The German Fatherland

WHERE is the German's Fatherland?
Is't Prussia? Swabia? Is't the strand
Where grows the vine, where flows the Rhine?
Is't where the gull skims Baltic's brine?
— No! — yet more great and far more grand
Must be the German's Fatherland!

How call they then the German's land?
Bavaria? Brunswick? Hast thou scanned
It where the Zuyder Zee extends?
Where Styrian toil the iron bends?
— No, brother, no! — thou hast not spanned
The German's genuine Fatherland I

Is then the German's Fatherland
Westphalia? Pomerania? Stand
Where Zurich's waveless water sleeps;
Where Weser winds, where Danube sweeps:
Hast found it now? — Not yet! Demand
Elsewhere the German's Fatherland!

Then say, Where lies the German's land?
How call they that unconquered land?
Is't where Tyrol's green mountains rise?
The Switzer's land I dearly prize,
By Freedom's purest breezes fanned —
But no! 'tis not the German's land!

Where, therefore, lies the German's land?
Baptize that great, that ancient land 1
'Tis surely Austria, proud and bold,
In wealth unmatched, in glory old?
O! none shall write her name on sand;
But she is not the German's land!

Say then, Where lies the German's land I
Baptize that great, that ancient land!
Is't Alsace? Or Lorraine — that gem
Wrenched from the Imperial Diadem
By wiles which princely treachery planned?
No! these are not the German's land!

Where, therefore, lies the German's land?
Name now at last that mighty land!
Where'er resounds the German tongue — •
Where German hymns to GOD are sung —
There, gallant brother, take thy stand I
That is the German's Fatherland!

That is his land, the land of lands,
Where vows bind less than clasped hands,
Where Valour lights the flashing eye,
Where Love and Truth in deep hearts lie,
And Zeal enkindles Freedom's brand, —
That is the German's Fatherland!

That is the German's Fatherland
Where Hate pursues each foreign band —
Where German is the name for friend,
Where Frenchman is the name for fiend,
And France's yoke is spurned and banned —
That is the German's Fatherland!

That is the German's Fatherland!
Great GOD! look down and bless that land!
And give her noble children souls
To cherish while Existence rolls,
And love with heart, and aid with hand,
Their Universal Fatherland!