Horst Wessel Lied
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The Horst Wessel Lied ("Horst Wessel Song"), also known as Die Fahne Hoch ("The flag on high", from its opening line), was the anthem of the NSDAP of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi martyr. Today it is still banned in Germany under Strafgesetzbuch §86 and §86a.
Its lyrics, translated into English, are as follows:
Flag high, ranks closed,
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
March in spirit with us in our ranks.
The street free for the brown battalions,
The street free for the Storm Troopers.
Millions, full of hope, look up at the swastika;
The day breaks for freedom and for bread.
For the last time the call will now be blown;
For the struggle now we all stand ready.
Soon will fly Hitler-flags over every street;
Slavery will last only a short time longer.
Flag high, ranks closed,
The S.A. marches with silent solid steps.
Comrades shot by the red front and reaction
March in spirit with us in our ranks.
Because the melody was used in many other songs, its origin is widely disputed. One claim states that it originally came from Étienne Méhul's opera Joseph from 1807, while others said that it was also connected with the melody of the song "How Great Thou Art", which has existed since the 1890s. Yet another theory states that the melody was from an old maritime song called "Zum letzten Mal wird der Appell geblasen". In his book Hitler -- The Missing Years, Ernst Hanfstaengl claims that the tune comes from a Viennese cabaret song at the turn of the 20th century. The original lyrics are:
"Und als dein Aug' das meine einst erblicket
Und als mein Mund den deinen einst geküsst
Da hat die Liebe umstricket..."
translated as:
"And when your eye had once caught sight of mine
And once my mouth had given yours a kiss
Just then did love entwine..."
The anthem of the British Union of Fascists was set to the same tune.
The tune was parodied in the Disney animated short Der Fuehrer's Face in 1943. The melody has also been used as the theme music to the popular computer game Wolfenstein 3D in the early 1990s and in a Finnish party's (IKL) song "Luo lippujen" (To flags).
The song is played in the The Blues Brothers (film), in the sequence with Illinois Nazi Party leader (Henry Gibson) in his HQ. It is played in Ralph Bakshi's movie Wizards (film) and a translation of the song is sung in The Hindenburg (film).
In 2005, the Alberta branch of the Royal Canadian Legion accidentally used Horst Wessel Lied as the theme music in an advertising campaign for their fundraising lottery. [link]
See also
External links
- [Text and melody] (MID format), [song] (MP3 format)
- [Das Horst-Wessel-Lied - A Reappraisal] by George Broderick (in Microsoft Word DOC format), first published in International Folklore Review Vol. 10 (1995): 100-127
- [Text of the German Criminal Code §86 and §86a] (in English)
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