This song was written long before the American Civil War. In the Union Army between 30% and 40% of the troops were German or German descent. With hundreds of thousand of German Americans in Uniform was the song a lot? There is a tradition in American Civil War lore that thousands of Germans would reply I fit mitt Siegel. I have to beleive that this song roots run deep. Its easy to remember the last war Germany fought in. This thread has many referances to the "bad Germans" or rather how the song was coopted. Europe wants to think of iteself as a Common Market, it how has a common flag, blue with stars to represent each country, but the old feelings die hard. I went to Luxenbourg and visited both the German and American cemetaries and the starkest difference was that no German national flag was raised over the dead. Its 59 years since the end of the war and feelings die hard.

This song I have to admit reminds me of the German grandfather who came to the United States sometime before 1900. He died some years before I was born and I never knew him but I know he was proud of his homeland and he talked of his German cavlary boots.

Germany united after the Naplonic Wars and Berlin was a city that Napoleon took and marched his troops down. The Germans did not forget that. If you think all nationalism is bad then perhaps this is a song because of its military association you dont like, but in that same sprit we have our songs which come down from the same time frame and speak to us.

Old wounds die hard. On the same day as Gettysburg, Vickburg Missippi surrendered to Gen. US Grant. The people took it hard and it was not until 1942 or 1943 that people of that city celbrated the Fourth of July

wes prichard