"" (High firs lead the stars) is a Volkslied from Silesia, first published by a boy scouts group in 1923. It is also known as the unofficial hymn of Sudetenland, and as the Rübezahl song. Modyfied, it is still used by youth groups, published in ' and other collections.
The text of "" was first published 1923 by the Bund deutscher Ringpfadfinder, a boy scout group, in a magazine named . The melody is based on "" (True friendship shall not waver), a song from Franconia from the 18th century that Hoffmann von Fallersleben and published in 1842 in their collection (Silesian folk songs with melodies). The composer is unknown.
The text refers to mountains with high fir trees, commonly thought to mean the Silesian Riesengebirge, where the Iser springs, which rather points at Bohemia. It addressed Rübezahl, a regional mountain spirit, as a protector of the missed far-away home country. Rübezahl is invited to join the group singing around a fire, to consider the unfree home country and to end strife and discord.
A few years after the first print, the last line was changed because it was regarded as too militant, from "" (dedicated to our battle of life) to " (dedicated to the course of our life).
In the 1984 ' version, changes included reference to the boy scouts' camp rather than the home country, and dropping the final stanza, besides minor wording changes.