Wacht am Rhein

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yeah, Kaiser Bill had just finished making a warlike noise in Morocco.  A
few years earlier he'd already instructed his soldiers, on their way to
China, to emulate "the Huns."  Rebranding after that became impossible.

(Quotation marks mean that's what he said, not that "Hun" is offensive to
Huns, who may still pose a hidden, long-term threat to all you hold dear:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2005/04/13/1344048.htm?site=news).
JL
On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 12:32 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Wacht am Rhein
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If 1905, what Anglo-German wartime?  (Not even the Boer Wars, as I
> have researched, and which were not really with the Germans and were
> far from the Rhine.)
>
> Wikipdeia calls "Die Wacht am Rhein' "a German 1841 poem and 1854
> song" and says it "is a German patriotic anthem. The song's origins
> are rooted in historical conflicts with France, and it was
> particularly popular in Germany during the Franco-Prussian War and
> the First World War."  But the Franco-Prussian War (my research tells
> me) was 1870-1871, and did not involve Anglos.  And the First World
> War didn't start until 1914.
>
> Is the 1905 date correct?
>
> Joel
>
> At 10/24/2010 07:39 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >Wallace Irwin, for
> >example, in his "A Few Words from Wilhelm" (1905), p.43 :
> >
> >Hi-lee, hi-lo, der vinds dey plow,
> >Choost like der Wacht am Rhein;
> >Und vat iss mein pelongs to Me
> >Und vat iss yours iss mein!
> >
> >I love the interlingual wordplay and the subtle political humor in this
> >eerie adumbration (ten years before the Lusitania!)  of rabid wartime
> >anti-Germanism.
>
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