Die Wacht am Rhein (1914)

"Die Wacht am Rhein" is a German patriotic anthem. The song&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 in 1840, and is generally sung to music written by Karl Wilhelm in 1854, seven years after Schneckenburger&death. Repeated French efforts to annex the Left Bank of the Rhine began with the devastating wars of King Louis XIV. French forces carried out massive scorched earth campaigns in the German south-west. This policy was fully implemented during the Napoleonic Wars with the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806–1813. In the two centuries from the Thirty Years&War to the final defeat of Napoleon I, the German inhabitants of lands by the Rhine suffered from repeated French invasions. The defeat and exile of Napoleon gave the Germans some respite, but during the Rhine Crisis of 1840, French prime minister Adolphe Thiers advanced the claim that the Upper and Middle Rhine River should serve as his country&"natural eastern border". The member states of the German Confederation feared that France was resuming her annexationist designs. Nikolaus Becker responded to these events by writing a poem called "Rheinlied" in which he swore to defend the Rhine. The Swabian merchant Max Schneckenburger, inspired by the German praise and French opposition this received, then wrote the poem "Die Wacht am Rhein".