Nikolaus Becker

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Nikolaus Becker (8 October 1809, Bonn, Rhin-et-Moselle – 28 August 1845 in the Hünshoven district of Geilenkirchen) was a German lawyer and writer. His one poem of note was the 1840 Rheinlied (Rhine song) which was set to music over 70 times. With French–German enmity already about 200 years old, the poem was inspired by the Rhine crisis of 1840, caused by the French prime minister, Adolphe Thiers, who voiced demands that France should own the left bank of the Rhine (described as France's "natural boundary"), as France had done decades earlier during Napoleon's reign. In response, Becker wrote a poem called Rheinlied, which contained the verse: "Sie sollen ihn nicht haben, den freien deutschen Rhein ..." (They shall not have it, the free German Rhine). 1. Sie sollen ihn nicht haben, Den freien deutschen Rhein, Ob sie wie gier'ge Raben Sich heiser danach schrein, 2. Solang' er, ruhig wallend, Sein grünes Kleid noch trägt, Solang', ein Ruder schallend, In seine Wogen schlägt. 3. Sie sollen ihn nicht haben, Den freien deutschen Rhein, Solang' sich Herzen laben An seinem Feuerwein; 4.