People have to recognize what is wrong before they can make it better.

Interesting how the Mutter album had both Moskau and Amerika, songs critical of the former coldwar rivals. Good idea to keep it balanced. I think both songs are honest comments on the failures of both countries.

Really though, the song seems to be mostly word-play with “halten”. The word is used is many different ways: stay, endure, hold, keep, and stop. In English, “halt” still has the meaning “stop”, but maybe the word “hold” also comes from the German “halt”. A question for linguists, and a nice example of the poet at play.

There are legends from German mythology describing how the ocean got salty, but Till has come up with a new one: the poor, over-sensitive sharks has been crying so much. %^)

Also the usual ironic humor: the sharks always follow the rules, as long as they get to make them.

I also don’t get the feeling that the child is rescued from the grave: “Mein herz schlaegt nicht mehr weiter” – this isn’t a Disney song. Perhaps the spirit of the child is heard singing from the underworld, or maybe the song of the spieluhr is heard from within the grave, but I didn’t get the impression the people found a living child when they opened the grave. Too easy, too pat. This is a tragedy: the child “wollte ganz allein sein” – be careful what you wish for!