Prussian composer and conductor (1815–1884)
An 1844 advertisement for a musical event organised by Piefke 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 , Prussia (now Skwierzyna , Poland). In the 1850s, he was band leader for the 8th Infantry Regiment in Berlin. His famous marches include Preußens Gloria , Düppeler Schanzen-Marsch and the Königgrätzer Marsch – the latter composed after the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866, the decisive battle of the Austro-Prussian War ).[1] [2] He arranged Franz Liszt '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 .
Piefke also wrote:
Pochhammer Marsch Siegesmarsch Gitana Marsch Margarethen Marsch Kaiser-Wilhelm -SiegesmarschDer Alsenströmer , a march commemorating the Battle of Als during the Second Schleswig War .Der Lymfjordströmer , another march commemorating the Danish War.
Honors Piefke received the following medals:
In popular culture "Piefke" persists as a derogatory nickname for Germans in Austria.[1] Piefke's Königgrätzer Marsch can be heard playing during the book burning scene in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . It was one of Adolf Hitler 's favorite marches and was often played during his public appearances.
References ^ a b Hakkarainen, Heidi (11 July 2019). Comical Modernity: Popular Humour and the Transformation of Urban Space in Late Nineteenth Century Vienna. Berghahn Books. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-78920-274-8 . ^ Markovits, Andrei S. (10 August 2021). The Passport as Home: Comfort in Rootlessness. Central European University Press. p. 280. ISBN 978-963-386-422-7 .
External links Naxos Records: Johann Gottfried Piefke