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STORIES OF
" Heil Dir, O K5nigin, Des Brannens Hiiterin Heil Dir, Maria! In Segen und Gedeih'n Lass sprudeln klar und rein Allezeit den Labequell: Heil Dir, Maria!"
Scharnhorst, a great music lover, asked the priest where the melody came from, and he answered that it was known in the Silesian and Bohemian mountains as a very old proces-sion chant, and this information was later cor-roborated by Catholic and Protestant priests alike. The officers were much taken with the beautiful melody, and adapted it to the text of their " King's-song." It was publicly sung for the first time in Teplitz before Frederick Wil-liam III. in the year 1813. A not improbable conjecture of Herr Handtmann is that likewise in France and England the air is traced back to an old church song chanted by pilgrims, and being of an international character it was pre-served in Germany and Austria in its pure originality. In a happy moment it was again made widely known in a new fashion at the frontier of the two countries, the Silesian moun-tains.
The weak point of this story is that our national anthem was taken by the Danes in
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