Talk:Wir Sind Wir

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I may be wrong, but should articles dealing with European subjects use American spellings? It just seems a bit strange to me... ~Kaiti~ 18:10, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Content/intention of the song

The lyrics is more than just about mixed feelings of Germans in the beginning 21. century. In fact it is about German history starting from 1945, despite every sentence is in present tense.

• The first stanza is about the end of the war "Seh ich wie die Ruinen dieser Stadt Wieder zu Häusern auferstehen." (ruins are rebuild) and "Für viele gab es keine Wiederkehr." (many never returned). "Und über das, was grad noch war, Spricht man heute lieber gar nicht mehr." (the past is kept silent). "Aufgeteilt, besiegt und doch, Schließlich leben wir ja noch." (didived, beaten, but however still alive). "Keine Zeit zum Traurigsein." (no time for tears). This exactly describes the situation after the second world war in the Adenauer era which is caracterised by these points: Rebuild of Germany, many soldiers never returned home (e.g. from Russia), division of Germany into zones, and very busy people that still are alife that don't talk about the past and don't mourn in public. Public reflection of the latest German history started in the sixties (feelings, debates, sexual revolution...) culminating in 1968 students protests.
• The second stanza is about the end of the GDR. "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" (that's the Hymn of the GDR!) "Wir hätten einen Traum vollbracht." (we thought we created a [communist] dream). "40 Jahre zogen wir an einem Strang." (poeple worked together very hard for 40 years - the GDR lasted for 40 years intil the wall fell). "Aus Asche haben wir Gold gemacht." (we made ash to gold). Beside a reference to a proverb (shit to gold) this is a reference to the economic situation of the GDR where people had to create many things out of nothing and which was full of ashes in the air from coal power plants. "Jetzt ist mal wieder alles anders" (now everything is different). "Und was vorher war, ist heute nichts mehr wert." (material and ideal values of the past are gone). (now we can have what we want). This means: GDR people suddenly can buy everything. (but didn't we aim for much more?). This refers to the marxist utopia where people overcome capitalism (buying, money...).
• The end refers to the situation up to the present: "Wieder Eins in einem Land" (reunited). "Superreich und abgebrannt." (rich and poor at the same time). Germany is a very rich nation which has a lot of debts by its own people (especially government bonds). This is a hot topic for about 15 years. And of course the rest is mainly repeating the previous stanzas and fortifies people that they will manage the financial problems as well ("Schließlich gibt es uns ja immer noch." - As we are still existing).

The song reflects as well a persistent "typical German" melancholia ("German Angst" is what anglo-saxon people call it) which does not have much to do with "Hartz IV". I even wouldn't mention this particular topic as it is far to narrow. Although economics (especially the debts, not just Hartz IV!) are mentioned you could as well include the fear loosing the beloved forests (you know Waldsterben...) and threads to open society (all this terror stuff and anti terror laws). As well patriotism is a strong word (ok I am German... ;-) as a characterisation of the song. Although the song was criticised for patriotism it just urges people to feel more happier and more optimistic. For (some) Germans this maybe already is patriotism ;-) but with other nations standards this has nothing to do with patriotism. Arnomane (talk) 03:24, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Agree for the most part, but I interpreted the two highly powerful statements "Superreich und abgebrannt", "Jetzt können wir haben was wir wollen, aber wollten wir nicht eigentlich viel mehr?" somewhat differently, both specific to reunification and very accurately reflecting East German sentiment, contrasting financial with emotional wealth - the sudden affluence contrasting against the loss of social integrity and core social values that came after reunificaton (both a cause and effect of the reforms to the welfare state, but going far beyond that) along with the pettiness of the East/West conflict that started with so much euphoria at reunification. DDWP (talk) 03:53, 30 June 2010 (UTC)