EX CAMUS CONSCIENCE

20 – 23 MAY 2013

THE GERMAN MUSICIANS EXPERIENCE OF WAR

Supported by

Acknowledgements:

The Imperial War Museum, London

Commander Hackstein

German Navy Assistant Naval Attaché German Embassy, London

Lieutenant Colonel Bormann Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der

Bundeswehr (Centre for Military History and Social Science of the Bundeswehr,

Potsdam)

Warrant Officer Rohde German Embassy, London

Zentrum für Militärmusik der Bundeswehr

(Centre for Military Music of the Bundeswehr, Bonn)

Kaiser William II – As he liked to see himself and his Army

But this is how he was seen:

in Italy

and in France

BEFORE THE GREAT WAR

German Military Band in Peking (Beijing)

China – Boxer Rebellion 1900

Samoan Civil War 1886 – 1894 Second Samoan War 1898

Abushiri Revolt 1888 - 1889

Battle of Maroua–Miskin 1902

Herero Wars 1904 - 1908

German military band Berlin 1900 Playing Kruspe nickel silver or German Silver horns

Military Band, Ebingen, 1910

(Unknown) Military Band, 1912

Turkish Military Band in Damascus

THE START OF THE WAR & THE EARLY YEARS

Home in time for Christmas?

The Kaiser

It is my Royal and Imperial Command that you concentrate your energies for the immediate present upon one single purpose, and that is that you address all your will and all your valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible little Army

An Army Order of the Kaiser dated 19th August 1914

The Times

As some misapprehension still appears to exist, the Army Council desire to make it known that any man enlisting in the Army under the present conditions will be discharged with all speed possible the minute the war is over, whether this lasts three weeks or three years. ‘Should the war last over three years, their continuance of service will be optional.’

The Times, 18th August 1914

British propaganda postcard 1914

To the Editor of The Times

Sir

Yesterday morning came the news of a serious set-back to our armies.

Yesterday afternoon, while Lord Kitchener was telling of the bravery of our wounded and dead, while he was asking for men to take their places, every lawn tennis court in the space near me was crowded by strapping young Englishmen and girls.

‘Is there no way of shaming these laggards? The English girl who will not know the man – lover, brother, friend – that cannot show an overwhelming reason for not taking up arms – that girl will do her duty and will give good help to her country.

Your obedient servant

Henry Arthur James Reform Club, Pall Mall, SW The Times, 29 August 1914

GERMAN BANDS In 1914 the Imperial German Army had 560 Bands, the German Navy a further 189 Bands. In all there were about 17,000 musicians on active service.

If this seems high, consider the German Imperial Army’s nominal peacetime strength was about 500,000 which rose to 13,000, 000 for WW1

The Army’s Bands were drawn from the Kontingentarmee (Contingent Army) comprising the Armies of Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemberg and numerous small armies of the principalities.

Music Style was therefore dictated by where the Army originated.

Bands typically consisted of 26 members; however there were multiple and numerous variations.

Musikkorps d.LDW. Inf.Regt.no.75, 1st Battalion, Hamburg, 1915

GERMAN BAND STRENGTHS & STRUCTURE THE ARMY Infanteriemusikkorps (Infantry Music Corps) – 36 Musicians Trompeterkorps der Kavallerie und Artillerie (Trumpeter Corps, Cavalry and Artillery) – 20 Musicians Jäger- Schützen und Pioniermusik (Infantry and Pioneer Bands) – 20 Musicians THE NAVY

Marinemusik (Naval Bands) – 12 musicians Marinemusikkorps (Naval Music Corps) – 50 Musicians

Matrosen-Divisionen, Marine-Artillerie-Abteilungen (Land Based Naval Bands) – 36 Musicians

INSTRUMENTS

Infanteriemusikkorps (Infantry Music Corps) – 36 Musicians

2 Flutes 1 oboe 1 bassoon

8 clarinets 2 cornets 4 trumpets

4 bugles 2 keyed bugles 2 tenor bugles

1 baritone tuba 3 trombones 3 bass tubas

3 timpani (kettle drums)

Band of the Kraftfaht Park 505 (possibly a motorized unit of the German Army) stationed in Palestine during the Middle Eastern Campaign

A German militia band making merry with instruments made from improvised objects – hose pipes and watering cans (Poland – 1915)

Life in the German Trenches for those

‘back home’

A sentimental depiction of departure

for the front on a German postcard

German postcard of German and Austrian

comrades in arms

4 x members of the Kaiser’s Grenadier Guards – October 1914

THE WAR YEARS

Bavarian militia band, 1915

Battalion 110 tape, 1916

RECRUITMENT

All German musicians were recruited on the basis of their pre-existing musical competencies acquired before enlistment at either professional music schools or from Stadpfeifen (local music schools or orchestras).

