There was hilarity on Saturday as a track from the An Garda Siochana marching band CD was played before Cork v Clare in the National Hurling League instead of Amhrán na bhFiann. But an anthem error of an altogether more serious nature occurred at the Fed Cup (the women's equivalent of the Davis Cup).
Also on Saturday, Germany were playing the United States in a first-round clash in Hawaii and before the game between Andrea Petkovic (Germany) and Alison Riske (USA) the German national anthem was sung. Only, it wasn't the correct anthem.
The version sung by the anthem singer, 'Deutschlandlied', was the official German national anthem adopted under the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and early 1930s - which then became associated with the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler. After the Second World War, the anthem was changed so that only the third stanza of the anthem would be sung - taking away the famous opening lines of the original anthem:
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, Über alles in der Welt" ("Germany, Germany above all, Above everything in the world")
Unfortunately (and embarrassingly) these words echoed out in Hawaii:
It understandably caused outrage among the German team. Petkovic said (per the BBC):
It was an absolute outrage and affront, the lowest. It was by some way the worst thing that's happened to me, especially in the Fed Cup.
The US Tennis Association issued an apology, which their German counterparts grudgingly accepted.
we hope so...
— Deutscher Tennis Bund (@DTB_Tennis) February 11, 2017
Just to add to the general dampening of spirits, Petkovic ended up losing the game 7-6, 6-2.
