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R.A.D. Musiker Herms Niel


Gwar
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I was fortunate enough to see this obscure picture postcard among a collection from a former 3rd Reich musician that was a member of Herms Niel's Orchestra, it is personally signed by Niel and will fit in nicely with my collection, here is a brief background of Niel..

 

Herms Niel was born as Hermann Nielebock on 17 April 1888 in the village of the same name (Nielebock, near Genthin), as son of a small farmer. He studied music in Genthin, in a local orchestra, and began his military music career as a musician of the elite band of the 1st Foot Guards in Potsdam. After WWI, which he spent as a bandleader of the 423rd Infantry Regiment, Niel was demobilised and worked as a tax official until late 1920s, when he started working as an arranger and composer with his older colleagues Hans Ailbout (1879-1957), who was already a respected composer and conductor, and Josef Sommer (1881-1935). In 1929, the Ailbout-Niel duo created the song "Im Rosengarten von Sanssouci", which became a huge hit - and remained their most recorded song to this day. Niel was also the founder of "Musikverlag Sanssouci", which was soon taken over by Karl Wilke of the former "Kawi-Verlag". The "Sanssouci" remained Niel's main publishing house - and became one of the leading music publishers in the Third Reich.

During the first year of the Third Reich, Herms Niel got the opportunity to make his very first recordings and soon afterwards, he also joined the Nazi party. The same year, 1933, he composed his first international hit, the humorous polka "Marie, Mara, Maruschkata", which was translated into several languages. In 1934, after composing hits like "Liebchen, ade" (still popular today, especially in the Brandenburg district), Niel became the main bandleader of the Reich Labour Service and remained in that position until the end of WWII. His early works were mainly march, waltz and polka arrangements of old German folk songs; but after 1937 and the hits like "Es ist so schön, Soldat zu sein", "Hannelore" (1938) and especially the world famous "Erika" (1939), Niel rather quickly became (and remained) known as the most successful composer of soldiers' songs in German history. He also designed a trumpet, known as the "Herms-Niel-Fanfare".

When World War II broke out, Niel's success and talent, naturally, had to be used for the propaganda machine... After composing new music for the infamous 1914 "Matrosenlied" in 1939 (it was best known as the "Engellandlied" and it became the main German war song of WWII), he continued working on war campaign songs, mostly as composer, while most of the lyrics were written by Heinrich Anacker of the SA. After composing music for the "Balkanlied", Niel was awarded the title of Professor, on Hitler's birthday, 1941. He also appeared in a couple of movies with his band and held concerts across the occupied Europe. But at the same time, he still managed to write peaceful love songs, as before...

After WWII, Niel continued working as a composer and conductor, but without much success, naturally. He even composed a march for his former enemies, Americans, soon after the war ended, and he worked for the Soviets as well. In June 1949, a denazification court convicted Niel as a minor Nazi offender. Nevertheless, he remained known primarily as a composer of cheerful soldiers' songs; his works were still often recorded and even an entire tribute album was released in Germany after his death.

Herms Niel died in Lingen, on 15 July 1954. He was a passionate hunter and a man in love with nature (which can be heard in most of his songs); as he himself stated, his biggest source of inspiration was the beautiful Sanssouci park in Potsdam, which inspired his very first hit as well. He was buried with his wife Helene (who passed away on his 75th birthday) and her first husband Max. Engraved on their tombstone is "Peace I leave with You - My peace I give to You" (John 14, 27).
 

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