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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. |
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| 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) 