Hymn to Germany

The hymn to Germany (Land of Faith, German Land ...) is a song that, according to the wish of the then Federal President Theodor Heuss , should have become the national anthem of the Federal Republic of Germany .

The text of the poem was written by Rudolf Alexander Schröder in 1950; the melody comes from Hermann Reutter . Heuss originally intended Carl Orff to be the composer ; However, he referred Heuss to Reutter. Heuss presented the song to the public for the first time following his New Year's address broadcast on the radio at the turn of the year 1950/51. However, he could not prevail; it was referred to as the “Swabian Protestant national chorus” and derided as “Theo's night song”. In 1952 Heuss and came Chancellor Konrad Adenauer finally agreed in an exchange of letters, the Song of Germany by Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben recognized as German national anthem.

The three stanzas each have one of the Christian virtues faith, hope, love as a motto: land of faith, German land - land of hope, homeland - land of love, fatherland .

In the original version of Schröder, the three stanzas began with “Heart of Loyalty, Fatherland” / “Heart of Hope, Homeland” / “Heart of Love, German Land”. However, Heuss insisted on the Christian values ​​of faith / hope / love from 1st Corinthians. Schröder protested against this Christianization of his text; Heuss' formulation adopts “too arbitrarily a formula that has become sacred from the religious to the secular area”. Heuss, on the other hand, justified in a letter to Schröder the desired beginning of the song Land of Faith with a “specific religious power” that was present in the German character.

See also

• Brecht's children 's anthem

literature

• Heike Amos: Risen from the ruins ... The national anthem of the GDR 1949 to 1990 . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-320-01939-2 , pp. 108-125.
• Guido Knopp, Ekkehard Kuhn: The song of the Germans: the fate of a hymn. Ullstein, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-550-07991-5 , pp. 104-111.

Web links

• Brief description with sound sample (English)
• The National Anthem - History and Origin of the Deutschlandlied (Source: Bundesregierung)
  (Quote: At the same time he commissioned the poet Rudolf Alexander Schröder and the composer Carl Orff to write a new anthem for the Germans. Since Orff refused, Herman Reutter stepped in and created the new one National anthem "Land of Faith, German Land". )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rainer Blasius : The song for Germany. From Ebert to Heuss to Weizsäcker: The long argument about the national anthem. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 29, 2002.
2. ↑ Kristian Buchna: In the shadow of anti-clericalism. Theodor Heuss, Liberalism and the Churches (=  Small Series, No. 33). Bundespräsident-Theodor-Heuss-Haus Foundation, Stuttgart 2016, ISBN 978-3-942302-10-4 , p. 69 ( review by Rainer Blasius in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 12, 2016 ).