Horst Wessel Lied
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The Horst Wessel Lied, also known as Die Fahne Hoch (The flag on high) (from its opening line) was the anthem of the Nazi Party of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi martyr. It is banned in Germany under Criminal Code §86 and §86a (http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/StGB.htm#86).
The tune was parodied in the Disney animated short Der Fuehrer's Face in 1943. The melody has also been used as the theme music to the popular computer game Wolfenstein 3D in the early 1990s.
In 2005, the Alberta branch of the Royal Canadian Legion accidentally used the Horst Wessel Lied as the theme music in an advertising campaign for their fundraising lottery.
Melody
Because the melody was used in many other songs, its origin is widely disputed, but it is believed that it originally came from Etienne Méhul's opera Joseph from 1807. Others said that it was also connected with the melody of the song "How Great Thou Art" since the 1990's.
Another of those theories says that the melody was from an old sailor song called "Zum letzten Mal wird der Appell geblasen".
Related articles
External links
- Lyrics
- Midi file (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/%27%27Die_Fahne_Hoch%27%27.mid)
- Das Horst-Wessel-Lied - A Reappraisal (http://www.george-broderick.de/ns_docs/ns-horst_wessel_lied.doc) (in Microsoft Word DOC format)de:Horst-Wessel-Lied