English translation of the first line of “Das Lied der Deutschen,” a poem written by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874) on Helgoland in 1841: “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.” His poem called for a unified, constitutional German nation that would both overcome the proliferation of small states and its resulting particularism and guarantee civil liberties, a goal that should be Germans’ top priority—“über alles.” The poet set his text to the melody of Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Kaiserhymne” (1797) because his vision of a unified Germany included Austria.¹ Dismissed from his position as a professor of German literature at the University of Breslau (which he had held since 1830) for his liberal, nationalist views, he became a political exile. In 1922, “Das Lied der Deutschen” became the official national anthem of the Weimar Republic. The National Socialists sang just the first verse, emphasizing German superiority over all other nations. The third verse, which begins “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit,” became the official German national anthem in 1991.

¹Reichel, Peter. Glanz und Elend deutscher Selbstdarstellung: Nationalsymbolik in Reich und Republik. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2012, 73.

Hotch, Hanno. “Das Deutschlandlied—ein Lied mit Geschichte.” NDR. May 5, 2021. Accessed June 12, 2021. https://www.ndr.de/geschichte/chronologie/Deutschlandlied-ein-Lied-mit-Geschichte-,liedderdeutschen100.html.

Hoffmann von Fallersleben, August Heinrich. “Das Lied der Deutschen.” In Deutsche Lieder aus der Schwiez, 16–17. Zürich, 1842. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89068030295?urlappend=%3Bseq=22.

The Meuse River rises in France and flows through Belgium and the Netherlands to the North Sea. The Neman (German Memel) rises in Belarus and flows through Lithuania to the Baltic Sea. Here the rivers define the eastern and western borders of a German nation.

The Adige (German Etsch) rises in the Alps near Italy's border with Austria and Switzerland and drains into the Adriatic Sea. The original German verse is “Von der Etsch bis an den Belt.” Two Danish straights, the Great Belt, between the major Danish islands of Zealand and Funen, and the Little Belt, between the island of Funen and the Jutland Peninsula, connect the Baltic Sea to the Kattegat Straight and the Atlantic Ocean.