Joerg, Edi,
I share many of your feelings (that's why I am here and not at a site about German folk songs). Yes, the song is played mostly at funerals of people who were connected to the military (or at least uniforms), yes, if you hear it now you might be safe to bet that the singer is right of the middle of the political spectrum, yes, it has been misused by the Nazis, and all that, but...
I like it a lot. It is in my opinion a very powerful song, able to evoke feelings, a good fit of words and tune. I try to see the song in the context of the time in which it was written. And I consider it one of the best songs from that time, very few years before all the Plains of Waterloo songs, e.g.

Wolfgang