Musical faux-pas

An obviously intoxicated Pete Doherty shocked his audience at the on3 music festival in Munich over the weekend, by suddenly singing "Deutschland ueber alles," the first line of the Song of Germany.

During the Nazi period, the first verse of the song was used as a national anthem.

The crowd responded with boos and shouts, according to the Munich daily tz. Radio broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk said the festival organizers immediately consulted with Doherty's managers and removed the singer from the stage at the first possible opportunity - after he had sung five other songs.

The live radio broadcast was cut immediately, said Bayerischer Rundfunk.

"To say it like the Brits do: We are not amused," the festival's multimedia program director Rainer Tief told tz. "Unfortunately this wasn't foreseeable; live is live."

Joseph Haydn wrote the music to The Song of Germany in 1797 and poet August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben wrote the lyrics in 1841, which at the time were considered liberal and revolutionary. Germany did not exist then as a single state, but he called for the unification of the German-speaking regions and for liberal rights.

The song was used as the national anthem of the Weimar Republic, starting in 1922. During the Nazi period, only the first stanza was used. After World War II, Germany adopted the third verse as its national anthem.

It's not the first time Doherty has been criticized in Germany, he also came under fire while still the front man for The Libertines. The band's song "Arbeit macht frei" tried to address racism in Great Britain but was deemed tasteless in Germany for being titled after the slogan written in the gates of Nazi concentration camps.

Author: Kate Bowen

Editor: Sean Sinico