Two young Swiss TV sports editors are reponsible for a hilarious cockup that saw the the channel SF2 run subtitles for the words of the German national anthem, Das Lied der Deutschen, in their entirety. Yet since the fall of the Third Reich it has been considered a serious faux pas to sing “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles…”.

Didn’t the late Nico (of the popular beat combo The Velvet Underground) sing all four verses of the national anthem at a concert in Berlin? This triggered a riot, if I recall correctly. I like a good riot.

In Nico’s case I think it was an attempt at revolutionary irony. The Swiss effort, on the other hand, just seems typically cack-handed of the Schwabenbrötli chompers.

We are told that the errant Swiss journalists were given a good talking to. Maybe the two hacks blame the error on a popular websearch engine, but that’s no excuse. Over the border in Germany they may have received a bloody good kicking. At least outside of Rostock.

Anja of Obscene Desserts wonders where the two Swiss have been spending their time. In Britain, she asks? The Daily Heil reader (for research purposes only!) has a thing about the popular English obsession with “The War”.

But Anja may actually have a point. My Swiss ex-wife spent two years in southern England before I finished serving my postdoc sentence and we escaped to Darmstadt. The experience left her even more deranged than when she left Basel.