History of Das Lied der Deutschen

Fallersleben wrote this text in a time when Germany was still a motley collection of quarreling kingdoms and principalities. He wanted to express his desire for a united, strong Germany. The line "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt" can be understood in this context as an appeal to the German sovereigns to put aside all other projects and concentrate their efforts on creating a united Germany. At Fallersleben's time, this text also had a distinctly revolutionary, liberal connotation, since the demand for a united Germany was most often uttered in connection with demands for freedom of press and other liberal rights.

After these rights had been introduced after World War I, all three stanzas became the German National Anthem in 1922. In the following years, however, the first stanza was increasingly used by nationalist parties like Hitler's NSDAP and reinterpreted to fit their ideologies. "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" accordingly was interpreted to mean "Germany should govern the world" and Fallersleben's idea of a united fatherland for all Germans was perverted into the "Heim ins Reich" initiative, which ultimately caused World War II.

In 1949, when West Germany was beginning to reconstitute itself as a new, democratic nation, it soon became apparent that all these connotations made it impossible to continue using all the stanzas. The song wasn't, however, completely rejected in memory of the democratic frame of mind it originated in, but reduced to its third stanza. The first two are not actually forbidden, but they are never sung on official occasions.