Should Germany be forced to change its national anthem? - Page 3

DinoDoc · July 1, 2002, 15:11

Quote:

Originally posted by Wernazuma III
Britain's "knavish tricks" to "confuse their politics"...

I don't think that Britian has a national anthem.

Wernazuma III · July 1, 2002, 17:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
18th Century, Wernazuma. Hadyn wrote it in the late 1700s. And it wasn't meant as an Austrian tune, it was meant for the German people as a whole. Since Germany is now the standard-bearer of the Germans (and many Austrians will bristle at being associated with Germans), I think their use of the melody is perfectly fine.

But it wasn't the anthem before "Kaiser Franz", 19th century. And if you listen to the text, it becomes clear that it's been pretty much a "Habsburg anthem", so I consider itT more Austrian than German. The tune was both Austrian and German anthem until 1938.

BTW, I'm Austrian

Alexander's Horse · July 1, 2002, 18:17

Quote:

Originally posted by Sava
You'd think after two world wars that we'd know better than to want to go to war with Germany. I mean, come on, lets invade a country with good looking women.

I wouldn't consider starting a war with them again until their women start shaving their legs and arm pits

markusf · July 1, 2002, 18:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I can't believe that Germany has "Deutchland Uber Alles" as its national anthem. Every time I hear it I'm reminded of the 2 World Wars and sickened by that militaristic tune.

You don't even know what "Deutchland Uber Alles" means. When it was written people where putting their local fueding states interests before the nations. IF translated correctly with its meaning, it would be something like, "Your first loyalty is to germany"

Alexander's Horse · July 1, 2002, 18:36

Bananarama had some great songs that could easily be adapted to make a new German national anthem, like:

He used to be a shy nazi
Until I made him my nazi.

I never missed a heart beat
sitting in the tank's seat.

Victor Galis · July 1, 2002, 18:37

Nah... I suggest:

Mei Lederhos'n Tausch I net

Sung by a Bavarian though.

markusf · July 1, 2002, 18:44

Austrialia should adopt some prison song for its anthem.

Victor Galis · July 1, 2002, 18:45

Nah, Waltzing Matilda would do.

Sikander · July 1, 2002, 20:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Sava
You'd think after two world wars that we'd know better than to want to go to war with Germany. I mean, come on, lets invade a country with good looking women. But I guess that's mean. German women need "liberating" too I guess.

I thought the women of Germany were the best looking women in the European countries I have visited. A couple of my friends agree, though there are some that prefer Dutch, Italian, etc. There is a fairly large consensus that the ugliest women in Europe are English women. As always there are thankfully plenty of exceptions.

Sikander · July 1, 2002, 20:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Roland
The yanks can have the first verse. If you could handle the Umlaut in "ueber".

We would have to have the song re-worked by one of our renown Rap Artists. We'd then have to change the name to "Uber-Dubbing Over Alles".

ThePantaloonDog · July 1, 2002, 20:58

While we're at it we can change our anthem. No on can sing it and its an old English drinking song.

We should also change the German language. It has to be the most militaristic sounding language on the planet.

Alexander's Horse · July 1, 2002, 21:00

Quote:

Originally posted by ThePantaloonDog

We should also change the German language. It has to be the most militaristic sounding language on the planet.

Wasn't it banned after World War II?

Boris Godunov · July 1, 2002, 21:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse

I wouldn't consider starting a war with them again until their women start shaving their legs and arm pits

You're confusing the German women with the French women, you silly git.

Boris Godunov · July 1, 2002, 21:11

Quote:

Originally posted by markusf
Austrialia should adopt some prison song for its anthem.

Don't forget to throw in a few about slaughtering the Aboriginees!

Boris Godunov · July 1, 2002, 21:14

Quote:

[SIZE=1] Originally posted by
We should also change the German language. It has to be the most militaristic sounding language on the planet.

Stereotype. Depends on the speaker. I had a German friend in college who sounded beautiful when he spoke in German.

