" ... and there probably IS a xenophobic nationalist segment of the population who would enjoy a something more akin to Amerika Über Alles ..."I know, the Nazi's projected it that way, but the lyric was actually written as a rallying cry for national unification, not world domination. "
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles ... " (btw, that verse and the one following are no longer sung, we now start with the third verse "
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit", which more agreeably means "unity, rule of law and freedom"). Deutschland was late on its feet for national unification because of continuous mini-states bickering of the individual German states, the Catholic/Protestant schism plus the watchful eyes of neighbor countries that were already united and had an appetite for more (Austria, France, Denmark/Sweden and Russia), Hoffmann von Fallersleben, the lyricist,
wanted to do away with the "
Kleinstaaterei" (small fry states), he didn't have a series of
Blitzkriege and subjugation of nearly all of Continental Europe in mind.