Of course, rather innocent music can become attached to vile events. The music of Wagner and its association with Nazi Germany is a case in point. If you don't know the "association" it will not bring up feelings of dread or hate. If you do know the associations, it is a powerful cue for dread and hate.

About the Horst Wessel Leid Sean M asked, "would that song be still as abhorred if all German military references were replaced by American references?" I don't think so. The following comes from the official state song of my home State, Maryland, taken right from Maryland Statutes.

(a) The poem "Maryland! My Maryland!", which James Ryder Randall composed in 1861, and the tune of "Lauriger Horatius" are the State song.

(b) The words of the State song are:


The despot's heel is on thy shore, Maryland!
His torch is at thy temple door, Maryland!
Avenge the patriotic gore,
That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
And be the battle queen of yore, Maryland! My Maryland!

Hark to an exiled son's appeal, Maryland!
My mother State! to thee I kneel, Maryland!
For life and death, for woe and weal,
Thy peerless chivalry reveal,
And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, Maryland! My Maryland!

Thou wilt not cower in the dust, Maryland!
Thy beaming sword shall never rust, Maryland!
Remember Carroll's sacred trust,
Remember Howard's warlike thrust,--
And all thy slumberers with the just, Maryland! My Maryland!

Come! 'tis the red dawn of the day, Maryland!
Come with thy panoplied array, Maryland!
With Ringgold's spirit for the fray,
With Watson's blood at Monterrey,
With fearless Lowe and dashing May, Maryland! My Maryland!

Come! for thy shield is bright and strong, Maryland!
Come! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, Maryland!
Come to thine own heroic throng,
Stalking with Liberty along,
And chaunt thy dauntless slogan song, Maryland! My Maryland!

Dear Mother! burst the tyrant's chain, Maryland!
Virginia should not call in vain, Maryland!
She meets her sisters on the plain--,
"Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain,
That baffles minions back again, Maryland! My Maryland!

I see the blush upon thy cheek, Maryland!
For thou wast ever bravely meek, Maryland!
But lo! there surges forth a shriek,
From hill to hill, from creek to creek--
Potomac calls to Chesapeake, Maryland! My Maryland!

Thou wilt not yield the vandal toll, Maryland!
Thou wilt not crook to his control, Maryland!
Better the fire upon thee roll,
Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul, Maryland! My Maryland!

I hear the distant thunder-hum, Maryland!
The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum, Maryland!
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb--
Huzzah! she spurns the Northern scum!
She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!
Maryland! My Maryland!


This song was written at the beginning of the Civil War. It refers to one of the opening incidents of the war when Baltimore civilians (labelled a "mob") attacked Union soldiers passing through on their way to defend Washington, D. C. from the newly formed Confederacy. Maryland, as a border State and a slaveholding State, considered entering the Confederacy. Certainly, this song in its verses is as objectionable as the HWL. But nowadays, I guess most Marylanders do not give it a second thought. The curious part of it for me is that as a State song it tells little positive about the State or its history unless you are an unreconstructed Southerner!

Finally, Bseed, where in the hell did you go to school? After getting that test back I think I might have decided I was in the wrong place! Especially if I was thinking the way I think you are thinking.

Roger in Baltimore