Criticisms
Despite the text and tune of the song being remarkably peaceful compared to many other national anthems, the song has frequently been criticised for its generally nationalist theme, the geographic definition of Germany given in the first stanza, and the somewhat male chauvinist attitude in the second stanza. An early critic was Friedrich Nietzsche, who called the grandiose claim in the first stanza ("Deutschland über alles") "die blödsinnigste Parole der Welt" ("the stupidest phrase in the world").
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