"We, who've been connected by blood to Prussia's throne and people since Düppel"

score:11

Accepted answer

According to the book "Before, during and after 1914" by Anton Kristen Nyström, London 1915, p.73/74, emphasis mine:

A German song-book (Liederbuch) was introduced in 1884 into Schleswig schools by an order of the Government, and it was directed that the school-children should learn at least twenty of its songs by heart. Of these twenty songs, twelve are German national or war songs, and it may be of interest to note that amongst them is the famous Preussenlied "Ich bin ein Preusse." But this historical inexactitude was not enough. The song consisted originally of five verses, but for the benefit of the Schleswigers a sixth verse, by Privy Councillor Schneider (a German immigrant), was added in 1869. This verse runs as follows :

Und wir, die wir am[sic!] Ost- und Nordensee als Wacht gestellt, gestählt von Wog und Wind, wir, die Seit[sic!] Düppel durch des Blutes Bande an Preussens Thron and Volk gekettet sind, wir woll'n nicht rückwarts schauen, nein vorwärts mit Vertrauen ! Wir rufen's laut in alle Welt hinein : "Auch wir sind Preussen, wollen Preussen sein!"

The following is a literal prose translation of this verse :

And we, posted as sentinels on Baltic and North Sea, hardened by wave and wind, we who since the Duppel fight have been tied by bonds of blood to Prussia's throne and people, we will not look back, nay, forward, and with confidence ! We cry aloud that all the world may hear : "We too are Prussians, and Prussians want to be!"

Not sure how accurate this is, but it might be a starting point for further research.

(found via google books search for "seit Düppel durch des Blutes Bande". Note that the first line, apart from slightly strange grammar, is also subtly different from the version on English wikipedia)


Addendum: The English wp article says that the seventh stanza was added by an author named "Schneider"(!) in 1851 (note the same name as in the book cited above, even though it is a common name). While the German article says the sixth stanza of the shorter German version was added by the original author, Thiersch, in 1851.

Wikipedia commons has a scan from an oldish-German songbook (part 1, part 2) which gives a rather strong impression that the text originally had five stanzas, that the stanza added in 1851 is not about Schleswig, and that that 1851 stanza was quite possibly written by Thiersch himself.

I think a plausible scenario is that English wp authors are confused because that Schleswig stanza was inserted before the last Stanza that Thiersch wrote, so that we now have two sixth stanzas (one written by Thiersch, and a different one about Schleswig).

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