''Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland'' is a German nationalist song by Ernst Moritz Arndt (1813) which was popular in the 19th century. Berlin

History

In the text, Arndt asks the German question and answers it by demanding a Greater German

nation-state A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may inc ...

comprising all

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

-speaking areas in Europe. The song was performed for the first time in Berlin in 1814. As the original tune did not become popular,

Gustav Reichardt Gustav Reichardt, also ''Heinrich Wilhelm Ludwig Gustav Reichardt'' (13 November 1797 – 18 October 1884), was a 19th-century German music teacher and composer. Life and work Gustav Reichardt was born in Schmarsow. He received his first mu ...

wrote a new melody in 1825. This new tune made the song very popular among the German population that desired the transformation of the German Confederation into a united empire, instead of the previous situation where there were multiple

duchies A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a medieval country, territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important difference between " ...

Joachim Raff Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitme ...

used Reichhardt's tune as a

leitmotif A leitmotif or leitmotiv () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is an anglici ...

in his symphony ''An das Vaterland''. In 1911, Emil Sembritzki, wrote a song known as "Was ist des Deutschen Tochterland?", which used the 1825 tune and embraced German colonialism.

Lyrics

Arndt enumerates German states and regions and asks whether these particular areas are the fatherland of all Germans. He immediately replies with ″no″ and finally concludes that no particular state or states can be the German fatherland, which is understood to be the entirety of predominantly German-speaking areas.

References

External links

''Des Deutschen Vaterland''
on YouTube *
Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland (Detailed with translation and map)
' on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Deutschen Vaterland, Des German patriotic songs German music German culture German nationalism Songs about Germany 19th-century songs Year of song unknown