Outrage as Pete Doherty sings Nazi anthem

[Are_grits_groceries]

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters Life!) - British rocker Pete Doherty apologized on Monday after being booed off a stage in Munich for singing the Nazi anthem "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles."

Doherty, lead singer of Babyshambles, faced boos and jeers from a crowd at a music festival in Munich on Saturday organized by Bayerischer Rundfunk radio when he sang the song that was the Nazi national anthem during the concert broadcast live.

Doherty was asked to leave the stage by a moderator and he threw the microphone at her, according to a report in the Munich TZ newspaper on Monday. Radio station BR demanded an apology.

"He was unaware of the controversy surrounding the German national anthem and he deeply apologizes if he has caused any offence," Doherty's spokeswoman said in a statement published on the website of Sky News
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE5AT4NF20091130

Uh huh...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. He's got to be quite ignorant!! nt

[Mopar151]

2. Pete Doherty is a crack smokin trainwreck of a man n/t

[Hissyspit]

3. Grace Slick did something similar when Jefferson Starship played in Germany.

It was like that episode of Fawlty Towers where Basil got conked on the head and couldn't control what he said to this German customers.

[Withywindle]

4. Well, to be fair...

'Das Deutschenlied'/Das Lied der Deutschen' (melody composed by Hadyn in 1797) IS still the national anthem of Germany. It's just that the "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles" stanza isn't usually sung any more.

The song has a really long and interesting history that predates the Nazis by centuries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandlied

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Indeed

And the part that soars into the melody for the Das Deutschlanlied is probably the only part of the German national anthem that most non-Germans recognize. It's hard not to inject "Deutschland, deutschland uber alles..." rather than "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit..." when you hear it played at the World Cup or the Olympics, just like all Americans know "O Canada!" and start humming after that.

;-)

[melm00se]

5. actions like this

make you ask yourself: "what the &^%$ was he thinking????"

that would be like eminem (sp?) coming out on stage and burning a cross and wearing the sheets

[DailyGrind51]

6. "Raise the Banner" aka "Horst Wessel Song" was the official anthem.

"Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles" was also used during the First World War.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Deutschland uber Alles (Deutschlandlied) was written in 1841 and is still part of the German Anthem

It is not a "Nazi" anthem. "Deuthschland uber Alles" does not mean "Germany over all other countries" but rather "Germany above all its 'states'" (really, principalities and regions), since the concept of a nation of Germany was newish in 1841. It is a bit like saying "Out of many, one" (E pluribus unum). It is not a Nazi anthem by any stretch of the imagination, and was actually first used as the anthem during the Weimar period.

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. A lot of people apparently

took umbrage at him singing what he did. Part of it has a negative connotation.

[hayu_lol]

10. Glad someone else made the first correction...

The Nazi anthem was the Horst Wessel Lied. Wessel was a minor and somewhat useless functionary in the Brownshirt movement. His death promulgated the composition for propaganda purposes.

[sarge43]

11. The music was written by Haydn in 1797 for the HRE Francis II

Different lyrics (God Save Francis the Emperor)and it became the official anthem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[Vinnie From Indy]

12. Sounds like the Germans expressed their opinion quite forcefully

Pete Doherty is a jackass.

[endless october]

13. i thought the Horst Wessel song was the anthem. nt