Wilhelm Hillebrandt & Kapelle der Reichsleitung der NSDAP

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Wilhelm Hillebrandt & Kapelle der Reichsleitung der NSDAP

#1

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2023, 12:07

Has anyone heard of this individual? Hardly? Well, there's a reason for it - although he definitely deserves a place in the history of the Third Reich and its music. So why was he forgotten?

Wilhelm Hillebrandt was actually the author of what appear to be the earliest known Nazi recordings and was also once known as the "Reichsmusikmeister" - that is, the main Nazi bandleader. So far, the earliest dated Nazi recordings known to advanced record collectors and researchers were those made by Fuhsel's and Groschwitz's SA bands in 1930 (Fuhsel made his for Artiphon and Groschwitz recorded for Electrocord). Hillebrandt was the bandleader of the Kapelle der Reichsleitung der NSDAP and his recordings were issued on red Nazi party labels "NS Funk" and "Reichsleitung der NSDAP". These extremely rare records were likely made by Clausophon (I've found some confirmed Clausophon tracks released under the "Reichsleitung" label). Although the dates of these recordings aren't known, we can estimate that they must have been made in or even before 1928 - since Hillebrandt was expelled from the Nazi Party in October of that year! If one reads Goebbels' diaries (from 1928-1929), they'll see Hillebrandt mentioned in negative context only, as a self-important troublemaker. Goebbels called him a megalomaniac and celebrated when he was finally out of the Party. Hillebrandt later switched to the lefties and spoke against his former right-wing comrades. Therefore, it is no wonder that not many of Hillebrandt's records survived the Third Reich era and that his name and role were forgotten.

Only a few examples of "NS Funk" and "Reichsleitung der NSDAP" records are known to me and my collector friends (they show Hillebrandt and his band credited only on the "NS Funk" label, for reasons unknown).

Known recordings by the Kapelle der Reichsleitung der NSDAP under Musikmeister Wilhelm Hillebrandt (there were surely more):

149 Der Trommler (Gansser) * performer credited, released on NS Funk 1
150 Deutschland, erwache! (Gansser) * performer uncredited, released on Reichsleitung der NSDAP 2
151 Noch ist die Freiheit nicht verloren (Gansser) * performer uncredited, released on Reichsleitung der NSDAP 4
152 Preußens Gloria (Piefke) * performer credited, released on NS Funk 4
___ Bayrischer Defiliermarsch (Scherzer) * performer credited, released on NS Funk 7 (info from Prieberg)

171 Hitler-Marsch (Hillebrandt) * performer uncredited, released on Reichsleitung der NSDAP 9
172a von-Pfeffer-Marsch (Hillebrandt) * performer uncredited, released on Reichsleitung der NSDAP 9

The last two tracks are presumed to be Hillebrandt's merely because they were composed by him and performed by a brass band like his. Note that all of these recordings, besides being very rare, are also very much awful. Really terrible. As bad as that horror of so-called music recorded by the Schalmeienkapelle "Horst Wessel" (NS-Schallplatten-Industrie). The last two tracks were slightly better than the earlier ones though.

As we can see, Hillebrandt, as most bandleaders, was also a composer. The first of the two listed marches of his was dedicated to Franz von Pfeffer, the supreme leader of the SA at the time. The second one was obviously dedicated to the Party leader, Adolf Hitler, and features the famous Morse's "Blue Bell" melody in trio (a tune heavily used by the Freikorps, Stahlhelm and NSDAP). Note that these (or any other) titles weren't listed in the brief entry on Hillebrandt in Prieberg's extensive Handbuch Deutsche Musiker 1933-1945.

Well - so much about this forgotten individual for now. If anyone has more info on him and his recordings, feel free to share.

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#2

Post by Alarm_Uboat » 31 Mar 2023, 13:20

Wow. Quite interesting! I've never heard of these recordings. It must be assumed that these recordings are only available to collectors and they cannot be heard in the public domain. Really very rare materials


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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#3

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2023, 15:08

Three of them used to be available on YouTube. But - not anymore. That's the downside of the previously discussed online censorship, it affects research. Two of those titles were completely new to me (and not only me) and turned out to be very helpful. As I wrote, the music itself was awful, but it's the info that was valuable. And the info was removed, too, because of the music. Ah, well.

By the way, here are some examples of the aforementioned record labels:

Reichsleitung-der-NSDAP-9.jpg
Reichsleitung-der-NSDAP-9.jpg (143.94 KiB) Viewed 2004 times
NS-Funk-4.jpg
NS-Funk-4.jpg (64.66 KiB) Viewed 2004 times
The barely-visible performer info on the bottom label reads:
"Gespielt von der Kapelle der Reichsleitung der N.S.D.A.P.; Musikmeister Hillebrandt."

