Germany squad under fire over anthem
Reuters - Tuesday 03 July 2012, 18:13
Germany's national football players, still reeling from a 2-1 defeat to Italy in last week's
Euro 2012 semi-final, are now being accused of being unpatriotic
after failing to sing the national anthem.
Most of the Germany team stood in silence as the strains of
the anthem wafted through the stadium in Warsaw last Thursday,
in contrast to Italy's squad who sang their anthem with gusto.
"It is right and proper that players sing along when the
national anthem is performed. They play for the German national
team and not for themselves," the state premier of Hesse, Volker
Bouffier, told the top-selling daily Bild.
Bavaria's premier Joachim Herrmann said: "The German
national anthem belongs to international matches and to the
national squad. If somebody cannot be bothered to sing it, he
should stay in his local club."
In Germany, the federal states decide whether children
learn the national anthem at school. In conservative Bavaria it
is compulsory, for example, while in Berlin it depends on the
choice of individual teacher.
Patriotism can still be a sensitive issue in Germany because
of the Nazi regime, World War Two and the ensuing division into
a capitalist western German state and a communist eastern one.
"After two dictatorships that violated German symbols and
patriotism, many people have trouble dealing with the national
anthem," said historian Paul Nolte.
The music for Germany's national anthem was composed by
Joseph Haydn in 1797 and the German poet August Heinrich
Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics of "Das Lied der
Deutschen" to Haydn's melody in 1841.
The song is perhaps best known for the opening words of the
first stanza, "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles" (literally,
"Germany, Germany above all") which was dropped after the Nazi
era.
Today, when they sing their national anthem Germans sing
only the third stanza, which begins: "Unity and law and freedom
for the German fatherland".