The Horst-Wessel-Lied ("Horst Wessel Song"), also known as Die Fahne hoch ("Raise the flag") from its opening line, was the anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945 the Nazis made it a co-national anthem of Germany.[1]
The lyrics were written in 1929 by Horst Wessel, commander of the SA in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. Wessel was murdered by a Communist party member in February 1930, and Nazi propagandist Gauleiter Dr. Joseph Goebbels made him a martyr of the Nazi movement. The song was first performed at Wessel's funeral, and was thereafter extensively used at party functions as well as being sung by the SA during street parades.
When Adolf Hitler became chancellor three years later, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was recognised as a national symbol by a law on May 19, 1933. The following year a regulation required the right arm raised in a "Hitler salute" when the first and fourth verses were sung. Nazi leaders can be seen singing the Horst-Wessell Lied at the finale of Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 film Triumph of the Will.
With the end of the Nazi regime in 1945, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was banned, and the words and music are illegal in both Germany and Austria, except for educational purposes.
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The words to the Horst-Wessel-Lied were published in September 1929 in the Nazi Party's berlin newspaper, Der Angriff. They were attributed to "Der Unbekannte SA-Mann" ("the Unknown SA-Man"):
| German original | English translation |
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The Rotfront, or "Red Front," was the Rotfrontkämpferbund, the paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The Nazi Sturmabteilung and the Communist Red Front fought each other in violent street confrontations, which grew into almost open warfare after 1930. The "reactionaries" were the conservative political parties and the liberal democratic German government of the Weimar Republic period, which made several unsuccessful attempts to suppress the SA. "Bondage" is what the Nazis saw as Germany's "servitude" under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, in which the victorious powers imposed huge reparations on Germany, stripped her of her colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Ocean, and even gave parts of Germany to Belgium, Denmark, France, Poland, and Lithuania.
Some changes were made to the lyrics after Wessel's death:
| Stanza 1, line 2 | SA marschiert mit mutig-festem Schritt | The stormtroopers march with bold, firm step. |
| SA marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt | The stormtroopers march with calm, firm step | |
| Stanza 3, line 1 | Zum letzten Mal wird nun Appell geblasen! | The call is sounded for the last time! |
| Zum letzten Mal wird Sturmalarm geblasen! | The storm warning is sounding for the last time! | |
| Stanza 3, line 3 | Bald flattern Hitlerfahnen über Barrikaden | Soon Hitler's banners will flutter over the barricades |
| Schon (Bald) flattern Hitler-Fahnen über allen Straßen | Already (Soon) Hitler's banners will flutter over all the streets |
The dropping of the reference to "barricades" reflected the Nazi Party's desire in the period 1930-33 to be seen as a constitutional political party aiming at taking power by legal means rather than as a revolutionary party.
The line "Kameraden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen" is technically ambiguous. It could either mean Kameraden, die von Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen wurden ("Our comrades who were shot dead by the Red Front and Reactionaries") or Kameraden, welche die Erschießung von Rotfront und Reaktion durchführten ("Our comrades who have shot the Red Front and Reactionaries dead"). In spite of this obvious syntactic problem, which was mentioned by Victor Klemperer in his LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii, the line was never changed.
After Wessel's death, new stanzas added composed in his honour. These were frequently sung by the SA, but did not become part of the official lyrics used on party or state occasions.
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After Wessel's death, he was officially credited with having composed the music, as well as having written the lyrics, for the Horst-Wessel-Lied. Between 1930 and 1933, however, German critics disputed this, pointing out that the melody had a long prior history. Such criticism became unthinkable after 1933.