Cheers,
Ivan

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#4

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2023, 15:45

Quotes from Goebbels' diaries concerning Hillebrandt:

31 May 1928
"Hillebrandt, der größenwahnsinnig gewordene 'Reichsmusikmeister' fühlt sich wie ein kleiner Herrgott."

20 July 1928
"Hillebrandt hat den Weg schon gefunden."

14 September 1928
"Zwei Dinge müssen noch gelöst werden, die Musikfrage und das Problem Hillebrandt."

9 October 1928
"Übermorgen kommt v. Pfeffer. Dann muß Angelegenheit Hillebrandt erledigt werden. Mir ekelt vor all diesem Schmutz."

19 October 1928
"Berlin! Hillebrandt ist abgesetzt und aus der Partei. Gottlob!"

17 November 1928
"Fahr wohl, Hillebrandt. Es nützt nichts mehr, keine Broschüre, keine Verleumdung, kein Verrat kann uns mehr im Siegeslauf hemmen."

25 November 1928
"Gestern abend Unterredung mit Lohse. Er kam vom Chef, mit dem er eine Unterredung in Sachen Hillebrandtbroschüre hatte."

6 December 1928
"Der Fall Hillebrandt wird damit enden, daß dieser Strolch hinter schwedische Gardinen kommt."
(The phrase "behind Swedish curtains" means "in prison".)

10 February 1929
"Hillebrandt spricht jetzt bei den Kommunisten gegen uns. Habeat sibi. Da gehört er auch hin."

31 October 1929
"Noch lange mit dem Pour le mérite-Flieger Vietgens und seiner schönen Frau zusammengesessen. Dann Jahn. Hillebrandt. Erinnerungen ausgetauscht. Viel gelacht."


(The last entry is a bit strange. It appears he had a friendly meeting with Hillebrandt. Or maybe he just remembered him. It's not perfectly clear. But there's no more mention of him in the diaries, at least that I was able to find. So it's unclear whether their relationship perhaps changed, or not. It could also be a different name, like Hildebrandt, misspelled. There are also a couple of mentions of a Hildebrandt, which in some cases, judging by the context, could be Hillebrandt misspelled. Note that there were indeed significant party members named Hildebrandt.)

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#5

Post by Jerard Maiki » 31 Mar 2023, 16:56

Wow, that's something really interesting and unexpected, really fascinating and weird looking labels, thank you very much for the info Ivan.
Until today I tought the earliest recording were the Fuhsel's recordings made in the early 1930

About the youtube censorship it's really a shame, I was really curious to hear them.

I never considered the Schalmeienkapelle "Horst Wessel" recordings to be awful, I always liked the charm of that instrument :D

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#6

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2023, 20:56

Jerard Maiki wrote:
31 Mar 2023, 16:56
I never considered the Schalmeienkapelle "Horst Wessel" recordings to be awful, I always liked the charm of that instrument :D
Oh, come on! :D

But if you do like the instrument, listen to Communist (RFB) shawm bands, they were way better than that Nazi ear torture.

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#7

Post by Alarm_Uboat » 31 Mar 2023, 21:03

Ivan, I still venture to ask if you know who has these records and who can share them?

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#8

Post by Ivan Ž. » 31 Mar 2023, 21:29

Besides the YouTube collector, whom I don't know, I know of only one record collector who has a couple of these records. But being German, he never shares his political/propaganda files, due to the reasons I explained in the related thread. Germany is very sensitive about this type of music and its law-abiding citizens act accordingly, both because of their moral principles and potential legal issues. You would be surprised with what kind of trouble certain record collectors experienced with their authorities, even though they themselves were no political activists. So, everyone should have understanding for them, and Germany as this music's country of origin, regardless of their residence and differences in law.

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Ivan

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#9

Post by Alarm_Uboat » 31 Mar 2023, 21:31

Thank you for your answer Ivan. I understand

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Re: Wilhelm Hillebrandt

#10

Post by Jerard Maiki » 01 Apr 2023, 18:41

Ivan Ž. wrote:
31 Mar 2023, 20:56
But if you do like the instrument, listen to Communist (RFB) shawm bands, they were way better than that Nazi ear torture.
Yes I agree, the shawm RFB recordings that I heard are better, I quite like their version of "Es zog ein Rotgardist hinaus" and "Wir sind die erste Reihe"

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