679. Germany: The Song Hitler Stole (Part 3)
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Guten Tag. And that was, of course, the national anthem of Germany. And Dominic, this time in the World Cup, the Germans aren't kind of massive favourites, are they? But I mean, when it comes to European teams in the World Cup, the Germans are pretty irresistible. They've won the World Cup four times. They've been runners-up four times. They have reached the last four 13 times, which is more even than the Brazilians. And as the co-founder of our own beloved production company put it, football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes. And at the end, the Germans always win. Yeah. And the consequence of that is that football fans certainly have got used to hearing the German anthem a great deal.
Yeah, that's right. There are, of course, other reasons why the German anthem is quite familiar, and that's not to do with football at all, but possibly to do with the history of Germany in the 20th century. You think that as well as being incredibly familiar, it is also actually the most misunderstood because its roots are not kind of militaristic and its lyrics are not an assertion of German power over the rest of the world, as is often sometimes thought.
Yeah, I do think that, Tom. I do think it's misunderstood. So I would say that if you were to stop people in the streets in Britain and say to them, what is the German national anthem called? I think there's no doubt that most people would say, oh, everyone knows what it's called. It's called Deutschland über alles. I mean, this is just the general assumption in Britain, I think, because we've been traumatized by so many war films.
Yeah. And the über alles means Germany number one.
Yes. Germany over everybody else. Yeah. Actually, it's not called Deutschland über alles. It was written in 1841. And the title of the anthem is Das Lied der Deutschen, the Song of the Germans. And And today, when you hear that anthem, so when, you know, in the 1980s, some unlovely German, West German team was storming to a European or world title. With a massive mullet. Terrible mullets and moustaches. Rudi Völler or some such player. Yeah. When they were, to the horror of people around the world winning tournaments left, right and centre, they never ever sang Deutschland über alles. It's the kind of thing you would see in a newspaper headline in Britain, in the Daily Mirror or something. But they actually sing Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit, which Tom translates, as we both know, as unity and right and freedom.
That is not as helpful, is it, to the headline writers of the Daily Mirror? No. Not at all. Not at all. And that's because what Germans sing today is actually the third verse of the hymn, not the first. And this is for historical reasons that we will get into. So we will be talking about things like the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and so on, East Germany. So there's a lot to unpack in this episode. Yeah. I mean, it is controversial. Exactly. So there were a couple of controversies actually just a few months ago, like last autumn.
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