Nineteen days before his death on 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his last complete work, the Freimaurerkantate, K. 623. In parts of the printed edition of this cantata there appeared the song K. 623a "Lasst uns mit geschlungnen Händen". To this melody the Austrian national anthem is sung. Today, Mozart's authorship is regarded as dubious and the song is attributed to or Paul Wranitzky. Before the World War II Anschluss, Austria's state anthem was "Sei gesegnet ohne Ende", set to the tune of Haydn's "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser", the state anthem of imperial Austria since 1797. The current German national anthem "Deutschlandlied" uses the same tune, but with different words. To avoid the association, and because singing it was banned for a time after the war, a new state anthem was created. The lyrics were written by Paula von Preradović, one of the few women to have written lyrics for a national anthem. On 22 October 1946, the song was officially declared Austria's national anthem, albeit without words. Lyrics were added in February 1947. On 1 January 2012, parts of the lyrics were changed to make the composition gender-neutral.
Since the 1990s, several attempts have been made to modify the lyrics to use more gender-neutral language. In 2005, Women's Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat from the Austrian People's Party stated her objection to the wordssons, fraternal and fatherland in the lyrics and proposed changes. Her proposal met strong resistance by Austria's largest newspaper, the Kronen Zeitung, and failed to gain support from the then coalition partner, the Alliance for the Future of Austria. In January 2010 Austrian pop singer Christina Stürmer presented a pop version of the hymn "Heimat bist du großer Söhne und Töchter" as part of a campaign by the Austrian federal ministry of education. She was sued for violation of copyright by the estate of Paula von Preradović but subsequently cleared by the Austrian Supreme Court who called it "a mere modernisation" and allowed the version to stand. Since 1 January 2012 a few words in the state anthem are different from before. The line "Heimat bist du großer Söhne" was replaced by "Heimat großer Töchter und Söhne". As a result, the anthem became gender-neutral. Also, the text and notes of the state anthem were officially codified in the "Bundesgesetz über die Bundeshymne der Republik Österreich".
Lyrics
Original lyrics had the line Heimat bist du großer Söhne instead of Heimat großer Töchter und Söhne on first verse as well as Brüderchören instead of Jubelchören in the third verse. The anthem is currently sung to the following melody: << \new Voice="melody" \relative c'' \new Lyrics \lyricsto "melody" >>
Parody
The same evening after von Preradović learned that her lyrics were chosen for the national anthem, her sons, Otto and, composed a satirical version of them. Land der Erbsen, Land der Bohnen, Land der vier Besatzungszonen, Wir verkaufen dich im Schleich! Und droben überm Hermannskogel Flattert froh der Bundesvogel. Vielgeliebtes Österreich! Land of the peas, land of the beans, Land of the four zones of occupation, we sell thee on the black market! And up there over the Hermannskogel gladly the federal bird flutters. Much beloved Austria! According to media researcher, the first two of these lines were popular in the schools of Vienna in 1955.
