Horst-Wessel-Lied

Horst-Wessel-Lied

Composer Horst Wessel Released 1929-09-?? Title Origin Official

Horst-Wessel-Lied is German for "Horst Wessel Song". It is also sometimes referred to as "Die Fahne hoch" ("The Flag Up High"). The song was the anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 to 1945.

Wessel was murdered in February 1930, and was declared a martyr to the Nazi movement. The Horst Wessel Song was first sung publicly at his funeral and became very popular at Nazi gatherings.

This popularity ensured that the song would forever be ascribed to Wessel, however, German critics maintained that the melody of the song preexisted Wessel's publication by many years (and he is only the author of the lyrics of this song).

However, all criticism stopped on May 19, 1933, when Adolf Hitler declared Horst-Wessel-Lied to be recognized as a national symbol of Germany and the Nazi Party, and questioning of Wessel's authorship became treason.

When the Nazi regime fell in 1945, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was banned in both Germany and Austria, except for educational purposes.

Games

Wolfenstein 3D (DOS)

Wolfenstein 3D (DOS)

Arranger Bobby Prince Released 1992-05-05 Length 0:57 Format IMF

In Wolfenstein 3D (DOS), the song plays as soon as the game boots up and all through the title screen. Bobby Prince arranged the song using Sequencer Plus Gold. It is song #8 in the data files, and its IMF meta data title is "NAZI-NOR".

Wolfenstein 3D (ARCH)

Wolfenstein 3D (ARCH)

Arranger Bobby Prince Released 1994-10-?? Format IMF

In Acorn port, Wolfenstein opening theme is utilized just as it was in MS-DOS version. Due to the fact that Acorn version just emulate DOS release in many places and FM synthesis in particular, original and emulated versions don't differ a lot.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (W32)

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (W32)

Arranger Unknown Released 2001-11-19 Length 0:43 Format WAV

This music is playing from gramophones in some places of the game. This game even contains the first couplet without the refrain, thanks to the digital WAV file format. However, this variant is looping.

In-game file is placed in one of the subfolders of the game and called "cafemusic.wav".

Wolfenstein 3D (GBA)

Wolfenstein 3D (GBA)

Arranger Bobby Prince Released 2002-04-02 Length 0:56 Format GSF

Just like the others, this track is left unused in GBA version. Probably it was meant for the same place as in the MS-DOS version.

Voxelstein 3D (W32)

Voxelstein 3D (W32)

Released 2008-04-19 Length 0:57 Format IMF

In this game, Horst-Wessel-Lied is in shareware release of Wolfenstein 3D (DOS), zipped with another game files to allow the original music and sounds to be used in this homebrew game. But, since Voxelstein use only 2 tracks of 11, Searching For the Enemy and End of Level, this particular song is unused. Content and format are the same with Wolfenstein 3D (DOS).

Wolfram (W32)

Wolfram (W32)

Arranger Unknown Released 2012-06-10 Length 1:21 Format ROQ

Unlike in other versions, this one starts as OGG recording of Wolfenstein 3D (DOS) version, but then it suddenly blends into the real recording of this song (done in 1936 in the St. Thomas church in Leipzig, you can listen to it here). It include the parts of the first and the second couplets. The "blending" operation was done not very accurately, because the rhythm and tempo of these two versions differ.

This is just the sound of the opening video file called "wolfram.roq". The sound was ripped from the video as OGG.

Wolfenstein 3D (GEN)

Wolfenstein 3D (GEN)

Arranger GASEGA68K Released 2014-??-?? Length 0:56 Format VGM

Sega Genesis version sounds like DOS, but rendered on the YM2612 sound chip, which has somewhat inferior quality over the DOS version's YM3812. However, it's almost insensibly.

Other ports

Amiga, CD-32 and PC-98 ports of Wolfenstein 3D have music compressed in original Wolfenstein 3D MD-DOS version files, but those versions don't play it because they don't have proper OPL3 emulator to do it.

SNES, Web, and Jaguar versions don't have it, and 3DO and Macintosh ports feature entirely different music.

Android, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP, Dreamcast and Windows Phone versions have the same music with MS-DOS release.

See also Nazi Anthem tune, since it is just another variation of Horst-Wessel-Lied, appearing in some ports of Wolfenstein 3D.

Lyrics

Although most of the games don't feature the lyrics to this song, they do exist. Various amendments have been made to the lyrics since Horst Wessel's death, but the original lyrics are as follows:

German Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen! SA marschiert mit ruhig, festem Schritt. Kam'raden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen, Marschier'n im Geist in unser'n Reihen mit. Die Straße frei den braunen Batallionen. Die Straße frei dem Sturmabteilungsmann! Es schau'n aufs Hakenkreuz voll Hoffnung schon Millionen. Der Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an! Zum letzten Mal wird schon Appell geblasen! Zum Kampfe steh'n wir alle schon bereit! Bald flattern Hitlerfahnen über alle Straßen. Die Knechtschaft dauert nur mehr kurze Zeit! Die Fahne hoch! Die Reihen fest geschlossen! SA marschiert mit ruhig-festem Schritt. Kameraden, die Rotfront und Reaktion erschossen, Marschieren im Geist in unseren Reihen mit.

English translation The flag high! The ranks tightly closed! SA march with calm, firm steps. Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries March in spirit in our ranks. Clear the streets for the brown battalions, Clear the streets for the stormtroopers! Already millions look with hope to the swastika The day of freedom and bread is dawning! Roll call has sounded for the last time We are all already prepared for the fight! Soon Hitler's flag will fly over all streets. Our servitude will soon end! The flag high! The ranks tightly closed! SA marches with a calm, firm pace. Comrades shot by the Red Front and reactionaries March in spirit in our ranks.

Links

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst-Wessel-Lied - Wikipedia.
• youtube.com/watch?v=Mb5MjWZ7kxk - Lyrical version of the song.
• youtube.com/watch?v=gbkC7NOj0vQ - Piano arrangement.