Anthems (11) – France and the United States

The “Watch on the Rhine” (“Die Wacht am Rhein”), which I mentioned in connection with Germany, is considered a bit “nationalist” and “aggressive” by non-Germans.  It calls on Germans to rise up and defend the western borders of Germany.  Of course, when it was written, in the 1840s, there was no single “Germany” to defend.  Most non-Germans don’t realize what an effect the French Revolution and its aftermath had on Germany.  The Revolution inspired Germans to rise up against inequality in their own lands—but eventually the oppression was felt to be coming from Napoleon and the French, who after all tramped through Germany on their way east against Austria and Russia.

The French, on the other hand, felt threatened by the Germans.  The inspiration for “The Marseillaise” wasn’t the fight against the King and Ancien Régime; it was the fight against the Germans on the other side of the Rhine.  So it was appropriate that the two anthems should battle each other out in the film “Casablanca.”

“The Marseillaise,” originally titled “War Song for the Army of the Rhine,” was written in 1792 (during the Reign of Terror).  It became the anthem of the French Republic in 1795—after the execution of Robespierre but before the rise of Napoleon.  It was called “The Marseillaise” (“The Song from Marseille”) because it was first sung by volunteers from Marseille.

So even though it became a great international song for revolutionaries, and was banned for being revolutionary, it was written to inspire the French Nation against the German/Prussian and Austrian invaders (who threatened to topple to revolutionary government).  Later, it was replaced by Napoleon and banned by various monarchs after the monarchy was restored.

It’s a bloody song.  “The bloody banner is raised,” it says.  “These ferocious soldiers come into your arms to kill your sons and companions.”  It continues:  “Let us march, so that an impure blood will water our furrows!”  Perhaps appropriate for a song that became a revolutionary standard!

But a stirring song to be sure!  Americans dissatisfied with “The Star-Spangled Banner” often lament that our anthem is not as beautiful as the French one!  Many Americans lament the American anthem’s glorification of war—a bloody irony, considering the French anthem.  The American anthem doesn’t glorify war; it honors endurance.  The British, during the War of 1812, had captured Washington, burned the White House, and laid siege to Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.  Francis Scott Key, a British prisoner, watched as British warships bombarded the Fort.  He wondered, during the long night, whether the American flag still waved over the fort.

But the song didn’t become the National Anthem until 1931, because the United States (like other countries we’ve discussed) didn’t feel the need to have a national anthem!  The music, after all, came from an English gentlemen’s club drinking song!  And, like the Greek anthem, it’s in 3/4 time—but not really a waltz either.

We might have chosen “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (Charles Ives loved to quote that in his music).  Some people would prefer “America, the Beautiful” or even “This Land Is Your Land” (both share with “Deutschland Über Alles” that pesky problem of emphasizing specific geographical territory as “ours;” raising the question of who, exactly, is included as “American”—and why?).  And of course some of us grew up singing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”—to the tune, of course, of the ever-popular British National Anthem.

Okay.  I’m just about ready to tackle that one!

Anthems (10) -- Those Problematic German Anthems

Yes, I have vague memories of having been surprised, in a good way, by various national anthems I had previously known nothing about (India, Indonesia).  I remember feeling some anthems were distinctly “odd”, at least in the presentations I found on YouTube (Saudi Arabia, whose anthem I could never find the lyrics to; Iran, played against images of what I imagine to be Revolutionary Guards, armaments, and explosions).  And sometimes I was surprised by my non-reaction; I’d expected to somehow be impressed or stunned, and wasn’t, particularly (China, North Korea).

But several countries turned out to be much more interesting than I had anticipated.

Let’s start with Germany.

The lyrics of the German anthem, known to most of us as “Deutschland Über Alles,” was actually written, in 1841, as “Song of the Germans.”  At a time when German had disintegrated into hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, and duchies, it urged Germans to put “Germany Above Everything”—Germany first—rather than squabble on behalf of your own particular little (or large) fragment of Germany.

The music, on the other hand, comes from the famous Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn.

Austrian?  Yes.  Since the Austrians are ethnically and linguistically German; one of those kingdoms that Germany (or rather the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation) had dissolved into—though a rather luckier one; since, in driving the Turks back from the gates of Vienna, it had amassed its own empire of largely non-German peoples.  When Bismarck reconstituted Germany in 1871, he specifically excluded Austria.

Haydn’s tune became the anthem of the Austrian (later Austro-Hungarian) empire.  Meanwhile, the new German empire (like other nations we have discussed) did not really have an official anthem.  Unofficially, Germans might sing “The Watch on the Rhine”—famously presented in the film “Casablanca” before being drowned out by Frenchmen (and French women) singing “The Marseillaise”—or they might sing “Heil Dir im Siegerkranz” (to what seems the perpetually popular and apparently omnipresent—as we shall see!—English tune “God Save The King”).

After World War I—and the collapse of the German Empire as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire—“The Song of the Germans,” sung now to Haydn’s melody (no longer used as the Austrian anthem—some Austrians were rather glad to be rid of it) became the anthem of the new German state.  With the rise of the Nazis fifteen years after The Great War, “Germany Above Everything” became known to the world as “Germany Over Everybody Else”—though in the Reich the custom was to sing only the first verse, then follow that up with the “Horst Wessel Song”—the anthem of the Nazi Party.

After World War II, what was a German to do?  The first stanza was clearly verboten; not only did it talk about “Germany Above All,” it mentioned various territory that supposedly constituted “Germany”—including non-German ethnic areas that had been lost.  The second stanza—invoking German “wine, women, and song” seemed comparatively trivial and a little bit sexist.

The Haydn tune was kept, along with the third stanza.  Known as the “Germany-Song,” it proclaims the ideals of “unity, justice, and freedom” for Germany:  The foundations of happiness.

There are lessons here:  Not to think of your country in terms of specific geographical boundaries (which can change); and to be mindful of how your national anthem might come across to others (Arrogant?  Sexist?).  There’s still the question, though, of using songs from other countries as your own (though, since borders change, and a song may come from a mixed background, let’s not be over-possessive).  In any case, we’ll see that several nations have shared one particular tune…