“Like [Brandenburg Historica’s] other compilations, this is an excellent sounding CD, and while the oldest recording heard here is one hundred years old, it sounds fresh and new…. Much of the music will be new to most listeners, with several tunes accompanied by singing…. This outstanding CD comes with the finest inlay booklet I have ever seen. It’s large and crammed with the history of the Imperial German Navy and explanatory notes on the music. It has many excellent black-and-white photos and even some color illustrations. You could say the price is worth the booklet itself. If you’re interested in the old Imperial German Navy, whose challenge to Britain’s Royal Navy is considered one of the reasons for World War I, you will want this CD…. It is history and music worth owning.”

RVS: Newsletter of the Robert Hoe Branch of the International Military Music Society, November 2007

INCLUDES TWENTY-FIVE TRACKS! OVER SEVENTY-TWO MINUTES PLAYING TIME!

The mighty dreadnoughts and battle cruisers of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s navy sail again in this magnificent, FIRST-EVER compilation from Brandenburg Historica!

This unique CD presents TWENTY-FIVE marches, songs, ceremonies and dramatic scenes from the GOLDEN AGE of German sea power, with PERIOD performances by illustrious units of the Imperial German Navy, as well as other leading military- and civilian bands, singers and choruses of Wilhelmian Germany.

Featured here are not only some of the best-known Parademärsche and concert marches that formed the repertoire of the Kaiser’s “High Seas Fleet,” but also many long-forgotten treasures of nautically-flavored German patriotic music, including specially-commissioned pieces celebrating the First World War-exploits of such vessels as the cruiser SMS Emden, the submarine U-9 and the raider SMS Möwe! Also presented in this compilation are many rare, and today largely unknown, period compositions that convey an unmistakable “salty” quality redolent of ships, sailors and the sea itself, even as they reflect the character of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Navy and the spirit of its era.

Hoch Deutschlands Flotte! is certain to appeal to military music aficionados as well as naval enthusiasts, and among its featured selections are such rarities as: a 1907 performance with drill commands of the “Flag Parade” of the Imperial German Navy; a super-rare 1915 recording of Hermann Löns’ Wir fahren gegen Engelland (“We Sail Against England”), with its lyrics set to a stirring, anthem-like score that has been overshadowed by Herms Niel’s more famous setting of that song from 1940; and a performance of the Zapfenstreich und Gebet by the band of the Imperial Navy’s Third “Sea Battalion” from Tsingtao, China, home port of the Kaiserliche Marine's powerful East Asiatic Squadron!

Other selections of particular rarity include: a 1912 performance of the march “Germans to the Front”, which was written in honor of the German naval infantry who fought in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900; a 1915 recording of the presentation march of the 1st Matrosen-Division at Kiel, which was composed by the Kaiser’s own brother, Prince Heinrich of Prussia, who served as Grossadmiral of the German fleet from 1906 to 1909; and an exciting 1916 dramatization depicting Kapitänleutnant Otto Weddigen’s U-Boat going into action against British cruisers in 1914!

Brandenburg Historica has scoured the world to assemble the priceless, ancient recordings (originally produced between 1907 and 1917) that we have transcribed for this compilation. Though these extremely rare early discs date from the acoustic age of recording - that is, before the invention of electric microphones and pick-ups - they have been laboriously restored and reengineered to maximize the considerable fidelity already inherent to them without altering their historical authenticity in any way whatsoever.

These ancient “Imperial” recordings capture a unique energy and élan that are impossible to duplicate in modern performances; on this album, you will hear the ACTUAL naval- and military bands and vocalists of Imperial Germany, whose musical talents are brought to you EXACTLY as they would have been experienced one hundred years ago.

Hoch Deutschlands Flotte! is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated TWENTY-FOUR PAGE BOOKLET featuring detailed notes on the development of the Imperial German Navy during Kaiser Wilhelm II’s reign, its musical traditions and the background of the featured musical selections.

Years in the making and painstakingly researched, Hoch Deutschlands Flotte! features the following selections:

Flaggenparade an Bord eines deutschen Kriegsschiffes mit dem
Holländischen Ehrenmarsch, HM I, 60 (Trad.-Rauscher) 1:59
Band of the Imperial III. Matrosen-Artillerie Abteilung, Bremen, with Drill Commands
Musikmeister Karl Flick, Conductor / Recording Date: 1907

Deutsches Flaggenlied aus “Unsere Marine” (Thiele-Linderer) 3:04
Prussian Royal Opera Singer Max Küttner with Male Chorus and Wind Orchestra
Friedrich Kark, Conductor / Recording Date: 1915

Unter der Admiralsflagge – Marsch, Op. 82 (Fucik) 2:37
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1917

Hiss’ Wimpel und Flaggen - Marsch (Witteborn) 3:31
Wind Orchestra
Friedrich Kark, Conductor / Recording Date: 1911

Deutschland zur See - Marsch (Fetràs) 2:59
Band of the Imperial I. Matrosen-Division, Kiel
Imperial Music Director Ernst Pott, Conductor / Recording Date: 1910

Prinz-Admiral Marsch (Jummel) 2:42
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1915

