Germany
Deutschlandlied
1841
1922
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
Joseph Haydn
🤝 Unity 🕊 Freedom ❤ Love of homeland |
Key Facts
- 1. Haydn's melody is also used in his String Quartet Op. 76 No. 3, known as the 'Emperor Quartet,' which is considered one of the greatest chamber music works ever written.
- 2. The same melody served as the Austrian imperial anthem until 1918, meaning Germany and Austria shared the same tune for decades, sometimes causing confusion at international events.
- 3. In 2017, a German politician proposed swapping the word 'fatherland' (Vaterland) for 'homeland' (Heimatland) to make the anthem more gender-neutral, sparking a fierce national debate.
Lyrics
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach lasst uns alle streben
Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Sind des Glückes Unterpfand;
Blüh im Glanze dieses Glückes,
Blühe, deutsches Vaterland!
Translations are non-official and intended to convey meaning, not replace originals
Analysis
EditorialOnly the third stanza is used as the anthem today. The first stanza, with its opening 'Deutschland uber alles' ('Germany above all'), was originally a liberal call for German unification in 1841, not a supremacist slogan. But the Nazis adopted it so effectively that the first two stanzas were dropped after World War II. The melody was composed by Joseph Haydn in 1797 as 'God Save Emperor Francis' for the Austrian Empire.