NationStates Jolt Archive

The Austrian National anthem received a lot of flak lately for being sexist. So it was proposed to be rewritten:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4283434.stm
Austria's national anthem is sexist and must be revised, the country's right wing women's minister has declared.
Maria Rauch-Kallat objects to the anthem's description of Austria as a "fatherland" which is home to "great sons". She proposes several changes.Now, since Germany is a bit closer to Austria in culture and proximity, they covered the story that it has already been rewritten. At least the "great sons" has been changed.

What do y'all think about it?

I'm not quite sure what to think about that... As a Swiss I am sincerely ashamed of our National Anthem and the fact that no one knows it, not to mention that not one person I know can actually sing it.
It is a quite religious anthem which further promotes my not caring about it...
National Anthems to me are nothing I'd lose too much time worrying about ;)

That's just plain stupid. What were they going to change it to?
And why do feminists feel excluded by this, obviously not meant literally?

I say they can keep the German word "Vaterland", which is obviously not chauvinistic (I never heard Russian men complain) - and if those people offended want to use "Daughters" instead of "Sons", then let them.
But don't change the lyrics, that's just stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_der_Berge%2C_Land_am_Strome

That's just plain stupid. What were they going to change it to?
And why do feminists feel excluded by this, obviously not meant literally?

I say they can keep the German word "Vaterland", which is obviously not chauvinistic (I never heard Russian men complain) - and if those people offended want to use "Daughters" instead of "Sons", then let them.
But don't change the lyrics, that's just stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_der_Berge%2C_Land_am_StromeIt's being changed from "Heimat bist du großer Söhne" to "Heimat großer Töchter, Söhne", so they're not replacing sons with daughters...

It's being changed from "Heimat bist du großer Söhne" to "Heimat großer Töchter, Söhne", so they're not replacing sons with daughters...
That doesn't sound particularly moving...but then, let the Austrians decide.

Sowieso alle Aushilfsdeutsche... :D

That doesn't sound particularly moving...but then, let the Austrians decide.

Sowieso alle Aushilfsdeutsche... :DYup:
Austrians? Our brothers? More like distant cousins... twice removed. :D

Yup:
:D

And a living example that cousins should not intermarry...greetings to austria :D

I saw a documentary here a while ago about some German artist, who got a bunch of asylum seekers and put them into an internment box in the middle of Vienna.
He wanted to point out the stupidity of the current immigration policies in Austria...but he caused violent clashes between different groups in the city.

Anyways,
a) It's a good thing it had English subtitles
b) Jeez, there's a lot of hatred in Austria for many things German...I was positively astounded at the things those guys (and girls) said about their friendly, much more important, neighbours to the North...

I saw a documentary here a while ago about some German artist, who got a bunch of asylum seekers and put them into an internment box in the middle of Vienna.
He wanted to point out the stupidity of the current immigration policies in Austria...but he caused violent clashes between different groups in the city.

Anyways,
a) It's a good thing it had English subtitles
b) Jeez, there's a lot of hatred in Austria for many things German...I was positively astounded at the things those guys (and girls) said about their friendly, much more important, neighbours to the North...Their biggest daily newspaper (holds a record percentage of any population reading a national daily paper) is alarmingly racist...

if you read the sentence "heimat großer töchter, söhne" everything seems to be ok, but as a part of the anthem with music it sounds like something trans-sexual ..... wtf is töchter-söhne :confused:

Their biggest daily newspaper (holds a record percentage of any population reading a national daily paper) is alarmingly racist...

i believe u mean the "kronenzeitung" ..... have u ever read it?
austria has a racist newspaper a racist parliament and so on .... but unusually there are no foreigners or asylum-seekers (or even their homes) are ignited in austria like in god old germany or france :eek:

cant remember the austrian anthem
last time i heard it, was when watching champions-leage-game (soccer)
but i didnt pay attention
i like austria because they have cheap fuel and good food ^^
hmm... i want some topfenstrudel now :p

i have no idea whatsoever what the austrain anthem sounds like. nor do inknow the words.
same goes for the swiss one.
same went for my own, the german one, until i was in a pre-student-exchange camp and they made us learn facts about our own country, so that we wouldn't look stupid when the people in our future home countries asked us about it.
hmm.
i think national anthems are crap anyways, nobody needs them, an di couldn't care less how they go.
but chiming on, i want to make it known that i (a female, yes) consider those feministic attempts to re-write and word everything (chairwoman, my ass :rolleyes: ) to be pretty pathetic. it's like taking the bible literally..

