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GERMAN NATIONAL ANTHEM
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DAS LIED DER
DEUTSCHEN
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German Words: |
English Translation: |
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| Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit |
Unity and Right and Freedom |
| Für das Deutsche Vaterland. |
For the German fatherland |
| Danach laßt uns alle streben, |
Let us all strive for that |
| Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand. |
As brothers, with heart and hand. |
| Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit |
Unity and Right and Freedom |
| Sind des Glückes Unterpfand. |
Are the foundation for happiness. |
| Blüh' im Glanze dieses Glückes, |
Bloom in the glow of this happiness, |
| Blühe deutsches Vaterland. |
Bloom, German fatherland. |
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| The "official" name of the German National
Anthem is Das Lied der Deutschen, or simply, Das
Deutschlandlied.
The song is often called Deutschland ueber Alles,
simply because those are the opening words of the first stanza.
It is virtually unknown today that the expression "über alles,"
or "before all [others]" refers not to the conquest or
enslavement of other countries or the establishment of German
hegemony over other peoples, but rather to a call for all
Germans to abandon their concept of being a subject or citizen
of this or that principality or region (such as Bavaria or
Prussia) and to realize the common bond they had with one
another by simply being German. This concept was
considered "revolutionary" at the time the words were written in
1841, since loyalty to "Germany" was considered by the
princelings and kings of the disunited Reich (divided into
40-plus separate states) to be disloyalty to themselves.
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| The song's words were penned by the teacher
Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who had been a fervent
supporter of German unity and republican government, and who,
because of his activities on behalf of these causes, was forced
to flee to the North Sea island of Helgoland, where the verses
were actually written. The music is taken from the String
Quartet in C major, Op. 76,3 of Joseph Haydn, composed in
1797. It was officially ignored during most of the Second
Reich, the Weimar Republic (1871 to 1918), which had no
official
anthem as such. |
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| The Deutschlandlied's real popularity
began with World War I, when it was sung on the battlefield by
young soldiers from every Gau (county) of the Reich who
were thrown together against a common foe. |
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| The first President of the German Republic,
Friedrich Ebert, officially introduced the "Deutschland Lied" as
the National Anthem in 1922. |
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| In May 1952, the third verse of the
"Deutschland Lied" was proclaimed the anthem of the Federal
Republic of Germany by President Theodor Heuss. |
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Play Anthem (mp3) 