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THE GERMAN NATIONAL
ANTHEM (Direct TRANSLATION)
 
Germany,
Germany over all, over all in the world,
If it
always stands together brotherly for protection and resistance.
From the
Meuse (river) to the Memel (river), from the Adige (river) to the Belt,
Germany,
Germany over all, over all in the world.
German
women, German truth (fidelity), German wine and German singing
Shall maintain in the world, their
old beautiful sound,
Inspire us to noble
deed(s), our whole life long
German women, German truth, German
wine and German singing
Unity
and justice and freedom for the German fatherland,
Let us
all strive for that, brotherly with heart and hand.
Unity
and justice and Freedom are the pledge of happiness,
Bloom
in the shine of this happiness, bloom German fatherland.
AN UNFORTUNATELY NECESSARY comment:
Like many
other German national symbols, also the German anthem was defamed since the end
of World War II. Therefore a few things have to be made clear:
1. It
were democratic republicans, who made the song a state-symbol
after World War I. One mostly sang the first stanza, like in the case of the
American anthem as well. The symbol was however always the entire
anthem. Everything else would even be idiotic, as a poetic peace of art gets
created by an author so, that it’s inner evolution fulfils the wanted sense. -
You can’t separate it without “tearing it apart“. - Everyone,
who does this, acts like someone, who tears a flag apart ...
2. The
anthem consists of two components: the melody, which Joseph Haydn (an
Austrian!) had composed as the “Kaiserhymne = Kaiser-anthem“ in 1797, and the
vocals of the democratic poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben, who
wrote it as a victim of political persecution, in exile. It was
(in fact) always a democratic symbol!
3. These
facts already show, that it is defaming to call parts of the anthem evil. If
someone reads the first line “Germany, Germany over all, over all in the
world,” and than thinks that to be an expression of expansionism, this only
shows how much incitement can drive people into stupidity!
After all a comma follows in this sentence now(!) and than a defensive
reference to a hostile invasion. Such experiences marked the German people
for centuries! Afterwards geographical particulars about the connected German
culture area follow. Also this limitation exposes the idea of expansionism as
STUPIDITY! - It is about an “over all“ in this
area, about the division of Germany into small states. - The
problem of the time, in which the song was written! ... – Actually very simple!!! … - That a geographic limitation stands in
contradiction to a geographic “over all in the world“, additionally shows
very easily that it is about a spiritual sense of “in the world“. Apart from
that however it is religiously neutral. Only incitement can explain the far
spread misbelieve, that parts of the anthem would be evil or forbidden
anywhere.
4. The
first and the third stanza refer to Germany, the second one to the German culture.
Symbolic terms for different manifestations of this culture are being given.
That the German woman, so a German femininity also appears as a model here,
is thereby remarkable in a special way, as it expresses a notion of
femininity as a value like we already find it in the German Minne of
the middle ages (see our history chapter). So it enlarges the typical
symbolism of fighting and bravery in anthems by the aspects of beauty, emotionality,
welfare and loveliness! Especially the second stanza is therefore giving the
anthem a special cultural value
- and only the more, because
it also reveals the value of the culture-nation in these values.
5. The
second stanza is bold here, to propose to sing this stanza in America.
It shall thereby always be sensed as part of the entire text, and accordingly
also remind of the German motto UNITY, JUSTICE, FREEDOM, but the second
stanza fits better to German-Americans, if it isn’t currently about a
reference to Germany.
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