German Chancellor Angela Merkel | Adam Berry/Getty Images Merkel rejects making German anthem gender neutral Country’s equality commissioner suggested removing terms like ‘fatherland.’

Angela Merkel doesn't want the German national anthem to change, the chancellor's spokesman said on Monday after the country's equality commissioner suggested making the song gender neutral.

German media reported at the weekend that Equality Commissioner Kristin Rose-Möhring wrote to staff at the family ministry and proposed removing male-specific terms from the anthem. Rose-Möhring, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), reportedly suggested replacing Vaterland (fatherland) with Heimatland (homeland), as well as changing the phrase “brotherly with heart and hand” to “courageously with heart and hand."

“The chancellor is very happy with our nice national anthem as it is in its traditional form and doesn’t see any need for change," the chancellor's spokesman Steffen Seibert said during a Monday press conference, according to Reuters.

Sunday marked the end of Germany's five-month struggle to form a government as two-thirds of the SPD's members backed forming a grand coalition with Merkel's conservatives. The new government is scheduled to take office on March 14, when the Bundestag, the German parliament, is expected to reelect Merkel as chancellor.