A mistake in Dutch television causes a stir for a short time. The broadcaster reacts immediately and apologizes to the audience.
At the European Championship round of 16 between Germany and England (0: 2) on Tuesday evening, a strange hymn glitch occurred on a Dutch television broadcast.
The TV transmitter NPO had made the texts of the national anthems available to deaf and hearing impaired viewers on teletext page 888. Too bad: the station mistakenly faded in the first stanza of the German anthem. Instead of “unity and justice and freedom” it was “Germany, Germany above all”.
Sender speaks of an “accident”
The TV station immediately apologized for the hymn faux pas via Twitter: “During the live subtitling of the German national anthem at the European Championship match England against Germany, the wrong stanza was accidentally displayed. This is a mistake by one of our subtitlers. We apologize to the viewers who were disturbed by it.”
Because at the time of National Socialism (1933 to 1945) only the first verse of the “Song of the Germans” was sung and this therefore stands for the darkest chapter in German history, an official correspondence between Federal President Theodor Heuss (FDP ) and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer only sang the third verse on official occasions. This was officially declared Germany’s national anthem in 1991.
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