Following completion of the same military training as any other soldier they were then posted to their Band.

Recruit training was delivered by instructors sent back from the field force units thus instilling into the soldier at an early stage the traditions or the Regiment, Corps or Arm they would eventually become part of and be posted to.

Band Militärdirigenten (Conductors) were professional soldiers who were trained at the Academy of Musical Art in Berlin which had supported the German Imperial Army since 1873.

All musicians and conductors were trained as combatants, with musicians being awarded both Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse and Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse. Exact numbers of awards are not known, since the Prussian military archives were destroyed during World War II

THE MUSIC

Instrumentation was regulated after the Normal-Instrumentation Tableau of Mr Wilhelm Wieprechy, which had been in place since 1860 for the Prussian Army, and from 1897 for the Whole German Reich.

THE PRIMARY ROLE

About one third of the musicians were deployed into the field, the remainder supporting the ‘Home Front’. Musicians once deployed were to support and provide what we now call the morale component of fighting power. On the ‘Home Front’ music was mainly ceremonial, entertaining the troops in hospitals, playing at funerals, parades, deployments, at camp services, or maintaining the publics’ morale. The repertoire of the music corps comprised military functional music (Marches e.g. Preußens Gloria, Präsentiermarsch), and national and international music from all varieties of music (classic, folk songs, contemporary popular tunes). There was – beside the national-patriotic music – no difference to the repertoire played by Bands of the component parts of the Imperial Army. Trumpeters still filled the communication role for communicating and relaying important and urgent commands and orders. THE SECONDARY ROLES Secondary battlefield roles included those of stretcher-bearers, runners, battlefield casualty replacements for combatants and providing corps support.

(Unidentified) German band in 1916

Reservists leaving Berlin for the front by train being waved off by civilians whilst a military band plays

German Military Band 1916

German band, Lunch Break – On the way to the Front

German Band, 1917

BASING

On active service Bands deployed with their units into the field and were generally located in the ‘Etappe’ or communications zone behind the front lines. CONTROL The quality of Music output was monitored through the office of the Armeemusikinspizienten (Army Music Inspector) a civilian, although day to day control in the field was through their chain of command.

THE EASTERN FRONT

Bazura RIver (Poland) -1915

Russian forces drive back the Germans who abandon their positions (War Illustrated July 1915)

EAST AFRICA – MUSIC USED AS A WEAPON OF WAR AND FOR THE HINDENBURG OF AFRICA There is no evidence that General Paul Von Lettow Vorbeck, the pre-eminent guerrilla warfare leader of the 20

th century, was supported by a military band during his

operations in East Africa, but there was one occasion he used music to further demoralise and undermine the will of the attacking British and Imperial forces. In 1916 when General Smuts continued to pursue his infuriatingly effective and elusive foe, he was convinced he would finally trap and destroy von Lettow Vorbeck’s troops at Morongo Tanzania, where retreat to the south was blocked by the Ulunguru Mountains. Having carefully set and then sprung his trap, after being in the field for weeks and looking forward to a well earned rest, the Imperial Forces advanced on and marched into the town. Moving through the empty streets and towards the prominent Bahnhof Hotel intended as the Force Headquarters their morale dropped when they finally entered the hotel to hear a mechanical piano playing Deutschland Uber Alles. Morale dropped even further, when on reaching the empty Schutztruppe barracks, which the attacking troops had so long looked forward to occupying, they found on every item of bedding and furniture a piece of human excrement had been deposited by the opposition. Von Lettow Vorbeck was never cornered by General Smuts. His troops continuing to fight after the Armistace

