Badonviller Marsch

The Badonviller-Marsch (AM II, 256) is a famous Bavarian military march by composer Georg Fürst (1870–1936). Named Badenweiler Marsch by the Nazis, after 1934 it was used as official hymmn of Hitler as Führer and gained notoriety as a hallmark march announcing his personal presence during public events.

History
Fürst composed this tune as the Badonviller-Marsch for the Royal Bavarian Infantry Guard Regiment. The title refers to fighting on 12 August 1914 near Badonviller ("Badenweiler") in French 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. This march is included in the Heeresmarsch as HM II, 256.

After the death of Paul Hindenburg 1934, the march was used as a personal hymn for Hitler (Führer-Hymmne) besides the Personal standard of Adolf Hitler. As mentioned in Henry Picker's edition of Hitlers table talks, the hymmn's role was to evocate the presence of Hitler as leader of the German state. Hitler assumed himself as sole source of power in Germany, similar to the Roman emperors and German mediveal leaders. The hymmn insofar had a similar formal role as the Pontifical Anthem for the Pope as impersonation of the Holy see. Features from the National Socialist period or newsreels (e.g. “Deutsche Wochenschau” etc.) had the march being pasted into the audio track as background music when appearances of Hitler were shown. Actually, the march was already often in use before the Nazis came to power. The German police order Polizeiverordnung gegen den Mißbrauch des Badenweiler Marsches of May 17. 1939 asked to play Badenviller only in the presence of Hitler. The Germanized name Badenweilermarsch was introduced by the National Socialists. It is subtitled as "The Fuhrer's favourite march" in Triumph of the Will during the massive revue parade through Nuremberg by the end of the parade when the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler marches through. Lyrics were subsequently added to the march by the German poet Oskar Sauer-Homburg after Hitler's rise to power in 1933.

The march is often reported as Adolf Hitler's favourite. 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 that way because of a favourable remark he had made about it.

In 1956, the first director of the Bundeswehr Militärmusikdienst, Friedrich Deisenroth, provided a „Fachdienstliche Anweisung“ (case specific order) for the German Bundeswehr orchestra, to avoid playing the march except in concerts with reference to the historical background. The official title is still Badonviller-Marsch, using the Alsacian and French term for Badenweiler. The march is played rather seldom in public in Germany. The connotation with the third Reich damaged the reputation of Georg Fürst as a composer in post war Germany, a revival of his other compositions took place in the 1990ies however. Orchestras of the Communist National People's Army started to adapt a broader range of traditional marches as early as in the 1960ies, but Badonviller was left out, similar as the Fridericus-Rex-Grenadiermarsch and Preußens Gloria.

Utz Utermann, a leading Nazi journalist and later publisher of the works of Ufo-fringe theorist Erich von Däniken, published a book named Badenweiler Marsch in postwar Germany, using the pseudonyme Mathias Racker.

In popular culture

 * Scenes in Valkyrie include the Badenweiler Marsch being played as background music to Radio Berlin announcements about the status of Adolf Hitler.
 * In the movie about Max Manus, German infantrymen play this march as they walk down 'Karl Johans Gate' in Oslo.
 * The march is used in the 1979 film The Tin Drum, and in the 1996 film ''The Ogre.
 * Today, it is used by the Chilean Navy, under the name "Naval".