Jens said that the anthem should be replaced by writer Berthold Brecht's Children's Hymn, a 1949 poem about a modest Germany, without expansionist ambitions and not feared by other nations.
However, the anthem found unlikely allies.
The swirl of patriotism around the World Cup "is not about `Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles,'" Daniel Cohn-Bendit, head of the Green Party in the European Parliament, told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "It's all about, `Go, Germany, Go, score another goal.'"
Niersbach agreed.
"We're not going to let that spoil our fun -- it's positive patriotism, nobody is being excluded," he said. "It's an international party."
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