Search - Original Third Reich Nazi Recordings :: Panzer Marches

Brassy CD

Marc Roland | Minneapolis, MN USA | 06/01/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Viewers of a Hollywood film from the 1966, "Battle of the

Bulge", are familiar with the "Panzer Song" sung by

German tank crews before their attack on the Americans,

during late 1944. In PZG's "Panzer Marches", listeners will

be able to hear this popular tune as it was originally

performed and recorded more than sixty years ago by the

men who actually drove the usually outnumbered but never

out-classed "Panther"s and "Tiger"s against Allied

"Sherman"s, "Matilda"s and T-34s.



Other tank music featured on this brassy c.d. include

"Heil, Motorenstandarte" ("Hail, Standard of the Motorized

Divisions"), "Mit vereinigten Kraeften" ("With United

Forces"), and "Landser und Panzer". Included are two

versions of "Marsch der Panzergrenadier", but both are so

different from each other, they each make unique

contributions to the collection. The same applies to the

"Adolf Huenlein Marsch", performed with and without

chorus. Huenlein was the founder and leader of the

National Socialist motorcyclists --- Stormtroopers on

wheels, who provided escort for Hitler and his colleagues

as they drove across Germany from one mass-rally to

another. Known as the "Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahr

Korps" ("National Socialist Motorcycle Corps"), we hear the

"NSKK Marsch", with one of the Party's most catchy

melodies.



Lovers of traditional military music will search in vain for

better performances of the classic "Steinmetzmarsch", the

"Fehrberliner Rittermarsch", or "Fredericus Rex

Grenadiermarsch". These orchestral pieces, composed

long before the Third Reich, were not banned by the

postwar occupation authorities, unlike the fate of other PZG

200's selections, all of which are still outlawed in today's

German democracy.



Some of the music on "Panzer Marches" may be

identified with specific campaigns. For example, "Ade,

Polenland" is one of the few songs to come out of the brief

fighting in Poland, during 1939. Set, appropriately but

unconventionally to a polka beat, one wonders if it was

revived for the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, some years later.



"Panzer rollen in Afrika vor" ("Panzers roll ahead in

Africa"), and "Heia, Safari!" are obvious veterans of the

Afrika Korps. In the former, the chorus sings, in part, "Go

forward trough the wicked sand, and the hot, burning sun.

Hi, ya, Safari! Whenever the British lion roars, we'll shut his

big mouth!" Lyrics for "Panzer rollen in Afrika vor" begin,

"From all over Germany, the Fuehrer's soldiers in their

black uniforms came to defeat France. Now, the Panzers

are rolling through Africa. The treads clank, the motors roar.

The sun shines hot over the German Afrika Korps, but our

Panzer engines sing their song, as we drive through the

sands against the English. The Brits are afraid of the

Fuehrer's soldiers, but we fear neither death nor the devil.

Miserable English arrogance is collapsing." A

contemporary song about the Desert Fox, "Unser Rommel"

("Our Rommel"), runs, "We are the German Afrika Korps,

the Fuehrer's stalwart troops. We fight like devils, taking the

Tommies by surprise, and march to the beat of our drum.

Forward with our Rommel!"



As far as this reviewer knows, "Panzer Marches" is the

only collection to include "Lied der Panzergruppe Kleist",

named after Ewald von Kleist, who was promoted to

Fieldmarshal for his successful campaigning on the

Eastern Front, in the Caucasus. Although retired from the

Army a year before war's end, the 65 year-old man was

arrested by the Americans in 1945 and turned over to the

Soviets, in whose tender mercies he died nine years later.



Lyrics for his Panzer song read, "In the West, we showed

the enemy that we were the greater power. Whether in the

mountains or on the plains, no obstacle hinders us. We roll

on, and if we have to make sacrifices for victory, for our

country, why then, roll on! We are the Panzer Group Kleist.""

These Are Original Recordings

Allemand Bergere | Long Island | 08/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As one of the reviewers has noted, these recordings are of mainly historical interest - these were mastered from old 78 rpms discs, and as such don't have the dynamic range of later recordings. These are not "DDD" disks! There are a lot of scratches and pops, but what comes through is authenticism. If you don't mind the sound of Caruso's remastered recordings, then you won't have a problem with these.



As these were studio recordings, masterminded from the Goebbels propaganda factory and destined mainly to be broadcast, many of the orchestral /band arrangments are similar - in fact most of them seem to have the same chorus voices, in that respect they do sound similar. Best listened to on an old "repro-antique radio" cd player."

Two points:

Mr. Outis | 01/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"a. The fellow who informs us, rightly, that to buy this CD and enjoy it will ensure that no woman will want to be near one, bills himself as a "Free Thinker" -- if you're not laughing at that, you're not one, either.

b. These are VERY OLD RECORDINGS, folks. It won't be like your Coldplay album. There's no stereo or Earth-shaking bass. There are no morbid Soviet dirges. These are, to say it again, VERY OLD RECORDINGS OF ROUSING GERMAN TANK MARCHES. Approach it as such and don't write stupid reviews like, "The sound quality totally sux!""