DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1922, Page 12

DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES

PRESIDENT EBERT'B READING.

; In his manifesto on the anniversary of the Republican Constitution, President Jjbert made an ingenious attempt to rehabilitate "Deutschland über :Alles," 'which the monarchists . had been trying to misappropriate .for their special party purposes, and to make it more the national hymri. of Germany. He has history at his back, for when Hoffmann van TTallersleberi returned to' Breslau in 1841 from Heligoland, where he had written . the. song, he was deprived of his university professorship by. the Reactionary Prussian Government, which would not tolerate in its service a man of the liberal and uhitarian sentiments therein expressed. The President's manifesto quotes the song's aspiration for "unity, justice, and freedom," and continues :—"ln the days of internal disruption and repression thjs triad from the poet's song gave expression to the yearning of all Germans. It shall now acqompany us on our path to a better future. His song sung'against dissension and ar.bitrariness shall not/be misused in party struggle, it shall not become the battle ■hymn of those against whom it was directed, nor shall it serve as the expression of Nationalist arrogance. But,, as once the poet, we will love 'Deutsehland übex Alles.'"

The president's interpretation • is. undoubtedly the original one, though long before the war the song had.by association assumed the' aggressive-and be'l-. licpse flavour which was never in.Hoffmann's mind. Should President Ebert succeed in cleansing it of its militaristic taint he will render Germany a very real service.;. . .