how old is the German anthem : „Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles, über alles?

Question

Did the Nazi's start this or was it older? And also the phrase: Sieg Heil...was this older than Hitler?

Answer 1

It has been around since 1841 ---- and is best sung when hammered on beer and stuffed with suerkraut & sausage--

As for 'Sieg Heil,' it was a Josef Goebbels or maybe Ernst Hafstangle innovation conjured up during the mid 1920's. Hitler liked it and so it stayed in the lexicon....

http://ingeb.org/Lieder/deutschl.html


1-3 Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben 1841

1. Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt,
Wenn es stets zu Schutz und Trutze
Brüderlich zusammenhält,
Von der Maas bis an die Memel,
Von der Etsch bis an den Belt -
|: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Über alles in der Welt. :|
2. Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang
Sollen in der Welt behalten
Ihren alten schönen Klang,
Uns zu edler Tat begeistern
Unser ganzes Leben lang.
|: Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue,
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang. :|
3. 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. :|
(4. Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Und im Unglück nun erst recht.
Nur im Unglück kann die Liebe
Zeigen, ob sie stark und echt.
Und so soll es weiterklingen
Von Geschlechte zu Geschlecht:
|: Deutschland, Deutschland über alles,
Und im Unglück nun erst recht. :| )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Ius, concordia, libertas
Pro Germana patria,
Haec fraterne nos petamus
Dextra atque anima!
Ius, concordia, libertas
Sunt salutis pignora,
Flore in salutis luce
Tu, Germana patria!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Germany, Germany above all *
Above everything in the world *
When, always, for protection and defense
Brothers stand together.
From the Maas to the Memel
From the Etsch to the Belt,
Germany, Germany above all
Above all in the world.
2. German women, German fidelity,
German wine and German song,
Shall retain, throughout the world,
Their old respected fame,
To inspire us to noble deeds
For the length of our lives.
German women, German fidelity,
German wine and German song.
-------------------------------------------------------
Während der Ruhrbesetzung durch die
Franzosen entstand die 4. Liedstrophe,
gedichtet von Albert Matthäi. 3. Unity and right and freedom
For the German Fatherland;
Let us all strive to this goal
Brotherly, with heart and hand.
Unity and rights and freedom
Are the pledge of fortune grand.
Prosper in this fortune's glory,
Prosper German fatherland.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*The sentiment of the first two lines is:
"Esteemed above everything in the world",
(as most citizens express of their homeland)
not "rulers of the world."
At the time it was written, it was a call to
unite the many independent states into
one unified Germany.
Verse 4. was a short-lived afterthought
by another author and is seldom seen.
Today only the third verse is the official
anthem but there are movements that
consider even the second verse offensive
and that wish to ban the entire song.""""

http://www.brandenburghistorica.com/page5.html
"""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. This "All-German" idea was suspect because it was also associated with the rising middle classes and their suppressed Frankfurt assembly of 1848.

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 Heligoland, where the verses were actually written. The music is taken from the String Quartet in C major (the Kaiser-Quartet), Op. 76,3 of Joseph Haydn, composed in 1797. It was officially ignored during most of the Second Reich (1871 to 1918), which had no official anthem as such.

The Deutschlandlied's real popularity began with World War I, when it was sung on the battlefield by young soldiers from every Gau of the Reich who were thrown together against a common foe.

Ironically, Das Deutschlandlied did not become the official national anthem until declared so by President Ebert of the Weimar Republic in March, 1922.
Not surprisingly, during the next European War, the words "über Alles" were ruthlessly exploited by Allied propagandists.
Banned after 1945 by the victors, the Deutschlandlied is again the German national anthem, but only the third stanza is used. The first stanza is absolutely verboten, since it refers to the traditional ethnographic boundaries of Germany ("from the Maas [in Belgium] to the Memel [between the present day Kaliningrad area of Russia and Lithuania], from the Etsch [on the Austro-Italian border] to the Belt [in Denmark]"). Likewise, the propagandistic mistranslation of the words "über alles" has now become accepted "truth", thus precluding their use.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, proposals were made to combine the hymns of the BRD and the DDR (the anthem of which was an officially commissioned postwar piece by the communist poet Johannes R. Becher and leftist composer Hans Eisler) to create a "unified" national anthem. At that point, musicologists made the ironic discovery that, in terms of rhythm and meter, the words of the former DDR' s anthem Auferstanden aus Ruinen (perhaps not accidentally) fit the musical score of the Das Deutschlandlied perfectly!""""



Peace................................

Answer 2

"Seig Heil" translates literally to "Hail Victory". just alittle tidbit of info for you.