@pn3105 Yepp, totally correct about the first and third stanza of our national anthem.
Problem was that idiot Hitler -eeeerr, no, cut the idiot, that's an insult to all idiots- used the first stanza plus the Horst-Wessel-song so successfully in combination that nobody remembers the original meaning of the first stanza.
The current national anthem was created during a time when there was no real "Germany" per se, rather there were dozens (or even hundreds, depending on the time during the 19th century) of principalities that were split up into the Germanic states, but not a single nation. Dito for the German flag, but in reversed order top-to-bottom.
That's what the "Germany above everything" was supposed to signify - not that they were better than others, nor that they were Bavarians, Swabes, Saxons, Hessians, or one of the many other composite regional principalities. No, they were supposed to see themselves as "Germans" first, and then as whatever state they lived in. Not that they were supposed to be better than anyone else in the world, or above anyone else. No, it was 'first be a German, then worry about the rest of your background later'.
It was a unification call, not a call to rule over the world. Yet that <censored, censored, censored> damn f'ing <censored> Hitler totally royally f'ed it up by slathering in that coat of shhh...- -ameful inferiority-complex he must have had.
Luckily that idiot didn't like the black-red-gold tricolor of the Weimar Republic because he believed it was a slander to Germany. Otherwise we would have had to invent a new flag, too, after WWII.
So, be proud of the great things from Germany's history, and abhor the horrible things that happened.
"Never forget; never repeat." But not as a mantra, only as a reminder. ;-)
45
@pn3105 Yepp, totally correct about the first and third stanza of our national anthem.
Problem was that idiot Hitler -eeeerr, no, cut the idiot, that's an insult to all idiots- used the first stanza plus the Horst-Wessel-song so successfully in combination that nobody remembers the original meaning of the first stanza.
The current national anthem was created during a time when there was no real "Germany" per se, rather there were dozens (or even hundreds, depending on the time during the 19th century) of principalities that were split up into the Germanic states, but not a single nation. Dito for the German flag, but in reversed order top-to-bottom.
That's what the "Germany above everything" was supposed to signify - not that they were better than others, nor that they were Bavarians, Swabes, Saxons, Hessians, or one of the many other composite regional principalities. No, they were supposed to see themselves as "Germans" first, and then as whatever state they lived in. Not that they were supposed to be better than anyone else in the world, or above anyone else. No, it was 'first be a German, then worry about the rest of your background later'.
It was a unification call, not a call to rule over the world. Yet that <censored, censored, censored> damn f'ing <censored> Hitler totally royally f'ed it up by slathering in that coat of shhh...- -ameful inferiority-complex he must have had.
Luckily that idiot didn't like the black-red-gold tricolor of the Weimar Republic because he believed it was a slander to Germany. Otherwise we would have had to invent a new flag, too, after WWII.
So, be proud of the great things from Germany's history, and abhor the horrible things that happened.
"Never forget; never repeat." But not as a mantra, only as a reminder. ;-)