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…

First Thoughts About Anthems

When I was about eight years old, living on an Air Force base in Virginia, I stopped one afternoon, at whatever time they did this, and watched the lowering of the American flag at, I guess, the base headquarters.  This ceremony was performed every day.  Somewhere in the middle of “The Star Spangled Banner,” I whispered something to my friend along the lines of “Pretty long, huh?”  My friend replied with something like “Be quiet.”

That was probably my first experience with public anthems.  Of course I’d recited the Pledge of Allegiance probably every morning in school.  But now we were standing outside, away from the adults, watching airmen lower the flag.  We were watching, not participating; not singing the song.  But my companion must have been surprised, maybe embarrassed, maybe actually shocked when I spoke during the Anthem.

Ten years later, as a senior in high school, no longer living on an Air Force base, my father now in Vietnam, I attended a pep rally for the school basketball team.  The rally began with the National Anthem, which was met with a general “Ho-Hum.”  The rally continued.  Towards the end, the band struck up a brisk version of “Dixie.”  I was amazed at the enthusiasm of the students.  They hadn’t particularly cared either way about the National Anthem; they’d only been moderately interested in the basketball team; but they sure went wild about “Dixie.”

This was awhile back:  1969.  The year before, during the election, I had sat with the other Hubert Humphrey supporters towards the rear of the school auditorium during our “mock election.”  I think Nixon won at our school, with George Wallace coming in second.  Very few students supported Hubert Humphrey.  They were mostly black; I was one of the few whites.

Five or six years later, in Graduate School, I would see “Triumph of the Will” for the first time, and hear the “Horst Wessel Song,” the Nazi anthem.  I had already learned “The Marseillaise” in my French Class.  I knew “Deutschland Uber Alles” from studying German and living in Germany.  I knew the Japanese National Anthem from having lived in Japan.  And I’d spent a summer “up north,” and had heard “Oh Canada.”  Of course I had heard “We Shall Overcome.”  In time, I would learn the Marxist “Internationale” as well as the so-called Black National Anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

I’m a musical person.  These tunes all moved me.  I’ve now heard Czarist anthems and Soviet anthems.  These are more than just songs.  I would suggest than these songs are stirring because they represent an identity beyond personal identity.  They bind us to a larger group, for good or ill.  And sometimes, even in spite of the words, the music possesses us.