"Die Wacht am Rhein" (English: The Watch/Guard on the Rhine) is a German patriotic anthem. The song's origins are rooted in the historical French–German enmity, and it was particularly popular in Germany during the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War.
Contents |
In the Rhine Crisis of 1840, French prime minister Adolphe Thiers advanced the claim that the Upper and Middle Rhine River should serve as his country's "natural eastern border". The member states of the German Confederation feared that France was planning to annex the left bank of the Rhine, as it had sought to do under King Louis XIV, and had temporarily accomplished during the Napoleonic Wars and the implementation of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806–1813. In the two centuries from the Thirty Years' War to the final defeat of Napoleon, the German inhabitants of these lands suffered from repeated major and minor French invasions.
Nikolaus Becker answered to these events by writing a poem called "Rheinlied", in which he swore to defend the Rhine. The Swabian merchant Max Schneckenburger, inspired by the German praise and French opposition this received, then wrote the poem "Die Wacht am Rhein".
In the poem, with five original stanzas, a "thunderous call" is made for all Germans to rush and defend the German Rhine, to ensure that "no enemy sets his foot on the shore of the Rhine" (4th stanza). Two stanzas with a more specific text were added by others later. Unlike the older "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" which praised a monarch, "Die Wacht am Rhein" and other songs written in this period, such as the "Deutschlandlied" (Germany's current national anthem) and "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?" (What is the German's Fatherland?) by Ernst Moritz Arndt, called for Germans to unite, to put aside sectionalism and the rivalries of the various German kingdoms and principalities, to establish a unified German state, (not least) in order to be able to defend Germany.
Author Max Schneckenburger worked in Switzerland, and his poem was first set to music in Bern by Swiss organist J. Mendel, and performed by tenor Adolph Methfessel for the Prussian ambassador, von Bunsen. This first version did not become very popular. Schneckenburger died in 1849 and never heard the more famous tune. When Karl Wilhelm, musical director of the city of Krefeld, received the poem in 1854, he wrote a version of his own and performed it with his men's choir on June 11, the day of the silver anniversary of the marriage of Prinz Wilhelm von Preussen, who would later become German Emperor Wilhelm I. This version was spread in song festivals.
The following is the complete text of the original five verses of the "Die Wacht am Rhein", plus additions:
| German lyrics | Approximate translation | Verse translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1st stanza | ||
|
Es braust ein Ruf wie Donnerhall, |
A call roars like thunderbolt, |
The cry resounds like thunder's peal, |
| Refrain | ||
|
Dear fatherland, put your mind at rest, |
Dear fatherland, no fear be thine, |
| 2nd stanza | ||
|
Durch Hunderttausend zuckt es schnell, |
Through hundreds of thousands it quickly twitches, |
They stand, a hundred thousand strong, |
| 3rd stanza | ||
|
Er blickt hinauf in Himmelsau'n, |
He looks up to the meadows of heaven, |
He casts his eyes to heaven's blue, |
| 4th stanza | ||
|
Solang ein Tropfen Blut noch glüht, |
As long as a drop of blood still glows, |
While still remains one breath of life, |
| Additional stanza inserted between 4th and 5th (Also sometimes inserted between the 3rd and 4th stanza) | ||
|
Und ob mein Herz im Tode bricht, |
And even if my heart breaks in death, |
Should my heart not survive this stand, |
| 5th stanza | ||
|
Der Schwur erschallt, die Woge rinnt |
The oath rings out, the billow runs |
The oath resounds, on rolls the wave, |
| Additional 7th stanza on war postcards of the First World War | ||
|
So führe uns, du bist bewährt; |
So lead us, you are approved; |
So lead us with your tried command, |
During the Vormärz era and the Revolutions of 1848, a Rhine romanticism movement arose, stressing the cultural and historical significance of the Rhine Gorge and the German territories on the river's left bank around the cities of Cologne, Worms, Trier and Speyer.
In response to the Ems Dispatch incident, which occurred in Bad Ems, not far from the Rhine, France initiated the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. When in the aftermath of the subsequent French defeat the Prussian prime minister Otto von Bismarck achieved the Unification of Germany and the German Empire including Alsace-Lorraine was established, "Die Wacht am Rhein" beside "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" was the—unofficial—second national anthem . The song became famous, and both the composer and the family of the author were honoured, and granted an annual pension by Bismarck.
The song's lyrics also appear on the 1883 Niederwalddenkmal monument located just outside of Rüdesheim am Rhein high above the river, epitomising the "guard on the Rhine" itself.
From World War I through 1945 the "Watch on the Rhine" was one of the most popular songs in Germany, again rivaling the "Deutschlandlied" as the de-facto national anthem. In World War II the daily Wehrmachtbericht radio report began with the tune, until it was replaced by the fanfare from Liszt's Les préludes in 1941. The song's title was also used as the codename for the German offensive in 1944 known today as the Battle of the Bulge.
Today, the lands along the left bank of the Rhine between Switzerland and the Netherlands are mainly part of Germany. The Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia are German federal states; Alsace and northern Lorraine are parts of France with a German cultural element to them. The so-called German-French hereditary enmity was ended in 1963 with the Elysée Treaty and the implementation of the Franco–German friendship, so that the danger of an invasion that loomed for centuries over both nations no longer exists. Today, the song has only historical significance in Germany and is rarely sung or played. However, singer Heino has performed it on a record.
The expression Er/sie hat einen Ruf wie Donnerhall is used for describing someone who has a very strong, intimidating reputation.
The song has figured in stage works and motion pictures.
The tune is quoted near the end of César Cui's opera Mademoiselle Fifi (composed 1902-1903), set in France during the Franco-Prussian War.
In Louis Milestone's 1930 film All Quiet on the Western Front, the song is played at the end of the first scene as schoolboys, whipped into a patriotic frenzy by their instructor, abandon their studies and head off to enlist in the military.
In Jean Renoir's 1937 film La Grande Illusion, two songs were juxtaposed in exactly the same way as in Casablanca five years later. In the latter movie, "Die Wacht am Rhein" was sung by German soldiers, who then were drowned out by exiled French singing the "Marseillaise" (which began as the "War Song for the Army of the Rhine", written and composed at the Rhine). Originally the "Horst-Wessel-Lied" was slated to be used in the scene as the German song, since it was at that time part of the de facto national anthem of Nazi Germany. However, the producers realized that the "Horst Wessel Lied" was copyrighted. While that would not have been a problem in the United States, the UK or other Allied nations, a copyright dispute would have hurt or prevented showings in neutral nations which still honored German copyrights. Thus, the producers of Casablanca chose "Die Wacht am Rhein".
The song provides the title for Lillian Hellman's cautionary pre-World War II play Watch on the Rhine and derivative works.
In the first and second part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1980 epic film adaptation of Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz, Franz Biberkopf starts singing the song (as in the novel).
The title of John Ringo's Science Fiction novel "Watch on the Rhine" is derived from the song (the book's plot deals with human-eating alien hordes landing in France and then advancing towards Germany, which must quite literally try to maintain a Watch on the Rhine).
The tune for the alma mater of Yale University, "Bright College Years",[3] was taken from Carl Wilhelm's "Die Wacht am Rhein". New lyrics to the "splendid tune" were written by Henry Durand in 1881.[4]
The tune is also used by School Of The Holy Spirit Of Quezon City (Philippines) for their Alma Mater Song, "SHS Hymn". The tune was also used by Hotchkiss School for their hymn "Fair Hotchkiss". The tune is also used by Doshisha University for its school song, "Doshisha College Song".[5]
![[1]](http://research.yale.edu/gleeclub/legacy/images/bcy.gif){kind=link}