Posted on 09/01/2024 9:07:12 AM PDT by hardspunned
Also amusing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4WwNcqrUNI
What would've followed was a nationalistic German leader who wouldn't have been so stridently anti-semitic, and could've been persuaded to become an ally of the French, British, and Polish against the Soviet onslaught.
There was already a plot by certain Generals to overthrow Hitler in 1938, but after the Munich Agreement it was called off.
He just resumes the older theories of the outbreak of that conflict. When in doubt, blame the Kraut, as a certain number of Britons say.
But Hastings is far more of a storyteller than a serious historian, and, as I said, history is written by the victors.
That is true as well.
A tyrant who survives 42 assassination attempts must have a guardian demon, yes, I am going to assume metaphysical forces at work behind the scenes.
God, why hast Thou not interceded?
De facto, it was, since every German state had its own „state song“, some of them still extant. The Wiki article on it is okay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heil_dir_im_Siegerkranz
Yet under Nazi Germany, these words came to express German superiority and domination of other countries. That was how two Europeans I knew thought of it due to living through Nazi occupation. That acquired meaning makes the traditional first stanza of the "Deutschlandlied" forbidden in polite society in Germany and throughout Europe today.
That gets me to a funny story. As a student at Tulane University in 1970s, I went with a date to see "Casablanca" at a movie house in the French Quarter. You will recall the scene where Major Strasser and a table of fellow German officers in Rick's begins to sing the "Deutschlandlied."
In response, Resistance hero Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid) starts up the band and sets the crowd signing "La Marseillaise," drowning out and humiliating the Germans. As this was happening on screen, a few seats from me and my date a small, thin elderly man in a beret stood up and joined in with a clear and rousing voice and finished by shouting "Vive La France!"
Better question to ask, is WW III Avoidable? Looks like with Democrats in charge we will be at war with The new Axis of evil by Christmas. The Big war will Change everything! rationing, the Draft, new taxes, Jobs, crack down on liberties, Propaganda everywhere. All in uniform, Flags all over. Like the overnight rise of Antisemitism, This will be as quick as Biden stepping down.
Ah, yes, you are of course correct that under the Nazis, the interpretation of the words was changed 😀
Sadly, this tainted a beautiful patriotic song, and the melody from JosephHaydn‘s „Emperor“ quartet as well.
Yes, the anthems of nations. It’s often fascinating how they change.
But in that film (I have never seen it, but I‘ve heard of this scene) the Germans sang the „Wacht am Rhein“, a quite anti French song from 1840, when President Thiers threatened to attack the German Rhineland.
Originally, they were supposed to sing the Horst Wessel song, but the filmmakers decided against it, since they would have had to pay royalties for including it. So they used a song which was in the public domain.
Btw, I personally never liked the Marseillaise particularly, although it is an utterly grandiose work of music.
To me the anti German undertones are too strong, and the first time I stood up for it was in November 2015, when it was played in Paris in remembrance of the Bataclan massacre victims.
May they all rest in peace🙏🏻
P.S. it seems to me that the March of the Volunteers, the Chinese national anthem, was somehow modeled on the Marseillaise, or am I mistaken?
Stupid question.
Yeah ya got me on the typo. LOL
But at least someone else knows who Zelazny was. I really liked his Amber series...
I think the chances of a new world war are actually receding. China’s leadership is realizing that their military buildup is less than it seems due to corruption, military inexperience, and China’s constrained geography, while Russia is exhausted and lacks the military power to finish off Ukraine. If Trump gets back in, then both China and Russia will confront an American president who knows how to both make deals and stick it to adversaries. Given the choice of a carrot or a stick, most everyone choses the carrot because an imperfect peace is better than a good war.
And, yes, you are correct in that the The Internationale was based on La Marseillaise, so the song of the French Revolution resonates in the March of the Volunteers, just as the French Revolution itself helped inspire Marx, Lenin, and Soviet and Chinese Communism.
Perhaps there is a principle of revolutions and music at work, with bad revolutions producing stirring music and good ones like the American Revolution offering more pedestrian tunes and lyrics.
In the larger view of things, we may have cause to be grateful that our anthem is based on a slap dash poem inspired by an enemy bombardment long after our Revolution and set to the tune of a drinking song. And France has suffered because her anthem is based on the doggerel song of hired killers brought to Paris from Marseilles to kill off the domestic opponents of her Revolution.
No wonder that President Mitterand, nominally a Leftist, downplayed the Revolution's bloodier aspects when France celebrated its bicentennial. Mitterand was a scoundrel in many ways but he did not want to inspire anyone to try to again upend the country that he ruled over. Some experiences are best had only once -- if at all.
PING
Hmm, I like the Star-Spangled Banner, but I was surprised to hear that it was not until 1931 that it officially became the American national anthem.
But mostly, I like the anthems of India, Bangladesh, Iceland and Hungary, as well as Switzerland, because of their spirituality.
And what a pity it is, that Finland does not have the Finlandia hymni as its official national anthem. What a gorgeous tune - but it is performed there before every concert or recital with classical music 🙂
The ill-fated African state of Biafra used the same melody for its anthem, with an English text, which I also like. „Land of the rising Sun“ was ist title.
My appreciation of music is limited to things I know and like, from classical to Motown. On principle, I like the US national anthem but I recognize its defects as a tune and equivocal lyrics.
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