Editor, While reading Sunny Ntayombya article exploring the difference between nationalism and patriotism I stumbled over what he had written about the German national anthem. He was not quite correct. The ‘Deutschlandlied’ is NOT the German national anthem, only the third stanza is, which really makes a difference.
Editor,
While reading Sunny Ntayombya article exploring the difference between nationalism and patriotism I stumbled over what he had written about the German national anthem.
He was not quite correct. The ‘Deutschlandlied’ is NOT the German national anthem, only the third stanza is, which really makes a difference.
The third stanza was first the national anthem of the former Federal Republic of Germany (so called West Germany) and then became the national anthem of the unified Germany in 1991.
The decision to take ONLY the third stanza of the ‘Das Lied der Deutschen’ as the text of the national anthem signifies a complete turning away from the violent, extremist and hyperbolic nationalist politics of the Third Reich.
All the best,
Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter