I think we should have a thread about local anthems; they are at least pretty common in Europe.
The first one is the German
Nidersachsenlied or Lower Saxony song. Lower Saxony was one of the four original "stem duchies" of ancient Germany; the three others were Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria. Lower Saxony was re-established by the Brits in 1946, during the occupation. Swabia and Franconia are just counties or districts in the state of Bavaria today.
In English:
From the Weser to the Elbe,
from the Harz to the Sea
the sons of Lower Saxony stand,
a good fortress and protection.
Steady like our oak trees, we all endure,
when storms are roaring
over the German Fatherland.
We are the Lower Saxons,
steady in storms and rooted in the soil,
hail Duke Widukind's dynasty!
Where did the Roman killers fall,
where did the foreign brood go down?
In the mountains of Lower Saxony,
from the Lower Saxons' rage.
Who threw the Roman eagle down into the sand?
Who held freedom high in the German Fatherland?
It was the Lower Saxons,
steady in storms and rooted in the soil,
hail Duke Widukind's dynasty!
On the flourishing red moor
once died several thousand men.
For their faith to Lower Saxony
victims of the Frankish Ban.
Several thousand brothers fell
for the hangman's hand,
several thousand brothers
for their Lower Saxon land.
So were the Lower Saxons,
steady in storms and rooted in the soil,
hail Duke Widukind's dynasty!
From the blood and wounds of the fathers
the sons' heroism grows.
Be Lower Saxony's motto:
For freedom home and blood.
Steady like our oak trees, we all endure,
when storms are roaring
over the German Fatherland.
We are the Lower Saxons,
steady in storms and rooted in the soil,
hail Duke Widukind's dynasty!
