Der Vater Rhein, die Fidel Volkers spielend

The Rhine became a national symbol for Germans during the Napoleonic wars and the period leading up to the revolutions of 1848. As the setting of legends and myths from Germany¿s distant past, and as the subject of Romantic poetry, it played an important part in establishing a sense of national identity. Schwind¿s personification of the Rhine as a bearded man in armour takes its cue from traditional depictions of river gods. The fiddle alludes to Volker, who in the Nibelung saga was a musician at the Burgundian court in Worms.