{"id":60675,"date":"2025-09-02T21:59:41","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T19:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60675"},"modified":"2025-09-09T21:43:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T19:43:45","slug":"the-german-army-revives-one-of-its-most-famous-military-marches-from-world-war-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/09\/02\/the-german-army-revives-one-of-its-most-famous-military-marches-from-world-war-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The German Army revives one of its most famous military marches from World War II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Germany's military traditions have lived for decades with the burden of having lost some elements of its recent history.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/02\/11\/panzerlied-the-german-military-anthem-played-in-france-italy-chile-brazil-and-south-korea\/\">Panzerlied: the German military anthem played in France, Italy, Chile, Brazil, and South Korea<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/11\/07\/lili-marleen-a-great-short-film-about-world-war-ii-and-some-interesting-facts-about-the-song\/\">'Lili Marleen': A great short film about World War II and some interesting facts about the song<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>This is particularly evident in the musical sphere. <strong>Much of the Bundeswehr's (German Armed Forces) military march repertoire dates back to the Prussian era<\/strong> or the years of the German Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. <strong>The imprint of Nazism faded from the German Army after World War II<\/strong>, but some elements remained, such as the popular song <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/11\/07\/lili-marleen-a-great-short-film-about-world-war-ii-and-some-interesting-facts-about-the-song\/\">\"Lili Marleen\"<\/a> from 1937 and a march made world-famous by this scene from the 1965 film \"Battle of the Bulge\":<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Panzerlied (Battle of the Bulge with english intro)\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8JDkdc246QQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The name of this march is \"Panzerlied\" (Tank Song).<\/strong> Four years ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2021\/02\/11\/panzerlied-the-german-military-anthem-played-in-france-italy-chile-brazil-and-south-korea\/\">I published an article about that song here<\/a>, showing the versions of it sung in the armies of <strong>France, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, and Chile<\/strong>. As I pointed out then, the \"Panzerlied\" was written in 1933 by a German Army officer, <strong>Kurt Wiehle<\/strong>, based on lyrics from a German Navy song and the melody of a song titled \"Luiska-lied\".<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54760601162_3c6dfb74ce_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54760601162_75d8fd93de_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lyricstranslate.com\/en\/panzerlied-panzer.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the song's original lyrics<\/a> made no reference to Nazism or its ideology, <strong>the \"Panzerlied\" continued to be sung in the German Army after the World War II<\/strong>, appearing in various official songbooks published by the Bundeswehr for decades. However, <strong>in 2017, the then German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> (now President of the European Commission) <strong>vetoed its publication in these songbooks<\/strong>, considering it a nazi anthem, despite the fact that there is nothing in its lyrics to indicate such an ideological affiliation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54761682338_6bb6e2e301_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54761682338_f89ed94be9_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, on Friday, August 29, the YouTube channel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@BadBonsai1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bad Bonsai<\/a> <strong>published a video showing the Wilhelmshaven Naval Band playing the \"Panzerlied\"<\/strong> with an arrangement by Marcus M\u00fcller. This military march was performed instrumentally, without singing the lyrics, <strong>during a military parade held on the occasion of a change of command of the 1. Panzerdivision Oldenburg (1. PzDiv)<\/strong> at its base in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony, on August 28:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Panzerlied (ob&#039;s st\u00fcrmt oder schneit) - Bundeswehr- Ausmarsch Paradeaufstellung 1. Panzerdivision\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U0k7P9xy82Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The video has gone viral in Germany and abroad<\/strong>, with over 647,000 views so far. In the comments, <strong>many German internet users are celebrating the revival of this military march<\/strong>, whose performance at an official event would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=site%3Abundeswehr.de+panzerlied&sca_esv=7fc613d9cd9ef286&rlz=1C5CHFA_enES1059ES 1059&sxsrf=AE3TifNYL1855D9awrDr8nOmDVmKzcLEBg%3A1756840503114&ei=N0K3aIPhBq-wi-gPnKeBwQs&ved=0ahUKEwjD2PXw5LqPAxUv2AI HHZxTILgQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=site%3Abundeswehr.de+panzerlied&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHXNpdGU6YnVuZGVzd2Voci5kZSBwYW56 \"\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Still today, on the Bundeswehr website there is not a single reference to that song<\/a>, as if it were taboo.<\/p>\n<p>As a curiosity, at the end of the video, <strong>the Wilhelmshaven Naval Band plays its official march, \"Anker gelichtet\"<\/strong>. You can see the band playing the same march here in 2010:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Anker gelichtet (Marsch) - Marinemusikkorps Nordsee der Bundeswehr - Berliner Milit\u00e4rmusikfest 2010\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uA6Xac9db7U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this is not a German march: <strong>it is the famous US Navy military march \"Anchors Aweigh\"<\/strong>, a magnificent musical piece composed in 1906 by Lieutenant Charles A. Zimmermann, alias \"Zimmy\", director of the Annapolis Naval Academy Band from 1887 until his death in 1916.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germany&#8217;s military traditions have lived for decades with the burden of having lost some elements of its recent history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11544],"tags":[25206,25208,25207,6686,25209,16710,10929,14732,14731,15180,10389],"class_list":["post-60675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-army","tag-1-panzerdivision-1-pzdiv","tag-anchors-aweigh","tag-anker-gelichtet","tag-bundeswehr","tag-charles-a-zimmermann","tag-german-army","tag-germany","tag-kurt-wiehle","tag-panzerlied","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-world-war-ii"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-31 02:43:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}