Badonviller Marsch

After 1934, with its name Germanized to "Badenweiler Marsch" by the Nazis, it was used as the official march of Hitler in his role as Führer, to signal his arrival and therefore personal presence at public events.

The title refers to fighting on 12 August 1914 near Badonviller in Lorraine, where the Royal Bavarian Infantry Guard Regiment (Königlich Bayerisches Infanterie-Leib-Regiment) achieved a first victory against the French at the beginning of the First World War.

The composer's lively two-tone entrance motif was by some accounts inspired by the duotonic sirens of field ambulances, with which the wounded were removed.

After the death of Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, the march was used as a personal "Führer-Marsch" for Hitler alongside his possession of a personalised standard.

Flammendes Licht, Wolken durchbricht, Sonne glüht auf Glockenklang kündet des Reiches Ehr', Siegfrieds Geschlecht, rang um sein Recht, machte sich frei!

Flaming light breaks through clouds, sun glows The ringing of the bell announces the honor of the empire, Siegfried's race fought for his right, got free!

[8][9] However, Hitler is quoted in Traudl Junge's autobiography, Until the Final Hour, as denying that it was his favourite march, and was merely misconstrued as such because of a favourable remark he had made about it.

Orchestras of the Communist National People's Army started to adapt a broader range of traditional marches as early as in the 1960s, but Badonviller was left out, as were similarly the Fridericus-Rex-Grenadiermarsch and Preußens Gloria.