Johann Gottfried Piefke (9 September 1817 – 25 January 1884) was a German band leader, (''Kapellmeister'') and composer of military music. Piefke was born in

Schwerin an der Warthe Skwierzyna (german: Schwerin an der Warthe) is a town of 9,671 inhabitants (2019) in Lubusz Voivodeship in western Poland, the administrative seat of the Gmina Skwierzyna. It is located at the confluence of the Obra and Warta rivers, about nort ...

, Prussia (now

Skwierzyna Skwierzyna (german: Schwerin an der Warthe) is a town of 9,671 inhabitants (2019) in Lubusz Voivodeship in western Poland, the administrative seat of the Gmina Skwierzyna. It is located at the confluence of the Obra and Warta rivers, about nort ...

, Poland). In the 1850s, he was band leader for the 8th Infantry Regiment in Berlin. His famous

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...

include ''

Preußens Gloria Preußens Gloria, Armeemarschsammlung II, 240, is a well-known military march of the 19th century, composed by Johann Gottfried Piefke (1817–1884). "Preußens Gloria" ("The Glory of Prussia" or "Prussia's Glory") was written in 1871 after the ...

'', ''Düppeler Schanzen-Marsch'' and the ''

Königgrätzer Marsch The Königgrätz March ( AM II, 134 (AM II, 195)), also known as Der Königgrätzer or Der Königgrätzer Marsch, is one of the most famous German military marches, composed in 1866 by Johann Gottfried Piefke in commemoration of the Battle of K� ...

'' – the latter composed after the

Battle of Königgrätz The Battle of Königgrätz (or Sadowa) was the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War in which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire. It took place on 3 July 1866, near the Bohemian city of Hradec Králové (German: Königgrä ...

in 1866, the decisive battle of the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

). He arranged

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

's symphonic poem – ''Tasso'' for military band and may also have similarly arranged some of Liszt's marches. He died in

Frankfurt an der Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...

. Piefke also wrote: * ''Pochhammer Marsch'' * ''Siegesmarsch'' * ''Gitana Marsch'' * ''Margarethen Marsch'' * '' Kaiser-Wilhelm-Siegesmarsch'' * ''Der Alsenströmer'', a march commemorating the

Battle of Als The Battle of Als ( da, Slaget om Als; german: Übergang nach Alsen) was fought on 29 June 1864 during the Second Schleswig War between Denmark and Prussia. It was the last major engagement of the war, as the Prussians under General Herwarth ...

during the

Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...

. * ''Der Lymfjordströmer'', another march commemorating the Danish War.

Honors

Piefke received the following medals: * Düppeler-Sturmkreuz, 1864 *Golden Medal of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1865 *

Royal Order of the House of Hohenzollern The House Order of Hohenzollern (german: Hausorden von Hohenzollern or ') was a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Hohenzollern awarded to military commissioned officers and civilians of comparable status. Associated with the various v ...

, 1869 *

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia est ...

Second Class, 1870 *

Prussian Crown Order The Royal Order of the Crown (german: Königlicher Kronen-Orden) was a Prussian Order (decoration), order of chivalry. Instituted in 1861 as an honour equal in rank to the Order of the Red Eagle, membership could only be conferred upon commissio ...

, 1880

In popular culture

* "Piefke" persists as a derogatory nickname for Germans in Austria. * Piefke's ''Königgrätzer Marsch'' can be heard playing during the

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

scene in the film ''

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' is a 1989 American action film, action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third installment in the Indiana Jones, ''Indiana ...

''. It was one of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's favorite marches and was often played during his public appearances.

References

Naxos Records: Johann Gottfried Piefke
1817 births 1884 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century German composers 19th-century conductors (music) German Romantic composers German male classical composers German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) German military musicians Military music composers People from Skwierzyna People from the Grand Duchy of Posen {{Germany-composer-stub