August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben
(1798-1874)
was born in Fallersleben (his actual surname is Hoffmann) to the town's mayor. He studied in Bonn, became a librarian and wrote poetry, but his obsession with politically uncorrect notions like human rights, freedom or German unity got him in all sorts of trouble. He had to flee several times, and it was in exile that he wrote this poem (scroll down for the translation).
It became the German anthem during the Weimar republic; the first strophe (along with the Horst-Wessel Lied aka the SS song) was the national anthem during the third Reich. Nowadays the anthem is the third strophe only.
Now the general interpretation is that the first strophe doesn't mean that he thought the actual borders of Germany should stretch that far, that he is speaking in metaphorical terms, etc. I beg to disagree. Those were, at the time, the borders of the German-speaking world (if you count German dialects as German), and his counting it that way echoes the German notion of citizenship as something that is not chosen but an inevitable consequence of where you belong to (as opposed to, say, the French definition of citizenship which, until recently, was an individual choice, the much reputed plébiscite de tous les jours). It is this definition that made Bismarck annex the then French regions of Alsace and Lorraine in 1870, to the consequences that we know. Now this is deeply offensive to many of us, but it really should be replaced in the context in which it was written. This isn't about proud and offensive nationalism, it's about the first staggering realisation that people from different states might have something in common after all - a shared heritage, wine and songs,...
The second strophe is just funny, and the third, I think you'll agree, is perfect for a national anthem.
I still haven't decided what will be on the menu tomorrow.