🚀 go-pugleaf

John Parker schrieb in Nachricht <6piuk2$9ml$2@usenet51.supernews.com>...
>Not yet ready for "Deutcshland Uber Alles", how on earth this theme was
>accepted for the World Cup is beyond me. Millions died to ensure that this
>would not be heard again. You of all people should respect this.


This seems to be some sort of insult - correct me if I am wrong. Just to set
the record straight: the german national anthem has several verses, as most
anthems have. It is laid down in our constitution, that the first two are
not sung in public, as the first one is bound to be misunderstood, the
second one, however, is outdated in terms of political correctness
(concerning women) and would stress the bit about wine a tiny notion too
much.
So the first two go:

Deutschland, Deutschland �ber alles,
�ber alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Br�derlich zusammenh�lt;
Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt:
Deutschland, Deutschland �ber alles,
�ber alles in der Welt!

Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang
Sollen in der Welt behalten
Ihren alten, sch�nen Klang,
Uns zu edler Tat begeistern
Unser ganzes Leben lang
Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang!

The third verse is the only one sung in public and runs along the lines of:

Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
F�r das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach la�t uns alle streben
Br�derlich mit Herz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Sind des Gl�ckes Unterpfand:
Bl�h im Glanze dieses Gl�ckes,
Bl�he, deutsches Vaterland!

You shall find the complete song, notation and lyrics, at
http://ockham.philos.phil.tu-bs.de/brix/bibliothek/liederbuch/deutschlandlie
d.html

With the rise of the 3rd Reich in 1933, the second and third verse were not
sung any longer, the dreadfully military Horst-Wessel-Lied (fighting song of
the SA) took their place.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, only the third verse is sung, the
Horst-Wessel Lied is forbidden, singing  it can lead to criminal
prosecution.

The first and the second verse, however, are still part of the anthem, even
if they are not sung any longer. To give a short interpretation of the first
two verses, I'll have to do some explaining.

Das Lied der Deutschen was written in 1841 by August Heinrich Hoffmann von
Fallersleben (1798-1874). There was a country called Germany, then, but it
was split in several little counties and kingdoms, some of which really
didn't get along with others very well. So you could talk of a country
called Germany, you couldn't, however, talk of a nation.
Nationalism, in those days, was a mostly democratic movement, whose aim it
was to overcome monarchistic opression, unify all the kingdoms, counties and
the likes and form a strong state for the good of all the people of that
nation. Von Fallersleben was persecuted for conveying such ideas, he even
had to take refuge on the the british island of Helgoland.
After the revolution of 1848, when Germany was a united Nation, the Lied der
Deutschen was declared the national anthem. And therefore, the first two
lines of the first verse must not be understood isolated from the second
two - what it means is simply an idea similar to the french "Vive la
Nation!". Germany, the idea, should have a higher ranking than any interests
the subunits of it could have, let's say Prussia or Bavaria for example, to
name but the strongest two. This was in order to ensure the continuity of a
unified Germany, merely patriotic as can easily be seen, with the primary
goal of overcoming archaic structures and opression of the lower classes. If
in doubt, you may find proof for my interpretation at
http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/STUDinfo/hilaritas/HANDBUCH/lied-dd.html

The third two lines of the second verse, however, are merely the borders of
Germany of the year 1841 when von Fallersleben wrote this text and are
nowadays certainly politically and geographically outdated.

The second verse is just going on about german women, loyalty, wine and
song - which are nowadays not really considered more than just commonplace
and applicable to any nation, not only Germany. And feminists don't like the
bit about german women, they'd probably want to have a bit about german men,
hermaphrodites, gay men and lesbian women and anyone not accounted for in
this enumeration in it as well, so the verse would be much too long to be
sung anyway, so we just skip it, too.

The third verse, however is not only plainly patriotic and maybe a bit on
the optimistic side, but something to really take pride in and put some
effort in to achieve. Or is there anything wrong with Unity, Justice,
Freedom and these three building the foundation for happiness? I think not.
So please, never ever judge anything out of context. Millions died so this
anthem, this verse could be heard again!

Please excuse my sometimes somewhat clumsy language, but when it comes to
emotions and somewhat not really everyday matters, I may have some
shortcomings...

Markus

BTW - i find it very disturbing that you seem to have posted this hateful
article in newsgroups some of which do not have anything to do with the
matter but dealing with the products of one certain german firm (elsa). I
should think that you owe these people an apology.

 "John Parker" <johnparker@wanadoo.fr> wrote/schrieb:

>Not yet ready for "Deutcshland Uber Alles", how on earth this theme was
>accepted for the World Cup is beyond me. Millions died to ensure that this
>would not be heard again. You of all people should respect this.

They intoned "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit", where did you hear
"Deutsch�land ueber alles"? The third stanza ist the national anthem,
the first and second are not.

And: You misunderstand the text. It is from a time when "Germany" did
not exist and people wanted to have a single state. (1848 etc.)

Please get informed about this issue before making "judgements".

(Is something about it in the FAQ?)

And:

Is this really on topic here? f'up2 snipped... to alt.usage.german
(sorry)

alt.usage.german,computer42.mail2news.germnews,elsa.german.comm.presales,elsa.german.comm.support.isdnpc,elsa.german.comm.support.isdnta,elsa.german.comm.support.modem,elsa.german.graphics.presales,elsa.german.graphics.support.win95.video_io,fido7

OG
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