I don't know the English names for "Memel" and "Belt"... The "Memel" is a river in the Baltic, "Belt" is the German expression for the part of the North Sea between Germany and Sweden.
- Memel is the same in English, or at least that's how it's named in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which I consulted. Belt doesn't seem to be mentioned there. --Dmerrill
The straits between Norway and Denmark that are approximately East-West are called "Skagerrak" in English. Where the same ocean then bends south and follows the coast of Denmark, it is called "Oresund". I'm not aware of an English name for it once one leaves the Oresund, until one reached the Gulf of Riga to the east or the Aland Sea to the north between Sweden and Finland. --
Paul Drye
Hmmm, without the music to go along with the lyrics, I may be mistaken, but isn't this song commonly referred to as "Deutschland Uber Alles" in English? I've never heard the name "Das Lied der Deutschen" before. Or are they different songs that just share those three words in their lyrics?
If it's the same song, with the name changed for obvious reasons post-WWII, that should probably be mentioned in the history of the song. A redirect might be useful too -- certainly if someone had asked me before reading this article what the German national anthem was I'd have answered "Deutschland Uber Alles"; it'd have taken me approximately 47 billion more guesses to come up with "Das Lied der Deutschen" -- Paul Drye
The song is called "Das Lied der Deutschen". The first verse starts with "Deutschland Deutschland über alles". This verse is not officially part of the anthem anymore. When Germans sing the national anthem, they only sing the third verse of the Deutschlandlied: "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit...". --AxelBoldt
Yes, I understand that. What I mean is "At some point in the past was
Das Lied der Deutschen entitled or popularly known as
Deutschland Uber Alles, or are they two different songs?" If the former, in my opinion a note about the name change is necessary. As written, the article implies that the song was called
Das Lied der Deutschen as soon as it stopped being a hymn to Emperor Franz. --
Paul Drye
This implication is correct. The three stanzas given in the main article were always called "Das Lied der Deutschen" or "das Deutschlandlied". Maybe some people colloquially refered to it as "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" when that part was still sung. There is only one song and its name has never changed.
Hm! I've learned something new today. Before this discussion I would have sworn the song was named after the first line of the original first stanza. If anyone else from the English-speaking world is reading along, is that just me, or is it a common misconception for English speakers? --
Paul Drye
Dunno, Paul -- Personally, I know I thought of it as Deutschland über Alles in a WWII sense, but only in that context. I'm not sure I ever thought it was the actual title, though...maybe because I tend to mix it up with a couple of hymns, anyway -- of course, I also want to sing O Canada to the tune of Tannenbaum! US Americans probably do think of it as DUA, though...not realizing that 'über' doesn't mean 'over', but rather 'above', in the sense of 'more than'. As my kid (raised speaking German) used to say -- i love chocolate above all candy!
JHK
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