A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Heil Dir im Siegerkranz

HEIL DIR IM SIEGERKRANZ. A German national song, written by Heinrich Harries, a Holstein clergyman, for the birthday of Christian VII of Denmark, and published in the Flensburg Wochenblatt of Jan. 27, 1790, 'to the melody of the English God save great George the King.' It was originally in 8 stanzas, but was reduced to five and otherwise slightly modified for Prussian use by B. G. Schumacher, and in this form appeared as a 'Berliner Volkslied' in the Spenersche Zeitung of Dec. 17, 1793.^[1] The first stanza of the hymn in its present form is as follows:—

'Heil Dir im Siegerkranz,
Herrscher des Vaterland's,
Heil König Dir!
Fühl' in des Thrones Glanz,
Die hohe Wonne ganz,
Liebling des Volks zu sein
Heil König Dir!'

1. From an article by W. Tappert in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt for Aug. 31. 1877. See too a curious pamphlet with facsimiles, 'Veranschaulichung.' etc., von Dr. Ochmann (Berlin, 1878).