Published in "Siegrunen"
Magazine - Vol. 8, No. 2, Number 44, 1987
The special „lyre“
collar patch for SS Music School pupils.
The Waffen-SS Music School was
established in Braunschweig on 1 July 1941 with the assistance of the SS
Officer’s School in the same town. There were 60 students in the first training
class and the first school director was Hstuf. Edgar Siedentopf. Most of the
individual training group instructors were drawn from the NCOs attached to the
band of SS Rgt. „Germania“/Division „Wiking.“ The students would
frequently receive instrumental training from members of the Braunschweig
City-Theatre Orchestra, but at all times their activities were supervised
either by the school commander or an SS instructor.
Tight
supervision was necessary since most of the students were young teenagers who
enrolled in the school at age 14, with parental permission, for a four-year
term. After completing their studies at the Music School, the students were
then obligated to serve for 12 years in the Waffen-SS. Structurally the school
consisted of one main building which housed the staff, a large examination
hall, numerous practice rooms and supply and maintenance shops for clothing dispersal,
tailoring, shoe repair, etc. There was a barracks (actually a boarding house),
for the pupils, with quarters, wash rooms and a kitchen along with a band
chamber. Lastly there was a training barracks that contained a gym for physical
education and a number of sound-proof practice rooms.
The
school provided the students with a full range of musical instruments,
including about 40 large and small pianos, which all pupils were required to
play. The study program at the school ran as follows:
1.
Instruction
in a main instrument, such as a trombone.
2.
Instruction
in a secondary instrument, such as a cello.
3.
Obligatory
piano training.
4.
Instruction
in music theory, harmony, history, instrument construction and operation, etc.
5.
Training
in orchestral and chamber music playing.
6.
Basic
musical exercises (up through the second year at the school).
7.
General
instruction in German, Math, Geography and History.
8.
Physical
education and sports.
The
aptitude and progress of the students was tested and monitored throughout the
year. The training methods at the school proved very successful and within a
year, students were able to give public concerts which proved quite popular to
both participants and spectators alike.
In
1942 the school severed its logistics connections to the SS-Junkerschule „Braunschweig“
and became a totally independent facility. By 1944 the number of students had
grown to 220 and Hstuf. Eberhardt had succeeded Edgar Siedentopf (who
had been promoted to Stubaf. and transferred elsewhere) as commander of the
school. During the same year the town of Braunschweig became more and more the
target of vicious enemy air attacks, which endangered the Music School, its
young pupils and of course, its inventory of many valuable instruments. A
decision was therefore made by the Musical Inspectorate of the Waffen-SS under
Stubaf. Leander Hauck (later KIA), to relocate the
school to the safety of the small town of Bad Saarow in
Brandenburg.
In
January 1945, Bad Sarrow itself became endangered by the advancing Red Army and
the Music School of the Waffen-SS had to be dissolved. The pupils were sent
home where possible, and the staff members were assigned to the newly
authorized 32nd SS Grenadier Division „30 Januar,“ where
they were used in the formation of the divisional reconnaissance detachment.
During
the school’s existence, the pupils wore the standard field gray uniform of the
Waffen-SS with twin black collar patches bearing silver lyres. A metal lyre
emblem was also worn on the shoulder straps. A Waffen-SS sleeve title bearing
the wording „Musikschule Braunschweig“ was worn,
but the somewhat ambiguous status of the youthful students was emphasized by
the wearing of Hitler Youth belts and armbands at the same time. §
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