Deutscher Unions-Marsch, Op. 146 - Josef Strauss

"German Confederation March". Like the waltz "Deutsche Sympathien" Op. 149 this march was also composed on the occasion of the festival concert celebrating the fiftieth anniversary or the date of the battle of Leipzig, on 17 August 1863 in the Vienna Volksgarten and was performed for the first time on this occasion. Again it was the illustrator of the title page of the piano score who expressed all the hopes that those in the danubian monarchy had placed in the Diet, which was convened on 16 August 1863 in Frankfurt am Main to discuss drafting a new constitution for the confederation. The illustrator depicted the danubian monarchy's coat-of-arms, the Austrian two-headed eagle, growing out of an oak trunk rooted in the ground, enclosed by the circle of the German confederation. However, Prussia foiled these plans and led to their failure. The final result was the German Civil War on the battlefields for Bohemia in the summer of 1866, and the defeat of the danubian monarchy in its conflict with the Prussian kingdom. Not even the vim and vigour of Josef Strauss' march could alter this conclusion. The work was received with lively applause and then soon forgotten.

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Flag of the German Confederation

Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Kosice
Christian Pollack