Thanks for that.
Very few Americans understand that it was a call to consider oneself German, rather than merely Bavarian or Prussian or Hessian etc. Only Hitler perverted the understanding of it, as he did with so many other things.
Exactly, Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben was a democrat, but unfortunately also a antisemite - like so many in the 19th century. Still, his intentions when he wrote the song were nothing but good. The third stanza can´t be better: Unity and Justice and Freedom for the German Fatherland - written at a time when Unity and Justice and Freedom seemed unreachable in a country oppressed by monarchs.