A Blunder Waiting to Happen
June 14, 2005
Most Americans can reel off the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" with nary a second thought. Even cool Britons can mouth along to "God Save the Queen" or "Rule Britannia." But few Germans can recite the lyrics to "Das Deutschlandlied," much less sing it properly.
What's worse, even professional singers whose job it is to perform the anthem at special occasions and sports events can't seem to get it right, either.
The German-Italian tenor Luciano Rondine left them rolling in the aisles when he flubbed his way through the German anthem before a recent basketball championship match.
"I had a complete blackout," Rondine said after improvising lines such as "With unhappiness and refuge" when he was meant to sing "Brotherly with heart and hand."
Rondine's blunder-filled rendition came just days after German pop star Sarah Connor had a similarly humiliating experience at the opening of a new sports arena in Munich before almost 10 million television viewers.
When it came time for the line "Blossom in the glow of this happiness," the 25-year-old performer floundered and instead sang: "Brew in light of this happiness."
Connor apologized for the mix-up. But in Germany, it has only had the effect of endearing her even more to her legions of young fans, who don't know or don't care to know the words of their national anthem.
Even the federal environment minister, Jürgen Trittin, once boasted that he has never sung the national anthem and has no plans to ever sing it.
Contentious lyrics
Admittedly, the song has a thorny history. Though "Das Deutschlandlied" has been the German anthem since 1922, its first line, "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles," which translates as "Germany above everything," was given sinister meaning under the rule of Adolf Hitler. The first stanza is now outlawed in Germany.
But it seems that, 60 years after World War II, Germans still haven't warmed to "Das Deutschlandlied" -- a fact bemoaned by proponents of a national movement to boost a healthy sense of patriotism in young Germans.
They can take heart, however, in the knowledge that there will be no stumbling or fumbling for words when the anthem is sung during the Confederations Cup soccer championships which get underway in Germany on Wednesday. That's because the organizers have decided that all the anthems sung during the event will be played from recordings.