Horst-Wessel-Lied

The Horst-Wessel-Lied (Horst Wessel Song), also known as Die Fahne hoch ("The Flag On High") from its opening line, was the anthem of the Nazi Party from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945 the Nazis made it a co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first stanza of the Deutschlandlied.

The lyrics were written in 1929 by Horst Wessel, commander of the Storm Division (SA) in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. Wessel was murdered by Albrecht Höhler, a Communist party member, in February 1930, and Joseph Goebbels made him a martyr of the Nazi movement. The song was first performed at Wessel's funeral, and was thereafter extensively used at party functions as well as being sung by the SA during street parades.

When Adolf Hitler became chancellor three years later, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was recognised as a national symbol by a law on May 19, 1933. The following year a regulation required the right arm raised in a "Hitler salute" when the (identical) first and fourth verses were sung. Nazi leaders can be seen singing the Horst-Wessel-Lied at the finale of Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 film Triumph of the Will.

With the end of the Nazi regime in May 1945, the Horst-Wessel-Lied was banned, and the lyrics and tune are now illegal in Germany and Austria except for educational purposes. In early 2011, this resulted in a Lower Saxony State Police investigation of Amazon.com and Apple Inc. for offering the song for sale on their websites. Both Apple and Amazon complied with the government's request and deleted the song from their offerings.