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Historical background:

Joseph Haydn wrote this beautiful piece of music in 1797.
He first set it to the poem "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" by Lorenz Leopold Haschka.
Soon after he used it as the musical basis for the second movement of his String Quartet Opus 76 No. 2 (Poco adagio cantabile).

In 1841 August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote a new text while vacationing on the North Sea island of Helgoland. In it, he called for prioritizing a united and free Germany over the sometimes conflicting interests of numerous small states.

In 1922, during the Weimar Republic, Haydn's tune combined with von Fallersleben's lyrics became the National Anthem of Germany, as declared by Germany's first President Friedrich Ebert, a Social Democrat.

In 1952, during the first years of the fledgling Federal Republic of Germany, President Theodor Heuss accepted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's written request to make the piece the official National Anthem again.
It was decided that the third verse, starting with "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (Unity and Justice and Freedom), would be sung at official occasions.
Sometimes, the anthem is played instrumentally.

In November 1991, little over a year after German Reunification, President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed in a written exchange that Haydn's tune and the third verse of von Fallersleben's lyrics alone would constitute the anthem of the newly unified republic.

Haydn's tune is also used for the church hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" with lyrics by John Newton, first published in Olney Hymns Hymnal in 1779 (AUSTRIAN HYMN).

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A note from Christoph:

I recorded this piece in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of German Reunification on October 3, 2020.

It is also favorite tune sung in service (AUSTRIAN HYMN), often to John Newton's words ("Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken").

Thanks to Kaspar Abbo for recording and to Marc Doten for filming it.

In this video, I decided to provide an illustration of my beautiful birth country with pictures of rivers in Germany and the oceans some of them flow into.
They are: Isar, Donau, Neckar and Rhein (the Neckar flows into the Rhine in my hometown of Mannheim), Oder, Spree, Weser, Elbe, Baltic Sea (Ostsee) and North Sea (Nordsee).

When the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989, I was in Boston, Massachusetts, for studies in Songwriting and other subjects at Berklee College of Music.
When German Unity was established on October 3 of 1990, I had recently moved to Los Angeles, California, to start my musical career there.
On both occasions I was very happy for my Mutterland, if just a bit sad also for not being able to be present there for the celebrations.
I'm very appreciative of having grown up in a great country such as Germany and for having grown up a bit more in a great country such as the United States of America. It makes a good combination.

Loving one's country (or in my case: countries) is a natural and healthy thing, just as long as it's not at the expense of all the other great countries on Planet Earth. There are no limitations on love.

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