Never heard the Austrian anthem (or might have thinking it was the German one). I'm Australian.

Never heard the Austrian anthem (or might have thinking it was the German one). I'm Australian.

As long as you have functioning hearing you cannot miss the difference :)

As long as you have functioning hearing you cannot miss the difference :)

When Austria makes the World Cup, I'll work it out. Rarely hear European anthems except during big sporting events. Sick the US one!

When Austria makes the World Cup, I'll work it out. Rarely hear European anthems except during big sporting events. Sick the US one!

Then better wait till judgement day :p

I'm Austrian. I'm affected. There's no instrument on the planet that could measure how little I care.

That anthem change is pretty much for Austria what the Creationism/Intelligent Design crap is for the US: A divider that keeps people bickering about meaningless blunder so they don't look at the real problems the country has.

I mean, is THAT what our government thinks what "equal opportunity" means? The change in the anthem, are they gonna celebrate that as the true achivement and the breakthrough in anti discrimination? That's meaningless bullcrap. Women still earn less than men, women are still outnumbered vastly in leading position.

But we now have a politically correct anthem. Oh, I'm so proud of our government.

I don't know about the Austrian national anthem, but the Australian one DEFINATELY needs re-writing. It sucks.

"With golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is girt by sea"

GIRT?!

I don't know about the Austrian national anthem, but the Australian one DEFINATELY needs re-writing. It sucks.

"With golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is girt by sea"

GIRT?!

...reminds me of girdle :D

I don't know about the Austrian national anthem, but the Australian one DEFINATELY needs re-writing. It sucks.

"With golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is girt by sea"

GIRT?!

Old English! Written by Pommies :D

GIRT?!

i think that means australia is surrounded by that ocean-thingy..(when you look at some world-map it seems every continent is girt by some ocean-thingy) its a good thing you got that in your anthem, so you wont forget it ^^
j/k
i girt thee (/hug)
*off to oktoberfest* wheeee

I'm Austrian. I'm affected. There's no instrument on the planet that could measure how little I care.

I mean, is THAT what our government thinks what "equal opportunity" means? The change in the anthem, are they gonna celebrate that as the true achivement and the breakthrough in anti discrimination? That's meaningless bullcrap. Women still earn less than men, women are still outnumbered vastly in leading position.

But we now have a politically correct anthem. Oh, I'm so proud of our government.

women still earn less than men? - for the same work? ... i don't think so
for more information contact the department for gender mainstreaming in linz ;)

Girt is the past tense and a past participle of Gird. The usage in this sense is as a synonym for Surround.

Bloody stupid, thats what it is.
Its like what I say regarding the US pledge of alligiance. If you dont beleive in God, dont say it. If you beleive in, say, Topaxi, God of Wicker baskets, say "One nation under Topaxi, God of Wicker Baskets" (or just 'topaxi'), and have done with it. Dont bitch about it and start a huge annoying arguement.

Same here, say 'daughters' instead of 'sons' and 'motherland' instead of 'fatherland'. Seriously, if Austrian has a gender-neutral pronoun, bloody well use it if you like.

"God Save the Queen" has to change lyrics every time the British monarch changes gender.

Wait... that came out wrong.

English really needs a gender-neutral pronoun too. People get offended when I refer to them as "he/she" or "it". Well, I get offended if someone calls me a he/she.

I cannot find an appropriate image on the internet to express my dismay at how retarded this shit is. How's about you all just imagine there was a really good image, and I inserted it here. Come on. I won't tell if you don't. :shiftyeyes: