"Erika” in NOT a Nazi song. It was written by Herms Niel in about 1930, published in 1938, and immediately picked up both by the Nazis and by the Wehrmacht. During the past decade it became part of the “network culture” as a meme, with many sites still insisting on linking it to WWII and the Waffen-SS.
Well, the latter, especially in the form “song written for/dedicated to the Waffen-SS” is obviously a crass misinformation. The Waffen-SS didn’t even exist until December 1939.
For some weird reason, fake news are too easily bought by too many.
It’s a simple love song, modeled after German folk songs, easy enough that it can be learned and sung during marches by musically untrained and not very talented soldiers — and this simplicity contributed both to its popularity, and to the fairly common belief that it is a folk song.
The military character of the song is partially given by the pauses, signaled in the lyrics with “(xxx)”, and emphasized by three drum beats, or during marches by three “goose-steps”; when sung in non-military context, the drum beats or goose-steps are usually replaced by hand claps.
Offensive? Not even mildly. It begins with a short description of a beautiful landscape (with a bit of stretch you can call this part “patriotic”), then mentions a girl with the same name as the flowers in the meadow (Erika=heather, see the image), calling her “faithful treasure” and “little bride”."