UEBER ODER UBER?
Regarding Howard Decker’s comments in Calendar Letters (Sept. 22):
The beginning words of the old German “Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles” anthem, written many decades before Hitler was even born, still mean the “German Anthem” for me and remind me of the glorious, classic past of Germany. The new beginning words after the recent past (“Unity and Right and Freedom”) were a fitting compromise that solved the dilemma of a “German Anthem” for West and East Germany when they became politically as different from one another as America and Russia.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Oct. 13, 1985 IMPERFECTIONS
Los Angeles Times Sunday October 13, 1985 Home Edition Calendar Page 91 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 25 words Type of Material: Correction
Reader Howard Decker of Los Angeles was chagrined to note that an Oct. 6 letter referring to his letter of Sept. 22 was actually in reference to one written by Markus Gallmann.
Incidentally, the old words were always given a different meaning by Germany’s enemies for spurious propaganda purposes. They did not mean “over everybody in the world” ( ueber alle ), but “above everything in the world” ( ueber alle s) and expressed the usual patriotic feeling of all anthems.
LEE ELLERBROCK
Covina
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