Merkel doesn’t want German national anthem to be gender-neutral – spokesman

Chancellor Angela Merkel does not want Germany’s national anthem to be changed, her spokesman said. A member of Merkel’s Social Democrat (SPD) coalition partner said words such as “fatherland” and “brotherland” should be made gender neutral. “The chancellor is very happy with our nice national anthem as it is in its traditional form and doesn’t see any need for change,” spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference on Monday. A spokesman for the Family Ministry said a letter from the SPD’s Kristin Rose-Moehring had been a personal proposal and he could not comment on it, especially as it was an internal letter to employees at the ministry, Reuters reported.