Graf Zeppelin–Marsch

When one considers the lasting success of several sparkling marches by Carl Teike (1864-1922), one is generally inclined to think that this composer was able to “profit financially” from his music. This is not true at all, as this modest person whose generosity is well documented never lived in luxury: The promising career as a military musician during the times of the German empire came to an unforeseen end in Ulm. The following “interlude in Upper Swabia” in the town of Ravensburg evidently did not suit Teike, who was of north German descent. This evidently was the reason for him to go to Potsdam, where he served on the police force. Nota bene: he had no connections at all with period police music. When he contracted a severe disease, he was forced to retire from police duty, and finally spent the later years of his life in Landsberg on the Warthe as a civil servant. Joachim Toeche Mittler, the well-known German authority on the history of German military music, labeled the march “Count Zeppelin”, which Teike originally composed in 1903 as “March of the Teutons”, as “immortal”, and this evaluation is presumably correct. The piece is well known by several titles in many countries such as “The Conqueror” or “March of the Air Fleet” and has become a hall mark for the art of German martial music at its best.