Armeemarschsammlung


The Armeemarschsammlung, also known as the Prussian Army March Collection refers to the basic catalog of works of German military march music.

Origins

The basis for the creation of an extensive set of scores for military brass bands lies in a highest cabinet order of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia on 10 February 1817 requesting a selection of proven compositions for every regiment of infantry, cavalry and artillery:
Friedrich Wilhelm III's initial collection consisted of 36 slow marches and 36 quick marches for infantry.
This Army March Collection in time contained Prussian, Austrian and Russian marches, divided into three collections:
Marches in the third collection were first published by Schlesinger in Berlin beginning in 1824 and continued by Bote & Bock in Berlin and finally Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. This was titled Collection of Marches and Fanfares for Trumpet-Music for the Use of the Prussian Cavalry.
All the marches incorporated into the army march collection have an official number including a Roman numeral designation and an Arabic number. Some well known examples:
A comprehensive and systematic collection of marches was also created for the Kaiserlich und Königlich Armee.
On March 24, 1894 the Imperial and Royal War Ministry issued an order to create the publication of a standardized list of marches. This order includes: "The Imperial War Ministry intends to revive and preserve the tradition of outstanding epochs in the history of our nation and army by compiling and publishing in uniform orchestrations the older historic marches which owe their fame to successes in war, as well as suitable marches that were dedicated to the memory of glorious regiments, famous generals, or regimental colonels-in-chief".
The official codification, the Historische Märsche und sonstige Compositionen für das kaiserliche und königliche Heer was ready in time for Franz Joseph I of Austria’s fiftieth jubilee year of 1898. Included were 49 marches and military tunes, including 36 officially recognized regimental marches arranged numerically by regiment: from the 1er Regimentsmarsch "Trautenauer Gefechtsmarsch" by Ferdinand Preis to the 79er Regimentsmarsch "Jellačić-Marsch".
The official branch marches of the artillery and navy plus one of the military academy marches were also included in the publication.
By February 1914 there were assigned marches for the four Tiroler Kaiserjägerregiments as well as 102 Infantry Regiments.

New collection

A new Army March Collection was decreed by the Reichswehr-Ministerium on May 15, 1925 under the supervision of military musician Hermann Schmidt. Old and newly composed marches were incorporated. Marches of the former Royal Prussian, Royal Bavarian, Royal Saxon, and Royal Württemberg Armies were now merged into one collection, alongside those of the lower ranking states of the former Empire. Preparation of this collection ended in 1945. It was now divided into four subgroups:
The collection continued to grow and be divided into new distinct groups:
Group IV was added in 1929 and included two subdivisions:
In 1933 the inspector of army bands Hermann Schmidt revised and renamed the collection the Heeresmarschsammlung. Marches infrequently performed were eliminated and marches of Saxony were added. Trots and gallops were added which caused Collection III to be divided into IIIa slow marches and IIIb trots and gallops. The Heeresmarschsammlung was denoted as HM.
Some marches are noted as in both the AM and HM collections:
Two famous marches newly added in the revised numbering scheme:
Few of the most famed German march composers were incorporated in the Armeemarschsammlung or Heeresmarsch collections. Prolific and famed march composers Hermann Louis Blankenburg, Franz von Blon, Richard Eilenberg, Carl Friedemann, Ernst Stieberitz, and Carl Teike are not included in the Armeemarschsammlung. Of these famous march composers, in the Heeresmarsch collection only Blon and Victoria ; Friedemann ; and Teike are included. Reasons for their lack of inclusion are several: These composers not being in military service in their most productive years, their marches considered more suitable to concert rather than parade use, and finally their marches considered more technically difficult than those adopted for either the AM or HM collections.
In the early 1960s, Wilhelm Stephan, a military musician in the Bundeswehr, was charged with yet another revision of the Heeresmarschsammlung. Stephan selected the most famous works from the historic collection and assigned a new numbering system, returning to the older AM nomenclature:
The marches in Collection I are numbered 1-53, in Collection II 101-164, and in Collection III 201-235, for a total of 152 marches.
The German Wikipedia article on the Armeemarschsammlung includes a comprehensive list based on Stephan’s work :de:Armeemarschsammlung.

World War II-era marches

The only Luftwaffe march incorporated into the collection was Gustav Rath's "Flieger-Parade" HM II, 143. Rath's march had won a competition in 1932 for army marches. Luftwaffenmusikinspizient Hans Felix Husadel chose "Flieger-Parade" as Geschwindmärsche no. 47 for a collection of marches suitable for the new air force. At the same time, Carl Clewing and Husadel created a "Liederbuch der Luftwaffe" containing approved national hymns and song adapted to marches plus a new set of marches for military bands.
Marches for the Reichsmarine and its later equivalent Kriegsmarine included HM I, 60 "Holländischer Ehrenmarsch" of Jacob Rauscher; HM I, 61 "Marsch der I. Matrosendivision" of Prinz Heinrich von Preußen; HM II, 145 "Unsere Marine" of Richard Thiele; and HM II, 156 "Panzerschiff Deutschland" of Erich Schumann. HM II, 130, the classic "Gruß an Kiel" composed in 1864 by Friedrich Spohr, was also considered a navy march by the time it was adopted into the Heeresmarsch. Given the expansion of the fleet begun in 1890 under Kaiser Wilhelm II, "Gruß an Kiel" was often used as a greeting to ships entering and exiting the port of Kiel. All of these marches were adopted into the Heeresmarsch in 1933 except "Panzerschiff Deutschland" which was adopted in 1939. A "Blaujacken-Lieder" of songs for sailors was compiled by Gerhard Pallmann for the Kriegsmarine.

Post-World War II status

Many works from the older AM collection are missing original editions or are fragmentary. Some of the composers of the marches are unknown. The destruction of the Prussian State Archives in Potsdam in 1945 is partly to blame. The military music sections of the Bundeswehr and private organizations are attempting to resolve this situation and keep this collection of marches from disappearing.

Discography

Several recordings have been made of marches from the Armeemarschsammlung with particulars about the collections. These include: