Picture Cult

(see montage on cover page)

More than any nation in the world,
You tend to false prophets,
And the robber is your hero,
And you worship him faithfully,

Yes, the cult of violence
Has always been in your blood,
And you crawl in front of the figure
That chastises you with the rod.

And you always love to believe
Very willingly the promises
Of conquering lords,
And you let yourselves be bribed

By many powerful figures
(some only acted strongly,
and haven’t been it at all)
And you were always very busy

And adorned your walls
With the last of the Hohenzollern,
Wilhelm, who disappeared long ago,
Emperor with the speech disability.

To a wonderful time
He wanted to lead you,
And you never thought so far:
One can also lose a war.

When the war was lost,
You only thought of revenge,
Next time victory will backon us,
And that will be something.

And the Wilhelm on the wall
Was replaced by other people,
Men with strong hands,
If only we had them again today,

Coming with fire and sword
Giving our Reich’s greatness back,
No, that would not be wrong,
Too bad we don‘t have them.

Yes, could we leave the swamp
And could we then come out of the puddle,
The triumph would be ours,
Thus old Fritz appeared

Who once robbed Prussia to its greatness,
In so many German homes,
And whoever dared to critizise
Was reviled as a barbarian.

Bismarck’s portraits also came
Into fashion at the time,
Such hero worship was a custom,
And there was method behind it.

And as the third strong man,
Hindenburg flaunted in the pictureframe,
And all of Germany was under the spell
Of these three illustrious names.

Names of the past,
Witnesses of old German greatness,
And now this country is desecrated,
If only it would decide

To build up strong defenses again,
To undertake new deeds again,
Life weren‘t so hard,
But so we are betrayed.

We lack a strong man now
Who can rescue us from dispair,
Brings new greatness,
And breaks our chains.

And who, like the old Fritz,
Will lead us from victory to victory,
And with thunder and lightning
Will enforce Germany‘s world power,

Like Prince Bismarck,
United, defiant, strong, and powerful,
Build a new empire for us,
Yes, truly, that would be magnificent!

Adolf Hitler was then
Considered to be the right man for the job,
Who can accomplish the task,
And he was deemed suitable.

Adolf, with the strong hand,
hung as image in every home,
You pledged yourselves to him,
And as a reward he then,

As a new Fridericus Rex,
Pushed you into misery,
Into the depths of filth,
Which you have never enjoyed before.

And you don‘t feel quite well
In the bankruptcy of all bankruptcies,
Because the swastika symbol
Brought, instead of the great times,

An unheard-of downfall,
Your houses have disappeared,
And the Third Reich‘s Walhalla
Will soon meet its end.

And you are filled with rage,
And you feel the urge within you,
To no longer have his image
But to hang himself bodily.