What do you think of a repurposed Horst wessel song?

[ADFSDF1996]

The “Horst Wessel lied” or Horst Wessel song was the official Nazi party anthem, it has three stanzas which sing about the Nazi rise to power. It was also parodied by opponents of the Nazi regime and was also adopted by other fascist countries and political movements like the British Black shirts, the Spanish Falange and the Nationalist front of Mexico all of which added their own lyrics to the melody.

Most recently the melody was adopted by the Chilean army as a repurposed apolitical military march called Himno de la agrupacion.

I personally don’t have a problem with the melody being repurposed as the melody is just music which can hold many different meanings depending on the lyrics and who is using the melody. Not to mention that the melody actually predates the Nazi regime despite the Nazis trying to credit Horst wessel as the Composer when he only wrote the lyrics and possibly tweaked the melody a bit.

Let’s not forget that Russia still uses the melody of the Soviet anthem as their national anthem, although it’s been repurposed to be their official anthem now with patriotic lyrics which now include a reference to God.

I’m not a Nazi by the way.🙄

I don’t have any issue with the melody being repurposed

But but the Nazis used the song!!!

Updates

1 y

Japanese Horst wessel
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R4skMZA3GFw

[Curmudgeon]

"despite the Nazis trying to credit Horst Wessel as the Composer when he only wrote the lyrics and possibly tweaked the melody a bit."

Wait - I thought Horst Wessel was a martyr to their cause, murdered by the Communists, and not the composer at all?

By the way, if you have not caught it on Netflix, check out "Babylon Berlin". It's dubbed over rather than subtitled, so the German actors speaking out of sync with English might throw you for a loop a bit (a non-Asian movie doing this? Novel! :D )

What impressed me about the historical drama series was how they honestly and accurately depicted how much the Red Communists did to destroy and undermine the already fragile Weimar Republic, to the point that otherwise decent people even began to see the NSDAP (yes, those Nazi guys) as saviors, as the traditional Christian Conservative and Social Democrat parties were sidelined as impotent, as if the raw deal at Versailles the German people received was not bad enough:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/R8lBq8A7ER8

[NamerOfStars]

The Nazis were bad (who says I'm unafraid to make controversial statements?). But Nazism is an ideology, not a disease; it's not contagious. They didn't corrupt everything they touched. Hell, they made a big fuss of the music of Beethoven, who would've righteously kicked their asses for daring to associate themselves with him, vehement liberal that he was.

Look, any society that values free expression should WELCOME the adoption of an ideology it finds abhorrent. If the idea is bad, drag it out into the daylight, expose its weaknesses, and show how yours is superior. Trying to censor it just shows you lack faith in your own ideas; that you don't think they can stand up to the light of scrutiny. It's why, here in the US, we still allow the flying of Confederate flags. It's why the authoritarian push towards "hate speech" laws is facing such brutal opposition.

[Mia-Wallace]

I think Erika has a dozen versions too.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qEEqjt6G0ME

[TwinTonyz]

I was gonna mention that Erika is unfortunately catchy a tune.

[TheOracle10]

@TwinTonyz what is so unfortunate about it.

[cth96190]

Here is another version, from the British Union of Fascists.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BTPKhXs3etI

Here is a video that will shock many young Americans, who have not been told that the USA had a large National Socialist organisation during the 1930s.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZDy05QotN_g

[anylolone]

My opinion is "well, that was lazy".
But then, original music is just better repurposed material.

[White_Boy_506]

With the context you gave, I don’t see an issue. If it predates Hitler where’s the harm?

[ADFSDF1996]

Even if a song originated in Nazi Germany, it doesn’t mean that the song is a “Nazi song”.