German warship blasts Darth Vader theme on the Thames

Germany’s navy says there was “no deeper message” in the choice to blast the famed Imperial March – Darth Vader’s theme song in the Star Wars films – from one of its warships as it cruised down the River Thames.

A bystander captured the spectacle, which happened on Monday, on video, and it quickly went viral on social media.

The song selection made waves across Europe. The warship was in the area for training and dropped anchor in London for a normal supply stop, the German navy said.

“The commander can choose the music freely,” the navy said in a statement. “The choice of music has no deeper message.”

Other video recorded the warship, the Braunschweig, playing London Calling, the 1979 hit from The Clash, upon its arrival in the capital. The song’s title is drawn from the BBC World Service station identification in the Second World War and its lyrics include the lines, “London calling to the zombies of death/Quit holding out and draw another breath”.

The Braunschweig is named for a city in Germany’s Lower Saxony area – a galaxy far, far away from the UK – and part of the country’s newest class of ocean-going corvettes.

For its departure, a tugboat pulled the warship down the river near Tower Bridge as sailors – without any lightsabers, sadly – stood on the deck. This trip was the Braunschweig’s second to the British capital, the Germany Embassy to London wrote on social media platform X.

The warship’s commander “is a big Star Wars fan and an admirer of the legendary musical scores of John Williams,” the embassy said in a statement. “He chooses a different Williams tune whenever his ship is visiting a foreign harbour.”

There is no word on whether Anakin Skywalker himself was on board.