New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-01

barbarity one would have to search through
the patriotic anthology of Germany back to
the time of the Borussian Frederick the
Great and then it would be found only in
single stanza. For the opening of the cam
paign of 1857, signalized by the battle of
Prague (of blessed memory in the history Of
pianoforte literature), Johann Wilhelm Lud-
wig Glenn wrote a war song in which he
INDUCED the bloodthrsty sentiment:
Soon from thy skull, thou swarty Hun,
Well drink thy precious wine;
Such drinking cup our oriflamme,
The banner of our line.
The verses would scarcely serve German
purposes to-day though the final stanza might
not be considered inappropriate:
And if on our eighth battlefield
We face both Gaul and Russ
We shall but laugh them both to scorn,
For God e'er fights for US.
Hoffman, ron Fallersleben raised his voice
at time when the German people were long
ing for the liberty which comes with demo-
cratic institutions, and his love of country
brought him the reward which other patriotic
poets had garnered before him-Ernst Moritz
Arndt, for instance. He was suspended from
his PROFESSIONAL chair in the University of
Breslau and banished for a year from Prus-
STA. To-day his song is sung at every patr-
otto gathering of Germans, but sung to the
tune of the national anthem of a country now
an ally, but with which his own was at log
gerheads when he indited it, which was
forced out of the federation of German states
and since then has been conquered in war by
Prussia. Deutschland, Deutschland iiber AL
les" used to have tune of its own; it is now
sung to the tune of "Gott erhalte Franz den
Kaiser" 1t is a superb song thrice admira-
BILE because it sums up much of German
hope and German ambition in three words.
Little was heard of it during the war of 1870.
German feeling against France in that con-
fict found expression in ode Wacht m
Rhein"; but even that clarion call was the
product of an earlier period. 1t was written
a year before Deutschland, Deutschland
uber Allies" by Max Schneckenburger a Wur-
temberg druggist domiced in Switzerland.
An organst named Mendel set it to music,
but what that music was like has long been
forgotten. The poem, too, went into oblivion
until Carl Wilhelm composed it again and
gave it new birth in 1854. The poet had
then been dead five years, and the composer,
though he lived to enjoy large measure Of
glory when the song became national utter
ance, in 1870, did not live to enjoy it
long. The German government granted him
a pension, which he drew for two years and
then passed away. The author of the words
garnered neither honors nor money! only pos
thumous fame.
In both cases the poets wrote for another
and younger generation than their own.
Die Wacht am Rhein" was the appropriate
song for the hour in 1S70 deutschland,
Deutschland uber Allies" is the appropriate
song for the present. The Germans deserve
to be enved the possession Of such a song,
and they are entitled to still greater envy for
the marvellous thesaurus of patriotic songs
which the war for deiverance from Napoleon
brought forth. In a very large sense, indeed,
that war was won much by the pen as by
the sword; and if the pen failed TO maintain
its puissance after the victory was gained it
was because it was traitorously betrayed by
the kings and ministers of the people, who
had, indeed delivered their monarchs from
slavery but not themselves.
The golden age of German patriotic song
was the early part Of the nineteenth century,
more particularly the year 1918, the year of
triumph in the war for deiverance. The
Holy Roman Empire German nation had gone