The drum corps led us to victory in 1871,
Marched us right into Versailles
Played steady as the pen
that signed over our peace of mind.
We became a country that day.
Among the drawings of great french kings,
we stood with our shoulders high,
our morale through the sky.
The drum corps still beating away.
But something went wrong
along the path back to Germany.
We stopped listening.
The march became too rigid to keep up.
Our kids taught us where the fault lines were,
the barriers between patriotism
and the other thing.
They did not march into battle
to the beat of the war drums.
They got rid of the corps.
They stopped listening.
They stopped..