| Herms Niel | |
| Birth Name: | Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock |
| Birth Date: | 17 April 1888 |
| Birth Place: | Nielebock, Province of Saxony, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
| Death Place: | Lingen, Lower Saxony, West Germany |
| Allegiance: |
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Ferdinand Friedrich Hermann Nielebock (17 April 1888 – 16 July 1954),[1] known as Herms Niel, was a German composer of military songs and marches.[2]
Upon finishing school in 1902, Niel completed his apprenticeship with the Genthin choirmaster Adolf Büchner. In October 1906, he joined the Imperial German Army and was admitted as a trombonist and oboist in the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Guard (1. Garderegiment zu Fuss) in Potsdam. During the First World War, he was bandmaster of the 423rd German Infantry Regiment. In 1919, he was demobilized and worked as an official in the administration until 1927. That same year, he co-founded in Potsdam the Ritterschaftsorchester (the Knights' Orchestra), where he was composer and lyricist.
After the Nazis seized power, Niel, in 1933,[2] joined their party as member 2,171,788.[3] He became a Sturmabteilung troop leader, before receiving a promotion to band leader of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) training establishment in Potsdam.[2]
During the period of National Socialism, he dedicated himself to composing marches and songs, which were popularized by the NSDAP and widely distributed on all fronts of the Second World War. At the Nazi party rallies in Nuremberg he was the conductor of all RAD music bands.[4]
Niel also invented and designed a fanfare trumpet, known as the Herms Niel-Doppelfanfare, in E and B flat, which was manufactured in 1938 by Ernst Hess Nachf, an accordion factory in Klingenthal.[2]
In 1941 he composed the score Sieg Heil Viktoria for the Waffen-SS.
During the postwar era, Niel lived in Lingen, where he died in 1954.[3]