Comments | deutsche_kultur: In The News: "Fewer than half of Germans know their national anthem"

breakingthrunow in deutsche_kultur

In The News: "Fewer than half of Germans know their national anthem"

Jul 16, 2009 21:38

Fewer than half of Germans know their national anthem
16 Jul 2009 - http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090716-20641.html

Never particularly patriotic due to their country’s jingoistic history, a poll released on Thursday showed fewer than half of all Germans know the lyrics to their national anthem.

According to the survey carried out by pollster Emnid ( Read more... )

breakingthrunow, european neighbors, national anthem, german music, culture

Comments 29

weiantheman July 17 2009, 05:06:16 UTC

do German kids sing the national anthem in school? it's very interesting to note that only one stanza is sung/memorised. i love how the anthem sounds.

nitanitachan July 17 2009, 05:16:37 UTC

no singing in the morning XD

I had it in my music lessons once ...

breakingthrunow July 17 2009, 05:32:17 UTC

The only time the anthem was mentioned at school for me was when we were going over it in elementary school -- I think it was in 3rd grade. This was in Niedersachsen in what then was "the West". Do you sing your anthem at school and where do you live? :)

weiantheman July 17 2009, 13:31:29 UTC

Where I'm from (Singapore), in elementary school, it is sung every morning (for lessons which begin in the morning) and every afternoon (for lessons whi begin in the afternoon). In fact, for schools leading all the way up to University (exclusive of University), the anthem is sung at least once a week (normally mondays). The National pledge normally comes after the national anthem. So we have to sing the national anthem, and recite the pledge, by placing a clenched right fist on our left chest (heart ( ... )

Thread 6

nitanitachan July 17 2009, 05:15:08 UTC

blüüüüh im glanze dieses Glückes~ *coughs* god this is slow and high... too high in the morning XD

the "Deutschland über alles" line is really... tough, I know that my granny had a very old book with all 3 stanzas ......

Freude schöner Götterfunken Tochter aus Elysium wir betreten feuertrunken Himmlische dein Heiligtum~~~~

I wonder why they chose this one... not that I mind XD I love it XD

Alle Menschen werden Brüder wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt <- that would be very nice, but knowing humans *cough* ok, enough need to catch my train anyways ^_~

breakingthrunow July 17 2009, 05:34:51 UTC

LOL, nice singing there. I should probably make a separate entry with the lyrics and background info on both of them. Viel Spass noch heute am heiligen Freitag. :)

nitanitachan July 17 2009, 10:57:00 UTC

XDDDD it stuck in my ear a few minutes...
yeah it wuold be better, because that one line's context totally changed.... *sigh* I don't think anybody remembers that this was more a revolutional text, that was before a german state as a whole excisted

So heilig ist der nicht XD Arbeit Arbeit über alles.... ^_~

lied_ohne_worte July 17 2009, 07:06:58 UTC

"Deutschland über alles"

FWIW, I don't think that in the context it was created, that line means "Germany is greater than anything else", but rather that for the person singing it, the country and its unity is the most important thing... which is not that far from many other countries' anthems. Of course we cannot sing that stanza anymore, and I'm totally OK with it, but still I think that the text is misunderstood in light of what happened later.

Thread 9

paperwitch July 17 2009, 08:49:25 UTC

I'm not a very patriotic person (compared to Amercian patriotism, for example) but I know and can sing our anthem. Perhaps beacuse of the many sports events I go to^^.

das_elysium July 17 2009, 10:09:30 UTC

Guess that's just the way it is. Germans don't dare to be patriotic and most of them don't even like/love their country for several reasons. (It seems soccer is the only way to awake some patriotic feelings...)
I even got weird looks from my friends when I said I liked our anthem - and I actually know the lyrics. Though it's not the lyrics I particularly like, but the music by Haydn. It's such a wonderful melody. :)

lied_ohne_worte July 17 2009, 19:58:56 UTC

Though it's not the lyrics I particularly like, but the music by Haydn.

Do you know the string quartet movement where Haydn does variations on the melody? It's very nice, too.

petrusplancius July 17 2009, 10:18:39 UTC

People here in the UK generally know the first verse of our national anthem, tough I notice that they usually alter 'the Queen' in the final verse to 'our Queen ( ... )

(The comment has been removed)

petrusplancius July 17 2009, 17:29:24 UTC

I'm not sure that it doesn't solve some problems if one can avoid having to say something about the actual country in one's national anthem! Anthems that do attempt to tend to date very badly, as historical realities notions of national identity change (c.f. Land of Hope and Glory, and ...Britannia Rules the Waves!) The German anthem has not dated well.

'Jerusalem' is good, both for Blake's poetry and Parry's music, but that is purely about England.

czarny July 17 2009, 17:32:09 UTC

lol that Scottish stanza pisses me off like crazy! XD

I don't know many people who know the words to God Save the Queen either, not least because a lot of my friends ask, "Who is this fictional God character? And why does the Queen need saving?"

Ah Royalism is alive and well within the youth of today!