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This concept was considered "revolutionary" at the time the words were written in 1841, since loyalty to "Germany" was considered by the princelings and kings of the disunited Reich (divided into 40-plus separate states) to be disloyalty to themselves. The music is taken from the String Quartet in C major (the Kaiser-Quartet), Op. It was officially ignored during most of the Second Reich (1871 to 1918), which had no official anthem as such. Ironically, Das Deutschlandlied did not become the official national anthem until declared so by President Ebert of the Weimar Republic in March, 1922. Banned after 1945 by the victors, the Deutschlandlied is again the German national anthem, but only the third stanza is used. |