And to non-speakers, I've been told English can sound pretty awful as well.

Russian can be far more atrocious to the ears, as can the Indian languages and Chinese.

Sikander · July 1, 2002, 21:43

The worst sounding languages to western ears are the tonal languages like (the many dialects of) Chinese, Vietnamese etc. This is because we are used to using the tones in our sentences to signal such things as whether or not the sentence is a question (rising tones) or a statement (even or falling tones), as well as signalling the emotional state of the speaker to an extent. Our next door neighbors when I was 6-8 spoke Cantonese at home, though we kids all spoke English when we played. I always thought their mother was mad at them, because her speech was regularly peppered with falling tones, which made her sound mad to an English speaker. Western languages are closely related enough that we don't tend to have this communication problem with each other.

As for Russian and German being militaristic gruff sounding languages, that's just an indication that you have heard more TV and Movie German and Russian than IRL. I grew up during the Cold War when the only people I heard speaking Russian were Brezhnev and Company. As for German, I probably saw 100 hours of Nazis on TV for every hour I heard real people speak the language. I learned Russian in the Army, and was truly surprised that it sounded so civilized (especially when that 6 foot tall blonde woman from Leningrad spoke it!), almost like Italian. I went to Germany for a while to work, and I found that not only was German not a completely gutteral and cruel language, but could sound very sweet indeed. I almost fell in love with the disembodied girl who robotically announced the stops on the streetcar.

Boris Godunov · July 1, 2002, 22:05

As I said, depends on the speaker! What you hear in the movies is meant to be harsh sounding.

markusf · July 2, 2002, 00:48

Just look at musical history to see german.

High german is brutal but its not as if anyone speaks it anymore..

The Vagabond · July 2, 2002, 01:32

I hope we can all agree that the best sounding language is French.

British English is close second.

As for German, it sounds awful indeed.

Adalbertus · July 2, 2002, 02:13

Quote:

I hope we can all agree that the best sounding language is French.

No.

The German of the real-life nazi was meant to sound militaristic. And it does so, also for German ears.

Bereta_Eder · July 2, 2002, 02:18

german does sound awful. it is a very heavy language. barbaric.
but it is only a matter of aesthetics

french sounds ok but it is too "toned down" if you know what i'm saying

my preffered foreign language though it' got to be italian i just love the way it sounds

it has a sort of playful tone in it, it is melodic to hear (although not as much as greek IMO) and i also had things going with italian girls but that IN NO WAY influenced my objective criteria.

markusf · July 2, 2002, 02:19

Quote:

Originally posted by The Vagabond
I hope we can all agree that the best sounding language is French.

British English is close second.

As for German, it sounds awful indeed.

English is the worst language, its just a mix of all others.
I think german is one of the best sounding ones, just look at clasical music. As for french it shares many words with german and is on the same language tree.

Alexander's Horse · July 2, 2002, 02:27

I'm starting to feel bad about picking on the Germans now

Actually German is a very beautiful language and not harsh to the ear as it is spoken day to day.

Now Dutch, cripes, sounds like they all have bronchitus

Roland · July 2, 2002, 03:11

Apart from the choaking nazis in movies, the way german is spoken varies a lot by region. In part it depends on the lingual substrate - for example, the devision line between celtic and raetian went straight through the state of Salzburg. Which makes the raetian side spoken harder, with sounds like "krr" (lot more exteme in the Tyrol), while on the celtic side p=b, d=t, k=g etc.

The Mad Monk · July 2, 2002, 03:35

Back to the topic for a second:

Protestant churches in the United States have a hymn using the same tune as Deutchland Uber Alles. The first line is, "Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion city of our God".

Victor Galis · July 2, 2002, 04:21

Quote:

Now Dutch, cripes, sounds like they all have bronchitus

-That's because Dutch is more of a throat condition than a language.

BeBro · July 2, 2002, 06:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I'm starting to feel bad about picking on the Germans now

Don´t worry, it´s very entertaining