Rufst du, mein Vaterland
| English: When you call, my Fatherland | |
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National anthem of  Switzerland
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| Also known as | Ô monts indépendants English: Oh independent mountains |
| Lyrics | Johann Rudolf Wyss (Henri Roehrich), 1811 (1857) |
| Music | Unknown composer (uses the melody of "God Save the Queen") |
| Adopted | 1850s |
| Relinquished | 1961 |
"Rufst du, mein Vaterland" is the former national anthem of Switzerland. It had semi-official status as the national anthem from the 1850s to 1961, when it was replaced by the Swiss Psalm. Its text was written in 1811 by Bernese philosophy professor Johann Rudolf Wyss.
The tune of the anthem was the same as in "God Save the King" (1745), a tune which became widely adopted in Europe, first as the hymn of Denmark (1790), later also as that of Switzerland, and as that of the United States as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (1831). The German hymn "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" (1795, adopted as the Prussian anthem after 1815) to the same tune is an adaptation of the Danish lyrics.
As in the American "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", the lyrics replace the image of the monarch with that of the fatherland, and the promise to defend it "with heart and hand" (mit Herz und Hand), the "hand" replacing the "voice" praising the king of the original lyrics. The pact to defend the homeland militarily is made explicit in the first verse,
Rufst du, mein Vaterland
Sieh uns mit Herz und Hand,
All dir geweiht
Heil dir, Helvetia!
Hast noch der Söhne ja,
Wie sie Sankt Jakob sah,
Freudvoll zum Streit!
When you call, my Fatherland,
see us, with heart and hand
all dedicated to you.
Hail unto you, Helvetia!
Who still has such sons
as Saint Jacob saw them,
going to battle joyously!
Yet in spite of the Republican sentiment in the lyrics, the tune remained more strongly associated with royalism and conservativism, and it remained the anthem of the British, the German and the Russian empires. This fact, and the lack of association of the tune with Switzerland in particular, led to the desire to find a replacement, which came in the form of the Swiss Psalm (composed 1841), from 1961 as a provisional experiment, and since 1981 permanently.
The German lyrics were translated into French in 1857, as the result of a competition sponsored by the Societé de Zofingue of Geneva. The competition was won by Henri Roehrich (1837– 1913), at the time a student of philosophy, whose text is less explicitly martial than the German lyrics, beginning Ô monts indépendants / Répétez nos accents / Nos libres chants "O free mountains / echo our calls / our songs of liberty" and comparing the Rütli oath with a Republican Liberty Tree.
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Wikipedia