May the world recover from the German being

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Military treasure stamp of the German School Association from the time of the First World War .

May the world recover from the German being is a political catchphrase that goes back to Emanuel Geibel's poem Germany's Profession from 1861. Geibel campaigns for the unity of Germany and calls on the individual states to unite under a German emperor , Wilhelm I , who has ruled as King of Prussia since 1861 , as it finally happened in 1871 after the " Wars of Unification " . The German nature , in which the world may recover, is to be understood as the unified German state , from which a peace effect on the European structure of states will emanate.

The catchphrase Am Deutschen Wesen may die Welt recover was later used by the political leadership and probably also reinterpreted. Kaiser Wilhelm II used it, for example, in a speech on August 1, 1907. If one understands beings as being in the philosophical sense , disregarding the historical context , it can be misunderstood, contrary to Geibel's intention, as an invitation to the world to "become more German" . This corresponded widespread escalation of Geibel'schen like to to : On the German character to the world recover. Federal President Theodor Heuss rejected this interpretation in 1952: “No people are better than any other, there is such and such in everyone. America is not 'God's own country', and the harmless Emanuel Geibel has caused some subordinate nonsense by saying that the world will be recovered once more with the German being. "

Germany's profession

The 7 stanzas of the poem:

Shall it
brew forever from thunderstorms in the cloudy sky?
Should the ground always tremble, on which
we build our huts?
Or do you want to
finally create rest and peace with your weapons ?

That the world no longer, worried
about its lightly shaken happiness,
daily quakes before morning,
give it back its core!
Make Europe's heart heal
and salvation is found for you.

A hoard is going to be set up,
a hoard in the German land! Seeks to guide
and to settle
A sword-tested hand that
holds the golden apple
And rulers the kingdom in faithfulness. Each tribe

carry his prince-banners
as he chooses,
But
one proudly rises above all ,
high, in the ornament of the Eichenreiser
wall before the German Emperor.

When the holy crown
adorns a high crown again, A single will pulls
out of the head through all the limbs
,
Will resound again in the Council of Nations before all
German sayings .

Then
the mood on the Seine river will no longer become world law ,
Then
the fisherman casts his nets in vain in Rome,
No longer with his hordes
will the colossus in the north frighten us.

Power and freedom, law and custom,
clear spirit and sharp blow,
then reins from a strong center
Every selfishness wild instinct,
And
the world may once again recover from the German being .

literature

  • Winged words. Quotes, sentences and concepts in their historical context , ed. by Kurt Böttcher et al. Leipzig 1985, p. 501 f.
  • Kurt Pätzold and Manfred Weißbecker : Keywords and battle calls . From two centuries of German history . Leipzig, 2002, pp. 279-283

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Roos, German Foreign Policy: A Reconstruction of the Basic Rules of Action , p. 177 fn. 202 books.google
  2. ^ Internet portal Westphalian history, Landesmuseum Münster / feast for the province of Westphalia
  3. ^ Duden - The great book of general education, page 286 books.google
  4. ^ Theodor Heuss: Address for the opening of the Bergen-Belsen memorial on November 30, 1952 http://www.zeit.de/reden/die_historische_rede/heuss_holocaust_200201
  5. ↑ Text source: Emanuel Geibel: Heroldsruf. Older and more recent time poems . Stuttgart 1871, pp. 116-118