Bangkok

Thailand’s National Anthem Composed by a German After the many surprises and discoveries I made over the past few days and weeks, I was finally able to turn the tables and shock my hosts with some trivia.

“I don’t believe that,” my colleague Punnee said briskly and, like our other colleagues and guests of an evening dinner, began fiddling with the iPhone showing the Thai Wikipedia site only to find a few seconds later that a German had truly composed the national anthem of former Siam.

The composer was Peter Feit (1883–1968), the son of a German emigrant from Trier and a Thai mother, who later called himself Piti Waityakarn. The melody, which sounds quite customary to European ears, was written in 1932 and has been the national anthem since Siam changed its name to Thailand in 1939. It is played daily on Thai television and radio at eight in the morning and six in the evening as well as in many parks and public buildings. It is not only an affront if one does not stand up or stand still when it plays, but is a misdemeanour punishable by a fine. To be honest, I must add that this information about the anthem is not part of my general knowledge nor was it the result of complicated research, but was told to me before I left home by an acquaintance who had lived and worked in Thailand for five years.

Speaking of work, my first articles have now been printed in my host newspaper Kom Chad Luek. The one to receive the most response was that about Leipzig, its famous people from history and the fact that the world’s first newspaper was published in Leipzig. I am certain that after my departure a good number of Thais will no longer have to say, “Leipzig? Never heard of it!” And today, I added the way that Leipziger Volkszeitung is “drawn” in Thai characters to my journal entry.