Hoffmann von Fallersleben: The Belt

Anselm Kiefer

1977–78 · Acrylic, graphite, and shellac on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

The Belt refers to the narrow body of water that separates northern Germany from Denmark and represents, in an expurgated verse of the German national anthem "Deutschland über Alles," one of the four waterways that delineate the German-speaking world. The anthem’s lyrics were first a poem, written by patriot August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798–1874) while he was in exile in Helgoland. A cry for the democratic unification of the German states, the poem was celebrated after World War I as the national anthem but later used by the Nazis for a different kind of nationalistic fervor. It is perhaps the anthem’s fraught history that appealed to Kiefer.

Artist

Anselm Kiefer

Date

1977–78

Medium

Acrylic, graphite, and shellac on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995