Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago

---

Some say the song "Erika" is just a traditional German folk song about love and romance, others that it's a piece of Nazi propaganda. So what's the truth, and why couldn't it have been a national anthem for Germany?

For those who can read German, the original interview with Herms Niel is archived at the Austrian National Library and available in PDF form here:
https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?apm=0&aid=dkv&datum=19400512&seite=12

Chapters:
00:00 About this video
01:04 Inspiration and composition
03:39 Is it propaganda?
07:28 The song today

Music:
"Hot Swing"
by Kevin MacLeod incompetech.com
Creative Commons Attribution licence

--------

Become a channel member for bonus content:
youtube.com/@rewboss/join

Send letters and postcards to:

Rewboss
Postfach 10 06 29
63704 Aschaffenburg
Germany

Please don't send parcels or packages, or anything that has to be signed for.