2-Euro coin

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 soldiers' belts (replacing the earlier Gott mit uns of the Imperial German Army and the Wehrmacht), was engraved into the rim of former 2 and 5-Deutsche Mark coins, and is present on 2-Euro coins minted in Germany.

Criticisms

Despite the text and tune of the song being remarkably peaceful compared to many other national anthems, the song has frequently been criticized for its generally nationalist theme, the geographic definition of Germany given in the first stanza, and the somewhat male chauvinist attitude in the second stanza. An early critic was Friedrich Nietzsche, who called the grandiose claim in the first stanza ("Deutschland über alles") "die blödsinnigste Parole der Welt" ("the stupidest phrase in the world"). Kurt Tucholsky was also negative about the song, and in 1929 published a photo book under the same title, criticizing right wing tendencies in Germany. German grammar is sufficiently precise to distinguish "über alles" i.e. above everything (for me), from "über allen", meaning "above everyone else". The latter misleading translation was purposely chosen by the Allies during the First World War for propaganda purposes.

Variants, additions, and controversial performances

Additional or alternate stanzas

Hoffmann von Fallersleben also intended the text to be used as a drinking song; the second stanza's toast to German women and wine are typical of this genre. The original Heligoland manuscript included a variant ending of the third stanza for such occasions:

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Für das deutsche Vaterland! Danach lasst uns alle streben Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand! Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit Sind des Glückes Unterpfand;  |: Stoßet an und ruft einstimmig,  Hoch, das deutsche Vaterland. :|

Unity and justice and freedom For the German fatherland; This let us all pursue, Brotherly with heart and hand. Unity and justice and freedom Are the pledge of fortune.  |: Lift your glasses and shout together,  Prosper, German fatherland. :|

An alternate version called Kinderhymne (Children's Hymn) was written by Bertolt Brecht shortly after his return from American exile to a war-ravaged, morally bankrupt and geographically smaller Germany at the end of World War II. It gained some currency after the 1990 unification of Germany, with a number of prominent Germans opting for his "antihymn" to be made official:

Anmut sparet nicht noch Mühe Leidenschaft nicht noch Verstand Daß ein gutes Deutschland blühe Wie ein andres gutes Land. Daß die Völker nicht erbleichen Wie vor einer Räuberin Sondern ihre Hände reichen Uns wie andern Völkern hin. Und nicht über und nicht unter Andern Völkern wolln wir sein Von der See bis zu den Alpen Von der Oder bis zum Rhein. Und weil wir dies Land verbessern Lieben und beschirmen wir's Und das Liebste mag's uns scheinen So wie anderen Völkern ihr's.

Grace spare not and spare no labor Passion nor intelligence That a decent German nation Flourish as do other lands. That the people give up flinching At the crimes which we evoke And hold out their hand in friendship As they do to other folk. Neither over or yet under Other peoples will we be From the Oder to the Rhineland From the Alps to the North Sea And because we'll make it better Let us guard and love our home Love it as our dearest country As the others love their own.

Notable performances and covers

The Unitarian Universalist hymnbook published in 1993, Singing the Living Tradition contains two versions of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Light of Ages and of Nations"; the second hymn (#190) is sung to the tune of the Emperor's Hymn, labelled as "Austria". John Newton's hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" has, among others, been set to Haydn's melody.

The German musician Nico sometimes performed the national anthem at concerts and dedicated it to militant Andreas Baader, leader of the Red Army Faction. She included a version of "Das Lied der Deutschen" on her 1973 album The End.... In 2006, the Slovenian industrial band Laibach incorporated Hoffmann's lyrics in a song titled "Germania", on the album Volk, which contains fourteen songs with adaptations of national anthems. Performing the song in Germany in 2009, the band cited the first stanza in the closing refrain, while on a video screen images were shown of a German city bombed during World War II.

In November 2009, the English singer Pete Doherty caused a stir when, live on the Bayerischer Rundfunk radio in Munich, he sang the first stanza of the anthem; he was booed by the audience and after a few more songs the radio station pulled the plug on the show and the radio transmission.

In August 2011, at the canoe sprint world championships in Hungary, Anne Knorr and Debora Nich won gold for Germany in the 1000 metres K-2 women's final race. The organizers of the event caused outrage when they mistakenly played the first stanza of the anthem during the medal ceremony. In a subsequent television interview German national coach Rainer Kiessler said that he was appalled and could not accept what had happened.

In October 2011, on the American TV series Pan Am, the French stewardess Colette is in West Berlin when President John F. Kennedy delivers his 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech at the Berlin Wall. Attending a party at the US Mission that evening, she sings the controversial first verse of the "Deutschlandlied" slowly and emotionally, embarrassing the diplomats who she believes have been too quick to forgive and forget the events of World War II. Colette had been orphaned at the age of three when her parents died in Buchenwald, where they were sent by the Nazis.

External links

• National Anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany (third stanza) (MP3 sound file)
• German National Anthem at Federal Government homepage
• Audio of the Deutschlandlied, with information and lyrics
• "Das Lied der Deutschen" at World Lieder
• "Das Lied der Deutschen" at Brandenburg Historica
• Free scores by Das Kaiserlied at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Singing of the German National Anthem during the official German Unity Day ceremony on 3 October 1990 (video)