© Kim Kyung Hoon / ReutersAndrea Petkovic.
The offensive first stanza has been banned in Germany since the end of the Second World War, but it was precisely those bars that were played during the opening ceremony of the quarter final match on Saturday between the Alison Riske of the US and Germany's Andrea Petkovic.
Riske subsequently beat Petkovic, who described hearing the verse as the "epitome of ignorance."
"I've never felt more disrespected in my whole life, let alone in Fed Cup, and I've played Fed Cup for 13 years now and it is the worst thing that has ever happened to me," she said, stressing "It's 2017 - something like this simply should not happen in the United States."
Petkovic's teammates and traveling fans attempted to drown out the outdated tune by singing the correct "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit" (Unity and justice and freedom) verse over the amplified Nazi anthem.
Germany's coach, Barbara Ritter, was distraught saying: "This is an absolute scandal, a disrespectful incident and inexcusable, I could have sobbed. Hearing the national anthem at the Fed cup is a holy moment."
The USTA has apologized for the gaffe, extending "its sincerest apologies to the German Fed Cup team and all of its fans for the performance of an outdated national anthem."
"In no way did we mean any disrespect. This mistake will not occur again, and the correct anthem will be performed for the remainder of this first-round tie," it said in a statement.
I am well certain that Poppy Bush (Republican) and Bush*t I's father and Bush*t II's paternal Grandfather, who with FDR's Harriman (Democrat) ran their banks and businesses obviously enough to be thrice? convicted of trading with the enemy: to wit: Nazi Germany, via supposedly 'neutral' Spain.) (Did you know that while your grandparents or great grandparents were having to use ration coupons to get gasoline, that the US, through Rockefeller/Standard Oil (as I recall) acting as flunkie for Rothschilds, sent MORE PETROLEUM to Spain, than was used in the US throughout the war? Spain was then a third/2.5th/second world country with perhaps 20% (lenient maximum) of the motor vehicles that were in the US, and was indebted to Hitler for helping fascist Franco win victory in the Spanish Civil War, which was, of course, a testing ground for WWII.)
Did you know that ALL of that information was kept top secret classified longer than the info on how to build an A Bomb? (And likely the H Bomb too?) If you're not surprised or already knew, then you are a true SOTType or SOTTite, devoted to truth. Good.
Oh well, the more things change . . .
R.C.