Die Wacht am Rhein
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 41 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
There is an historical irony in that “song duel” between the French and the Germans. La Marseillaise was written by French soldiers preparing to defend against a feared German invasion across the Rhine in the 1790s, while Die Wacht am Rhein was written by German university students fearing a French invasion in the 1840s. France long had its own “Drang each Often” to annex all territory west fo the Rhine, much of it originally German-speaking. Even if we agree the sides were in no way moral equals, rivalry was well mixed in with righteousness in both world wars.
“Drang nach Osten”. Pardon.