when having confirmed details of the European capitulation he marched his remaining 155 Germans, 1,156 Schutztruppe and about 3,000 camp followers south into Northern Rhodesia where at 1100am on the 25 November 1918 he surrendered himself and his troops to Brigadier-General WFS Edwards at Abercorn in what is now Zambia. Given a guard of honour by 1/4 Kings African Rifles and the North Rhodesia Police, he was allowed to keep his sword and his officers their side arms. During the 4 year East African conflict he had at times been faced by and outwitted a force of over 250,000 British and Imperial troops, at the time of his surrender there being 34,000 troops in the field searching for him supported by 71,000 carriers. In such high regard were they held by their adversaries, he and his officers were granted the ‘honours of war’ on their voyage back to Germany aboard the SS Transvaal, being received as heroes on their return to Germany with a parade with full military honours and, of course, Bands through and under the Brandenburg Gate. He died at the age of 94 in 1964.

The Home Front

4

th Minethrowers’ Battalion

Grand Military Concert. Performed by the whole band of the 4

th Minethrowers’ Battalion, on leave from the field.

Personally conducted by the Master of the Royal Music,

Ottmar Helferich. With the participation of celebrated artists at present in the battalion: Hugo Kramm, Berlin,

violin; Fritz Müller, conductor, Munich, on the piano; Richard Möbus, Berlin, flute; Emil Kleist, Dresden,

trombone.

Bavarian Association of Youth Organizations, No. 2, 10th

Company. Bavarian ‘Landwehr’ (Territorial Reserve).

Charity Concert performed by the complete band of the Royal Bavarian ‘Landwehr’ cadets of Regiment No.2 for

the benefit of the bereaved families of fallen comrades in the Regiment.

Conductor: Richard Seifert, Royal Bavarian Master of Music

THE CASUALTIES

WW1 German Death Card (Sterbebild) for Army Unteroffizier Sebastian Schranner, 1 Squadron 1 Bavarian Cavalry Regiment.

Salesman and Musician from Nandstadt.

Died in the reserve field hospital at Biache St. Vaast, from a short, difficult illness, 3 August 1915.

He was 28.

WW1 German Death Card (Sterbebild) for Army Soldat Sebastian Eberl, Replacement Battalion 3 Reserve

Infantry Regiment.

Master Butcher from Wendelskirchen.

After 3 years in the field, he died of a long difficult illness, 2 May 1918.

He was 36.

There is no statistical data of exact numbers of casualties among the German Musicians. However assuming that about a third of the 17,000 musicians were deployed forward it is reasonable to assume fatalities would have been between 800-1,200 of the musicians’cohort during WW I.

Wilhelm II, the Kaiser, last German Emperor and King of Prussia, grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, who in 1890 had launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" in foreign affairs that culminated in his support for Austria-Hungary in the crisis of July 1914 that led to World War I, abdicated in November 1918 fleeing to the Netherlands.

He died on 4 June 1941 and is buried at Doorn near Utrecht. In 2000, over 45,000 visited the mausoleum and the Doorn estate.

AND FINALLY – UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE QUOTES FROM THE WAR

Who said what and when

Col de Granmaison, Chief of Operations, French General Staff, 1914

‘For the attack only two things are necessary, to know where the enemy is and to decide what to do.

What the enemy intends to do is of no consequence.’

Officer of the Russian Imperial Guard to the Tsar’s physician, 1914

‘Shall I pack the Tsar’s full dress uniform for his entry into Berlin?’

General Sir Gouglas Haig, 1914

‘The machine gun is a much overrated weapon, and two per battalion is more than sufficient.’

Church Times, quoted in Punch, 1916

Organist (willing to help train choir) wanted for country parish. Might suit clergyman’s daughter

General Sir Gouglas Haig, 1917

At a prize giving of an inter-regimental cross-country race, Haig told the winning team: ‘I congratulate you on your running. You have run very well. I hope you will run as well in the presence of the enemy.’

General Foch in conversation with Colonel Repington, September 1918

‘The infantry needs guns, tanks, and aero-planes, but these do not win battles and are only accessories….Such things as tanks and bombing squadrons should be provided on a moderate scale. It is an idea of amateurs that tanks and aero-planes can win a war.’