Deutschlandlied - Use Before World War II

Use Before World War II

Das Lied der Deutschen was not played at an official ceremony until Germany and the United Kingdom had agreed on the Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty in 1890, when it appeared only appropriate to sing it at the ceremony on the now officially German island of Helgoland.

The song became very popular after the 1914 Battle of Langemarck during World War I, when, supposedly, several German regiments, consisting mostly of students no older than 16, attacked the British lines singing the song, suffering heavy casualties. They are buried in the Langemark German war cemetery. The official report of the army embellished the event as one of young German soldiers heroically sacrificing their lives for the fatherland. In reality the untrained troops were sent out to attack the British trenches side by side and were mown down by machine guns and rifle fire. This report, also known as the "Langemarck Myth", was printed on the first page in newspapers all over Germany. It is doubtful that the soldiers would have sung the song in the first place: carrying heavy equipment, they might have found it difficult to run at high speed toward enemy lines while singing the very slow song. Nonetheless, the story was widely repeated, and Adolf Hitler himself, who had "received his baptism by fire at Langemarck," claimed to have heard the song as machine-gun fire killed his fellow soldiers.

The Deutschlandlied could not be adopted as an official national anthem because its melody was in use as an anthem (Kaiserhymne) by the Austrian Empire until its demise in 1918. On 11 August 1922, President Friedrich Ebert made the Deutschlandlied the official German national anthem, as one element of a complex political negotiation. In essence, the political right was granted the very nationalistic anthem, while the left had its way in the selection of the national colors (the right wanted black, white, and red, the colors of the Bismarckian empire; the left wanted black, red, and gold, the colors of the 19th century liberal revolutionaries). Considering the post-World War II history of the anthem, it is worthwhile noting that Ebert already advocated using only the anthem's third stanza.