Swiss television
station SRG has apologised for mistakenly putting the words of the
old Nazi Germany national anthem as subtitles instead of those of
the present German one before the Euro 2008 Group B match with
Austria on Monday.
Both the Nazi version and the present-day one come from the same
song, 'das Deutschlandlied' composed by August Heinrich Hoffmann in
1841 from music by Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.
"It is an inexcusable error," one of those in charge of the
subtitling service for the station told Blick, though he added it
was the fault of two young female editors.
Used in its entirety as the national anthem from 1922, the Nazis,
once they came to power, only sang the first verse.
Post World War II Germany sing just the third verse, and not the
lines that inadvertent viewers were treated to on Monday which
included 'Deutschland Deutschland uber alles.'