Präsentiermarsch der Kaiserlichen I. Matrosen-Division, Kiel HM I, 61 (Prinz Heinrich von Preussen) 2:12
Band of the Imperial III. Matrosen-Artillerie Abteilung, Bremen
Musikmeister Karl Flick, Conductor / Recording Date: 1915

Parademarsch der Kaiserlichen I. Matrosen-Division, Kiel AM II, 173 (Lübbert) 2:41
Proto-Orchestra, Berlin
Carl Woitschach, Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1912

Parademarsch der Kaiserlichen II. Matrosen-Division, Wilhelmshaven AM II, 113 (Eriksson) 2:58
Band of the 8th Saxon Infantry Regiment “Prinz Johann Georg“ No. 107, Leipzig
Royal Saxon Music Director Karl Giltsch, Conductor / Recording Date: 1914

Parademarsch des Kaiserlichen III. Seebataillons, Tsingtau AM II, 198 (Radeck) 4:01
Band of the Kaiser Alexander Garde-Grenadier Regiment No. 1, Berlin
Obermusikmeister Fritz Brase, Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1912

"Germans to the Front!”- Marsch (Wagner) 2:43
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1912

Admiral Stosch-Marsch, Op. 140 (Latann) 2:58
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1917

Seemannslos - Fantasy (Petrie) 3:14
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1914

Matrosenlied - "Wir fahren gegen Engelland", Version 1. (Ramrath-Löns) 2:56
E. Severin with Orchestral Accompaniment
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1915

Blaujacken-Marsch (Anon.) 3:03
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1908

Flaggensalut - Lied der Torpedoboote (Witteborn) 3:04
Wind Orchestra with Male Chorus
Friedrich Kark, Conductor / Recording Date: 1914

Marine-Marsch (v. Blon) 2:59
Band of the Kaiser Alexander Garde-Grenadier Regiment No. 1, Berlin
Obermusikmeister Fritz Brase, Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1914

Das Lied von der Emden - Matrosenlied (Söchting-Böer) 2:36
Prussian Royal Opera Singer Max Küttner with Orchestral Accompaniment
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1916

SMS “Möwe“- Marsch (Richter) 2:36
Wind Orchestra
Georg Scharf, Conductor / Recording Date: 1917

Das war U-9 - Marschcouplet (Dannenberg) 2:22
Prussian Royal Opera Singer Max Küttner with Male Chorus and Wind Orchestra
Friedrich Kark, Conductor / Recording Date: 1915

Unterseeboot-9 - Dramatization (Schönwald) 2:38
Schönwald Players with Male Chorus and Wind Orchestra
Gustav Schönwald, Director / Recording Date: 1916

Hoch Deutschlands Flotte! - Marsch (Friedemann) 3:09
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1915

Avancier-Marsch - Marsch des Yorckschen Korps AM II, 37 (v. Beethoven) 2:29
Band of the Imperial III. Seebataillon, Tsingtao
Obermusikmeister Otto Wille, Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1914

Zapfenstreich-Marsch und Gebet (Trad.-Anon.-Wieprecht) 3:08
Band of the Imperial III. Seebataillon, Tsingtao
Obermusikmeister Otto Wille, Conductor / Recording Date: c. 1914

Unsere Marine HM II, 145 - Marsch (Thiele) 3:40
Wind Orchestra
Unnamed Conductor / Recording Date: 1911

Total Playing Time: 72:30

“As with the productions previously released [by Brandenburg Historica], the producer has succeeded in bringing onto the market not just another CD, but rather the documentation of an era. It portrays its epoch in exemplary reconstructions of recordings transcribed from acoustic discs, all of which were painstakingly assembled…. The accompanying booklet is in a class by itself, since it is not only researched in an exemplary fashion, but is also tastefully illustrated, presenting with great feeling and purpose just what the Imperial Navy was all about. The result is once again a CD offering genuine rarities -- for example, the ‘Matrosenlied,’ with a text by Hermann Löns, or recordings by the Band of the Third Sea Battalion that was stationed in Tsingtao. One has to view ‘Hoch Deutschlands Flotte’ in the context of comparable productions released by Brandenburg Historica and a few other labels of special quality, including JUBAL and the Acoustic Arts Label. Without these CD’s, the documentation of German (and international) military music in historic recordings would be the poorer, because important areas would [otherwise] not be covered. It is to be hoped that these special productions will be continued in the future for the benefit of all those who take military music seriously.”

Mit Klingendem Spiel: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Militärmusik e. V., September 2007

“The repertoire presented [here] is representative of the music of the German Navy of the period. The source recordings were, naturally, gramophone records, upon which expert engineering and sound restoration have had their effect. The technical quality of the CD is outstanding throughout, as is the case with other releases from Brandenburg Historica…. [T]hese recordings are very valuable from a historical point of view…. The text booklet of twenty-four pages offers a wealth of very interesting information on the Imperial Navy and its music (with a selection of previously unpublished photos), as well as a comprehensive discussion of the recorded musical pieces. This initiative by Brandenburg Historica is worthy of praise and this CD is strongly recommended.”

Defilé: Official Publication of the International Military Music Society / Netherlands Branch, October 2007