On 12 Jun 2001, at 22:19, lumby@air.on.ca wrote: > The Horst Wessel Lied minus the words, is a > very impressive marching song and hymn.. Of course you know that both > the Lied and the words are banned in Germany even today, for the very > reasons you mentioned. The melody is nothing new and was only appropriated by the Nazis. It was the official song of the party and therefore anathema today. Wessel was sort of a bum and was murdered in the early 30s by some communist bums. It all gave rise to the saga of a martyr which the the party needed. Fred