The ceremonial ''Landesvater'' is a German college custom developed in the 18th century, where student caps are pierced with the

blade A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...

of a

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

, during the recital of a particular song. The song that accompanies this event is also called 'Landesvater'. The word ''Landesvater'' is also used as a name for the prime ministers of the individual

German states The Federal Republic of Germany is a federation and consists of sixteen partly sovereign ''states''. Of the sixteen states, thirteen are so-called area-states ('Flächenländer'); in these, below the level of the state government, there is a ...

, or .

History

In the 17th and 18th centuries, it was common among

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

to pierce their hats in order to show their love for a girl. Later, the custom changed insomuch as it symbolised

friendship Friendship is a Interpersonal relationship, relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. Althoug ...

between two students who henceforth said '' Du'' (brother) to each other. A further step in the development of this custom transferred the symbolic expression of friendship to their larger

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

. After 1770, academic orders were founded, following the example of the

Freemasons Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. They used the

rite Rite may refer to: Religion * Ritual, an established ceremonious act * Rite (Christianity), sacred rituals in the Christian religion * Ritual family, Christian liturgical traditions; often also called ''liturgical rites'' * Catholic particular ch ...

in order to express their

loyalty Loyalty is a Fixation (psychology), devotion to a country, philosophy, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another human being can be the obj ...

to their respective

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

or the

emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

. The original version of the 'Landesvater' that is still used today, with modified lyrics, hence praises Emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...

. The pierced parts of the caps are often embroidered with cloth in the form of an

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leav ...

Lyrics

The ceremony is accompanied by the song ''Alles schweige, jeder neige / Ernsten Tönen nun sein Ohr'', which was written by August Niemann in 1782. Whereas Niemann's version praises Emperor Joseph II, the lyrics of the 'Landesvater' were changed in the 19th century, and have since then praised

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, instead of a single

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

. The modern version emanates from

Friedrich Silcher Philipp Friedrich Silcher (27 June 1789 in Schnait (today part of Weinstadt) – 26 August 1860 in Tübingen), was a German composer, mainly known for his lieder (songs), and an important Volkslied collector.Luise Marretta-Schär, Silcher, (Ph ...

(1823).

Niemann's original 18th century lyrics (excerpts) were as follows:''Die Grenzboten. Zeitschrift für Politik und Literatur''. 25th year, No. 1. Friedrich Ludwig Herbi: Leipzig, 1866. P. 300
Online version
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References

Literature

* Adam Joseph Uhrig: ''Der akademische Landesvater, ein Denkmal aus alter Ritterzeit''. Würzburg 1888. * Erich Bauer: ''Der ursprüngliche Text des Landesvaters von stud. August Niemann 1782''. Einst und Jetzt, Bd. 22 (1977), P. 235–238. * Joachim Bauer: "Student und Nation im Spiegel des »Landesvater«-Liedes". In: Dieter Langewiesche, Georg Schmidt (Hg.): ''Föderative Nation. Deutschlandkonzepte von der Reformation bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg''. Munich 2000, P. 136–155. * Georg Conrad: ''Der Landesvater''. In: Studentenhistorische Beiträge (1993), P. 37–39. * Wilhelm Fabricius: ''Die Deutschen Corps. Eine historische Darstellung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Mensurwesens''. Berlin 1898, 2nd edition. 1926. P. 122ff. * Wilhelm Rehmann: "Der feierliche Landesvater als Höhepunkt des Kommerses". In: Der Convent 6 (1955), P. 222–227. * Aribert Schwenke: ''Zur Geschichte des Landesvaters''. Einst und Jetzt, Bd. 35 (1990), P. 67–88.

External links

''Landesvater''
— modern German text at ingeb.org, 20,000 German folk songs
Excerpts of the modern version
of the ''Landesvater'' (1st, 3rd, 8th and 10th stanza) {{Authority control German patriotic songs Student societies in Germany