Whenever the English soccer team lines up to play the tiny principality of Liechtenstein, the audience love it so much, they play the same national anthem twice.
When "God save our noble King!" was sung in public for the first time in September 1745, the song was addressed to the Hanoverian monarch of the moment, George II. Various versions of the song had been around for some time, in praise of a number of kings - the deposed James II among them, but on this warm autumn evening it was sung with special fervour because the survival of the German Protestant dynasty was at stake.
By the 1800s the song had become so established as an expression of patriotic sentiment that it became accepted as the 'national anthem' - the world's first, which other countries hasten to copy. Switzerland, Prussia, Denmark, Russia, even the United States adopted the melody of "God save the King" for a period, setting it to words of their own.
which was the unofficial national anthem of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918.
Today, only the tiny principality of Liechtenstein has stuck with the melody. Pity we no longer have "God save the Queen" as our national anthem, as I would've loved to stand up and sing out loud the words:
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Oben am jungen Rhein Lehnet sich Liechtenstein An Alpenhöh'n. 𝄆 Dies liebe Heimatland, Das teure Vaterland Hat Gottes weise Hand Für uns erseh'n. 𝄇
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Actually, there are altogether seven stanzas but given that you can drive through Liechtenstein in less than 20 minutes, they are not often sung.
P.S. Having come this far, you may as well brush up on where and what is Liechtenstein and also listen to the old anthem of the Kaiserreich. So what is my sudden interest in Liechtenstein, I hear you ask? My interest goes back all the way to 1982 when I worked in Saudi Arabia and we used Liechtenstein for "re-invoicing" to take advantage of the Kingdom's hugely lucrative subsidy schemes, of which I shall tell you more later.
