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Heil dir im Siegerkranz

Prussian and German patriotic song

Field	Value
title	Heil dir im Siegerkranz
english_title	'Hail to Thee in the Victor's Crown'
image	Heil dir im Siegerkranz (ca 1900).jpg
caption	Postcard
prefix	Former national
country	the German Empire
author	Heinrich Harries
lyrics_date	1790
composer	"God Save the King"
adopted	1795 (by Prussia)
1871 (by Germany)
until	1918
successor	"Das Lied der Deutschen"
sound	Heil Dir Im Siegerkranz (old recording).ogg
sound_title	Old vocal recording in A major

Former royal anthem of Prussia 1871 (by Germany)

"Heil dir im Siegerkranz" (; ) was the imperial anthem of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, and previously the royal anthem of Prussia from 1795 to 1918.

Before the foundation of the Empire in 1871, it had been the royal anthem of Prussia since 1795 and remained as the royal anthem after 1871. The melody of the hymn derived from the British anthem "God Save the King". For these reasons, the song failed to become popular within all of Germany. Not only did it fail to win the support of most German nationalists, but it also was never recognized by the southern German states, such as Bavaria or Württemberg. At the near end of World War I, the German Empire was overthrown and "Das Lied der Deutschen" was adopted as the national anthem of its successor, the Weimar Republic.

It is often considered the official national anthem of the German Empire. However the German Empire never had an official anthem like the Weimar Republic or the Federal Republic of Germany (Lied der Deutschen). Together with "Die Wacht am Rhein" both songs had the status of unofficial national anthems.

Lyrics

Heinrich Harries wrote the lyrics in 1790 in honour of King Christian VII of Denmark, and the line "Heil, Kaiser, dir" originally read "Heil, Christian, dir". In 1793, Harries' text was adapted by (1755–1805) for use in Prussia. Schumacher shortened Harries' text and replaced the word Christian with König (king). After the proclamation of the German Empire, the word König was replaced by Kaiser (emperor).

German original	IPA transcription	English translation
{{lang	de	italic=no	Heil dir im Siegerkranz,	{{IPA	wrap=none	[haɪl diːɐ ˀɪm ˈziː.ɡɐ.ˌkʁant͡s ]	Hail to thee in victor's wreath,

Kaiser Wilhelm in the lyrics originally referred to William I who reigned until 1888. His son, Frederick III, who reigned for only 99 days, was succeeded by Wilhelm II. One of the jokes at the time was that the song's title is changed to "Heil Dir im Sonderzug" ("Hail to Thee in Thy Royal Train"), owing to Wilhelm II's frequent travels. After the beginning of World War I in 1914, Hugo Kaun set the text of the anthem to new music to remove the similarity to "God Save the King".

Other hymns

"Die Wacht am Rhein" ("The Watch on the Rhine") was also a patriotic hymn so popular that it was often regarded as an unofficial national anthem.

In the Kingdom of Bavaria, the official hymn was "Bayerische Königshymne" ("Heil unserm König, Heil!"), also sung to the melody of "God Save the King". Likewise, Liechtenstein has "Oben am jungen Rhein" (1920), sung to the same melody.

The Hawaiian anthem "Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī", composed by the Prussian Kapellmeister Henri Berger, is a variation of the melody.

Notes

References

Notes

Sources

References

Fehrenbach, Elisabeth. ''Politischer Umbruch und gesellschaftliche Bewegung: ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Geschichte Frankreichs und Deutschlands im 19. Jahrhundert''. Oldenburg, 1997. p. 312.
{{ill. Wilhelm von Sternburg. de
"Germany (1871-1918) – nationalanthems.info".
"National anthem".
{{IMSLP. Heil dir im Siegerkranz (Kaun, Hugo)
Reichel, Peter. ''Schwarz-Rot-Gold: Kleine Geschichte deutscher Nationalsymbole nach 1945''. C. H. Beck: Munich, 2005. p. 35.
"Hawaiʻi ponoʻī".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

historical-national-anthems royal-anthems german-anthems german-empire german-patriotic-songs songs-in-german cultural-depictions-of-christian-vii-of-denmark god-save-the-king

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