Text and note sheet for "Song of the Germans"

Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874), a poet of revolutionary verses, was dismissed from his German studies professorship in 1842 as "danger to the state." His "Song of the Germans" of 1841 with the political demands for "Unity and Law and Freedom" was declared the national anthem of the Weimar Republic in 1922. The National Socialists raised "Germany over everything" and trampled on "law and freedom". Since 1952 the third verse of the 'Deutschlandlied' is sung in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1991 it was adopted as a hymn for the reunited Germany. With its alternating and contradictory history, the object symbolizes the collection idea of the DHM: depicting German history with its fractures, distortions and effects.