President of ,,expellees"- ,,From the Maas to the Memel River"
BERLIN Erika Steinbach, President of the German League of Expellees, said she was in favour of restoring the former first verse of the German National Anthem. This was reported in an interview with the Prague magazine ,,Respekt".
In this verse, which begins with the words ,,Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles", Steinbach sees nothing but harmless love of homeland (Heimat). Yet it includes territorial demands ,,From the Maas to the Memel River from the Etsch (River Adige) to the Belt". Many districts from Belgium to Lithuania, from Northern Italy to Denmark are declared to be ,,German".