The Internationale Lyrics (shamelessly lifted from Wikipedia):


Arise, wretched of the earth
Arise, convicts of hunger
Reason thunders in its volcano
This is the eruption of the end
Of the past let us wipe the slate clean
Masses, slaves, arise, arise
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caeser, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves
Decree the common welfare
That the thief might bear his throat,
That the spirit be pulled from its prison
Let us fan the forge ourselves
Strike the iron while it is hot
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

The state represses and the law cheats
The tax bleeds the unfortunate
No duty is imposed on the rich
'Rights of the poor' is a hollow phrase
Enough languishing in custody
Equality wants other laws:
No rights without obligations, it says,
And as well, no obligations without rights
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

Hideous in their self-glorification
Kings of the mine and rail
Have they ever done anything other
Than steal work?
Into the coffers of that lot,
What work creates has melted
In demanding that they give it back
The people wants only its due.
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

The kings make us drunk with their fumes,
Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Guns in the air, and break ranks
If these cannibals insist
On making heroes of us,
Soon they will know our bullets
Are for our own generals
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|

Labourers, peasants, we are
The great party of workers
The earth belongs only to men
The idle will go reside elsewhere
How much of our flesh they feed on,
But if the ravens and vultures
Disappear one of these days
The sun will always shine
|: This is the final struggle
Let us group together, and tomorrow
The Internationale
Will be the human race :|


And a short note on the GDR (German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany)

The former state known as the GDR was a brutal socialist dictatorship. Its one-party government had little scruple, if any, in controlling and dominating its citizenship. The StaSi? , the official State Security Police and descendant of the GeStaPo? , had pervasive rights to surveillance on every member of society, as well as prosecuting ‘political crimes’. At least 136 persons were shot dead attempting to leave eastern Germany over the famous Berlin wall, though the number is probably over 200; the number of persons killed or imprisoned whilst fleeing via other routes can only be estimated. According to the government propaganda, this wall was euphemistically called the ‘anti-fascist protection wall’, whilst of course, like the rest of the iron curtain, it existed to imprison the inhabitants within. The justice system was officially seen as an extension of the power of the party. Death sentences were ordered and executed in secret. The atrocities of Eastern Germany kept the courts busy for years after the reunification.

Lack of membership in the only government party (and the implicit resistance or disapproval of the party line that went with it) would have severe consequences not only for oneself but also for one’s family. If your brother left the party, you may not be allowed to study medicine irrespective of your qualifications and would be ‘allocated’ to work instead in, say, a communal carpentry factory for a number of years, as my mother was. If your work had any creative component to it, insufficient creative support of the communist system would result in your license to work being withdrawn, which is what happened to my father. The myth that there was no unemployment in East Germany is as pervasive as it is false. Moreover, if your attitude towards the party was considered less than exemplary, your home might be searched and bugged with hidden microphones and your phones would be tapped in search of counter-revolutionary evidence, as also happened to my parents. A successful escape would have similarly dire consequences for the rest of your family. All this is to say nothing of the political murders which the StaSi? committed using alternatively poison, radiation and disappearance. Refusing to become a StaSi? informer would bring with it removal of a license to work, to study, to live in an area, down to having your children taken to a hospice. There were various accounts of torture and re-education in East German prisons.

-- TheodorBruening - 05 Feb 2009

Thank you Theo. Your reflections on the GDR give flesh to shape out the skeleton of my dimly recollected history lessons. Clearly what was a distant textbook subject for many of us was all to close to home for you.

-- PetefromOz - 08 Feb 2009

My wife's mother grew up in East Germany (after surviving the bombing of Dresden as a child) and will not speak to us on the phone for more than a few minutes. She is certain the calls are tapped. Sometimes we like to think that she thinks this because she grew up in a country where the government always listened in on your phone calls. It is perhaps a 'necessary fiction' to believe that we do not live in such a country ourselves.

-- AndrewCase - 09 Feb 2009

Here it is also perfectly legal to tap an international call without a warrant.

-- XinpingZhu - 09 Feb 2009