Aelianus’ enumeration of British ‘values’ as embodied in the national anthem and the following discussion about some offending non-official verses of the same brought back to my mind the laughable situation of having a national anthem of which only one of originally three verses can be sung at all. Given that I grew up in a country where the anthem very soon was played without any text at all (the words ‘einig Vaterland’ didn’t quite fit to the political aims at the time), it may yet be regarded as a progress.
The real problem, however, was exemplified just a little later at Mass, where the feasts of St. Lioba and St. Michael led to bidding prayers with the words ‘fatherland’ and ‘German people’ being mentioned. Is it normal that these give you a real start and make you, for one moment, suspect the priest who said them of right wing nationalist tendencies?
September 29, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I love the verse about German Trauen, Frauen, Wein und Sang. Couldn’t that be brought back at least?
October 1, 2007 at 9:42 am
Or the other words?
http://schwarzgelbesforum.monarchisten.org/Kaiserhymne/kaiserhymne.html
though I suppose it’s not very German.
Would prayers for the fatherland in English have the same effect? When I hear a sermon about the Fatherland in Polish, I roll my eyes and slump in the pew like most disaffected of neds; likewise with sermons about sex, drugs and young people. When I hear one of these in an English-speaking parish …. I will be very surprised! (pleasantly)
October 1, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I respectfully and tentatively wonder if German national identity isn’t too bound up in worrying whether others are right-wing nationalist weirdos? I speak as one who was once chastized by a German priest who suggested I was betraying my country by showing my support for the DFB by wearing a stick-on tattoo of the German flag. When you consider how miserable a soccer nation Canada is, that was rather funny. I fear that the only people who can loudly and unselfconsciously love Germany are, in fact, foreigners like me.
I would love a sermon about sex, drugs and young people! Perhaps English-speaking priests intuit that though, and thus keep to less spicy topics. I did once hear a Canadian priest bash rock’n'roll. Finally!