The most likely immediate source for the melody was a song popular in the German Imperial Navy during World War I, which Wessel would no doubt have heard being sung by Navy veterans in the Berlin of the 1920s. The song was known either by its opening line as Vorbei, vorbei, sind all die schönen Stunden, or as the Königsberg-Lied, after the German cruiser Königsberg, which is mentioned in one version of the song's lyrics. The opening stanza of the song is:
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Another German song, Der Abenteurer (The Adventurer), begins:
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In 1936, a German music critic, Alfred Weidemann, published an article in which he identified the melody of a song composed in 1865 by the Weimar composer Peter Cornelius as the "Urmelodie" (source-melody). According to Weidemann, Cornelius described the tune as a "Viennese folk tune". This appeared to him to be the ultimate origin of the melody of the Horst-Wessel-Lied. [2]
See also the Wikipedia article on Carl Boberg (1859-1940), particularly the note on similarities and dissimilarities between "Horst Wessel Lied" and the Swedish tune "O STORE GUD" (widely sung as "How Great Thou Art").
During the 1930s and '40s, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was adapted by fascist groups in other European countries. The anthem of the British Union of Fascists was set to the same tune, and its lyrics were to some extent modelled on the Horst-Wessel-Lied, though appealing to British nationalism. Its opening stanza was:
In Spain, the Falange fascist movement sang to the same tune:
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In Vichy France the fascists of the radical Milice sang:
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Before 1933, the German Communists and the Social Democrats sang parodies of the Horst-Wessel-Lied during their street battles with the SA. Some version simply changed the political character of the song:
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The Stahlhelm, or "Steel Helmet," was a veterans's organisation closely aligned with the Nazis.
Others substituted completely new lyrics:
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Ernst Thälmann was the KPD leader.
These versions were banned once the Nazis came to power and the Communist and Social Democratic parties repressed, but during the years of the Third Reich the song was parodied in underground versions, poking fun at the corruption of the Nazi elite. One version went:
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Wilhelm Frick was the Interior Minister, Baldur von Schirach was the Hitler Youth leader and Heinrich Himmler was head of the SS and police.
In the first year of Nazi rule, radical elements of the SA sang their own parody of the song, reflecting their disappointment that the "socialist" element of National Socialism had not been realised[3]:
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Kurt Schmitt was Economics Minister between 1933 and 1935.
With the dismemberment and division of the Reich into occupation zones at the end of the World War II, a version of 'Die Preise hoch' became popular in the Soviet zone, targetting Communist functionaries. [4]:
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Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl were leading German communists.
This entry draws significantly on the scholarly article by George Boderick, "The Horst-Wessel-Lied: A Reappraisal," International Folklore Review Vol. 10 (1995): 100-127, available online here.
| ←Wikisource:National anthems | Horst
Wessel Lied |
| 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 Nazi Party of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi
martyr. Today it is still banned in Germany under
Strafgesetzbuch §86 and §86a.
— Excerpted from Horst Wessel Lied on Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. |
Die Fahne hoch die Reihen fest geschlossen
S.A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
Die Straße frei den braunen Batallionen
Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann
Es schau'n auf's Hakenkreuz voll Hoffnung schon Millionen
Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an
Zum letzen Mal wird nun Appell geblasen
Zum Kampfe steh'n wir alle schon bereit
Bald flattern Hitler-Fahnen über allen Straßen
Die Knechtschaft dauert nur mehr kurze Zeit
Die Fahne hoch Die Reihen fest geschlossen
S.A. marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt
Kam'raden die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen
marschier'n im Geist in unsern Reihen mit
The flag held high, the ranks stand tight together,
S.A. marches on with silent forward pace.
Comrades shot by Red Front and Reaction
still march with us, their spirits in our ranks.
The street free for the brown battalions,
The street free for the Storm-Trooper.
Up at the swastika millions already look, full of hope;
The day breaks for freedom and for bread.
For the last time the call will now be blown;
For the struggle we all stand ready.
Soon will fly Hitler-flags over every street;
Slavery will last only a short time longer.
The flag held high, the ranks stand tight together,
S.A. marches on with silent forward pace.
Comrades shot by Red Front and Reaction
still march with us, their spirits in our ranks.
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