Max Schneckenburger (1819-1849) wrote the poem Die Wacht am Rhein The Watch on the Rhine] during the Rhine crisis of 1840, when France renewed its claim to the Rhine River as France’s natural border. Germany feared that France was planning to annex the left bank of the Rhine. Thus, we read: “The Rhine, the Rhine, go to our Rhine, Who’ll guard our River, hold the line?” Like many other songs and poems, The Watch on the Rhine called for rivalries between various German kingdoms and principalities to be set aside and for Germans to establish a unified state. In 1854, five years after Schneckenburger’s death, his poem was set to music by Karl Wilhelm (1815-1873). The Watch on the Rhine was the rousing tune sung by German soldiers as they headed into battle during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.


14323 Aeolian Concert Band
Die Wacht am Rhine (Traditional)
New York — Released: Jun 1922
 Mx: 8741
Aeolian Concert Band
Still Wie die Nacht (Bohm)
New York — Released: Jun 1922
 Mx: 8731

Orig Issue Brown Wax Vocalion 10" 78 rpm 

CONDITION: Better than EXCELLENT PRISTINE plays very quiet lightest hiss
A CHOICE COPY


"Die Wacht am Rhein" (German: [di? 'vaxt am '?a?n], The Watch on the Rhine) is a German patriotic anthem. The song's origins are rooted in the historical French–German enmity, and it was particularly popular in Germany during the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War. The original poem was written by Max Schneckenburger during the Rhine Crisis of 1840, and is generally sung to music written by Karl Wilhelm in 1854, seven years after Schneckenburger's death.

From World War I through to 1945, the "Watch on the Rhine" was one of the most popular songs in Germany, again rivaling the "Deutschlandlied" as the de facto national anthem. In World War II, the daily Wehrmachtbericht radio report began with the tune,[3] until it was replaced by the fanfare from Liszt's Les préludes in 1941. The song's title was also used as the codename for the German offensive in 1944 known today as the Battle of the Bulge.

However, the scenario envisioned in the song – i.e., an enemy approaching the Rhine and seeking to cross it, and patriotic German youths mobilizing en masse to defend the river with their lives – never came about in reality. Due to the German Army's preferred offensive strategy, the fighting in 1870–71, 1914–1918 and 1940 all took place on French soil, far to the west of the Rhine. The same is true also for the German offensive in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge – which as noted used "Watch on the Rhine" as its code name, but actually took place away from the river. And in 1945, when Germany's foes were at last actually on the verge of crossing the Rhine, Germany was on its last legs, and the Battle of Remagen ended with the Americans crossing the river with relative ease.[