'German national anthem "which conjures images of Nazi rallies' should be ...

The German national anthem should be replaced with a hymn which 'better captures the soul of the nation', according to an East German statesmen.

Bodo Ramelow, the premier of Thuringia state, said the current anthem conjures 'images of the Nazi rallies from 1933 to 1945'.

'We need something completely new - new lyrics that are so catchy that everyone can identify with them and say: that belongs to me,' he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Germany has embarked on a heated debate about its national anthem as it wrestles with its identity 70 years after the war. 

Written in 1841, the anthem 'Das Lied der Deutschen' (The Song of the Germans) has a history as turbulent as the country's own.

It only officially became the anthem in 1922, with three verses set to the strains of composer Joseph Haydn and beginning with the now taboo line 'Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles' - which means Germany, Germany above all.

The Nazis dropped the second two verses and only sang the first combined with another now banned nationalist song.

Only seven years after the war, in 1952, did West Germany return to 'The Song of the Germans'. 

During national reunification in 1990, calls from the east to incorporate parts of its anthem 'Risen from the Ruins' were rebuffed in favour of West Germany's hymn. 

Ramelow said many east Germans still felt little connection to the song and wished for 'a truly shared national anthem', suggesting playwright Bertolt Brecht's 'Kinderhymne' (Children's Hymn) as a replacement.

He noted that politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had recently been captured on video singing the 'Deutschland ueber

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