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The Song of the Germans
The History of a Hymn
Joseph Haydn composed the melody of the national hymn in 1797.
After returning to Vienna, he told his friend and patron, the Baron van Swieten, about his second trip to England.
The English have a lovely national song with which they publicly show their love, admiration, and affection to their ruler.
The song is called "God Save the King."
A very beautiful melody!
I can't imagine why we don't have a song like this. No kind of "song of praise" for our Emperor.
My God, Haydn, what an idea! The Emperor's birthday is in a few weeks.
It would be a good present!
And this English melody is very pretty! It's simple, but at the same time it's also very ceremonial!
We also have some pretty melodies.
Quite pretty. But isn't it a folk song? A dance or something like that?
A Croatian song. A little love song.
And I found this one through my brother Michael.
It's a hymn.
This is how you should write the composition, my dear friend - a simple melody that sounds ceremonial.
Haydn received the commission for the composition, and the text was composed by Lorenz Leopold Haschka [Austrian poet].
♪ God save Francis the Emperor, our good Emperor Francis! ♪
"The Emperor Song" was premiered in the Vienna Burgtheater in 1797 for the 29th birthday of Francis II, the last Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.
The melody spread quickly and was sung again and again with varying lyrics.
Several elements of the melody had already been floating around in the air.
The beginning motif was already present 60 years earlier in a rondo by Georg Philipp Telemann.
Joseph Haydn himself had already used the motif in his Trumpet concerto in E flat major.
Haydn's friend, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, had written a similar ending motif many years before.
Joseph Haydn varied the entire melody of the Emperor's Song in his String Quartet in C major, the "Emperor Quartet."
A few decades later, the fate of Haydn's melody took a new, political turn.
In the middle 19th century, the territories in which German was spoken were loosely united in a German confederation.
There were 39 independent principalities - Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Saxony, Hanover, Mecklenburg, and so on.
They were ruled by Electors and were separated by customs frontiers.
♪ What is the German Fatherland? It's the Land of Prussia. It's the Land of Swabia... ♪
Bourgeois patriots promoted the abolition of the small principalities and strove for a more uniform Germany.
♪ O no, no, no! His Fatherland must be larger! ♪
It was dangerous in this era to sing songs like this which called for the abolition of small principalities and a united Germany.
Police? She's right! Let's sing it louder so they can hear what we think.
♪ What is the German Fatherland? Name this land for me! ♪
♪ As far as one hears the German tongue and God sings songs in heaven ♪
The patriots also called for participation of the people in the government. A democratic Germany would have meant the end of power for the many Electors.
For this reason, the patriots were spied upon, their meetings forbidden, and their books and newspapers censored. Student leaders, journalists, and poets were arrested.
The stricter the prohibitions became, the more fervent the patriots demanded justice and freedom.
Protests and demonstrations occurred everywhere which finally led to revolution in 1848.
The symbol for justice and freedom was the black, red, and golden flag.
In this situation, Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote a new text for the former melody of the "Emperor Hymn."
He was a professor at the University of Breslau and in 1841 sojourned on the Island of Heligoland, which at the time was under British control.
He composed hiking songs, children's songs, and, as a staunch democrat, political songs.
Julius Campe, his publisher from Hamburg, visited him.
And why do you call them "Unpolitical Songs"?
If I were to call them "Political Songs," they would be banned.
If I call them "Unpolitical Songs," however, censors won't take them seriously and think they're boring, and they won't be banned.
And you really want to be burdened with all of this? Censorship? Banned from books? Spying?
And that you would have to stay here on Heligoland? They would surely run you out of the university if you continue!
And I will continue! We stand for a good cause!
How crazy is this? 39 states on German land and in the 39 states the people all speak the same language - German.
Is it really a crime to advocate one Germany where all people who speak German could live?
To hell with the whole sectionalism! We love our land above everything else
We want one Germany where all Germans can live in freedom and peace together.
"The Song of the Germans" calls for the fundamental rights of democracy in its third stanza.
♪ Unity and justice and freedom for the German Fatherland! For these let us all strive brotherly with heart and hand! Unity and justice and freedom are the pledge of fortune; Flourish in this fortune's blessing, flourish, German Fatherland! ♪
Hoffmann von Fallersleben's political involvement cost him his position at the university.
He was watched and had to endure interrogations and house searches. He moved from town to town.
A little later, other songs were heard in German territories