Horst Maske, during some early mask experiments
Die Maske auf!
Die Reihen dicht geschlossen!
Deutschland marschiert
Mit ruhig festem Schritt
Und die, die damals schon
Blinden Gehorsam genossen,
Marschier'n im Geist
In unser´n Reihen mit.Die Straße frei
Den Merkelbataillonen,
Die Straße frei
Dem deutschen Maskenmann!
Es schau'n auf die Raute
Voll Hoffnung schon Millionen
Der Tag für Freiheit
Der bricht nie mehr an.Zum letzten Mal
Wird zum Appell geblasen!
Mit Maske steh'n
Wir alle schon bereit.
Bald flattern Merkelfahnen
Über allen Straßen.
Die Knechtschaft dauert
Von jetzt für alle Zeit!Die Maske auf!
Horst Maske hat genossen!
In seiner Maske
gelber Schnodder klebt,
Dein gelber Rotz, Kamerad,
Ist nicht umsonst geflossen,
D'rum doppelt hoch
Die Knechtschaftsmaske hebt!
Some explanations for my English speaking friends.
I have taken the infamous Horst Wessel Song and changed the lyrics
to mock the new Corona-fascism in Germany.
Horst Wessel was a comander of the SA
(brownshirts, stormtroopers, what ever they are called in English).
He was murdered by communists in 1930 in Berlin and subsequently made into a martyr by the Nazi propaganda machine.
A sailing ship was named after him and he even got his own song.
Nowadays it is forbidden by law to sing this song in its original version in Germany,
but there is a noble tradition in Germany to change the lyrics to criticize stuff like high prizes, blind obedience etc.
Even Bert Brecht, the famous German playwright and poet used the melody and some lyrical elements of it for his "Kälbermarsch" (March of the Calves)
A symbol for victory over fascism visiting Kiel in May 2019
In the picture above you can see the US Coast Guard Ship Eagle,
the ship formerly known as "Horst Wessel"
The Americans took the "Horst Wessel" to the States after the war, renamed her "Eagle"
and she is now being used by the US Coast Guard for the training of future officers.
When the Eagle came to Kiel in May 2019, celebrating the Day of Liberation, May 8, me being interested in all things maritime visited of course and being the smart ass that I am even pointed out some terrible mistake to an American crew member.
What´s wrong in this picture?
Ok, ok the writing is small, so I´ll help you.
In the above text they are refering to Wessel as a member of the German Socialist movement, which adds insult to injury for all the Socialists who were murdered and persecuted by the Nazis. He was of course a member of the German National Socialist movement, big difference.
Since the American guy was not wearing a side arm, I said to him
"I guess for Americans this doesn´t make much difference,
you guys hate Socialists as much as National Socialists!"
And he´s like
"I guess you´re right!"
Perhaps I need a lesson here. What is the difference between socialists and national socialists which would prompt Nazis to persecute other socialists? Or was the national socialist party really just socialist in name only?
National Socialism, the German version of fascism was rightwing so against leftwingers like communists and socialists, but, as the name implies, they had some socialist, anti-capitalist, pro-working class ideas, especially in the beginning.
But in 1934, in The Night of the Long Knives, Hitler had many anti-bourgeosie radicals like Röhm (leader of the SA) arrested and executed, mainly because he was anticipating a power struggle and needed the support of the German industrialists for his plans of rearmement, and those guys were very wary of the anti-bourgeoisie rhetoric of the SA.
After Hitler had come to power in 1933, the days of clashes between the SA and communist street fighters were pretty much over, so the unruly hooligan elements in the SA started to look for new targets, like the new rich. So Hitler broke the power of the SA by executing the leaders and used the SS to do so.
Psychologically this was also a clever move, because from this day on the Germans knew if Hitler was capable to do something like this to his closest allies, members of his own party, what would he do to his enemies?
That's a bit of history that's obviously bit mentioned much outside of Germany. Even my grandmother never really talked about it. There were just hints at how scary things were getting around this time. This also makes more sense of that poem from Martin Niemöller.
Oh, wow... Thanks to this post I remembered something I was going to write about three months ago!
Believe it or not, I heard the tune of this exact song being played at a Mexican funeral! Of course I couldn't help grabbing my phone for some quick research, which revealed amazing things.
But what am I doing, spoiling all the fun? Stay tuned for the MondayMusic tradition (oh no, tomorrow? Okay, more likely TuesdayTunes if not next week) and read it in my post.
Update: I actually managed to publish it today! Here it is. Thanks for the encouragement!
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