A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wacht am Rhein, Die
WACHT AM RHEIN, DIE (The guard of the Rhine.) A modern German Volkslied, which during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71 was so popular as to become a national song.
The poem is by Max Schneckenburger, a manufacturer, born Feb. 17, 1819, at Thalheim in Würtemberg, and died May 3, 1849, at Burgdorf near Berne. It had its birth in 1840, when the left bank of the Rhine was threatened by France, and was soon seized on by composers:—F. Mendel of Berne (1840); Leopold Schröter of Worlitz (1852); and F. W. Bering of Strassburg, and lastly by Carl Wilhelm, the author of the melody given above, born at Schmalkalden in 1815, pupil of Aloys Schmidt, Anton André, and Spohr, and from 1840 to 1865 conductor of the Liedertafel in Crefeld. The song was composed by him as a part-song for men's voices, March 14, 1854, was first sung on the 11th of the following June, and quickly found its way into print. In 1871 Wilhelm received a pension of £150 a-year from the Emperor, but did not long survive his good fortune, as he died Aug. 16, 1873, in his native town, where a monument has been erected to him.
The 'Wacht am Rhein' is the subject of the famous 'National Denkmal' near Bingen, by Johannes Schilling, the sculptor, which was unveiled by the Emperor in 1883. It must not be confounded with another Rhine-song (poem by N. Becker) of equal popularity in its time—
Sie sollen ihn nicht haben,
Den freien deutschen Rhein,