18 Facts About Fritz Brase

Friedrich Wilhelm Anton Brase, known as Fritz Brase, was a German military bandmaster, conductor, and composer who was mainly active in Dublin, Ireland, as leader of the first Army School of Music in the Irish Free State.

Fritz Brase studied at the Conservatory of Music at Leipzig where his teachers included Carl Reinecke, Hans Sitt, and Salomon Jadassohn.

In 1940, Fritz Brase died the day after he retired and was interred in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, when the No 1 Irish Army Band played.

Fritz Brase emigrated to Ireland in 1923, at the invitation of by General Richard Mulcahy, who wanted him to take charge of the Irish military musical training and music branch.

Fritz Brase arrived on 1 March 1923 with a friend, Friedrich Christian Sauerzweig, who had been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, and was commissioned captain.

Fritz Brase was attracted by the option of a rank of full colonel in the Irish Army and to take up the position of the first leader of the Army School of Music in the newly established Irish Free State and inspector of the Irish Military Music Corps where, later that year, he formed the Army No 1 Band.

Until 1928, he created four military bands in cooperation with a compatriot who had emigrated with him, Captain Friedrich Christian Sauerzweig, with Fritz Brase focusing on the "Army No 1 Band".

Fritz Brase recognised the fact that there was a fund of musical talent latent in the Irish people and he set out to develop that talent.

Fritz Brase's influence on the cultural life of the nascent Irish republic was considerable and he was an ambitious composer who wrote many works outside the military band repertory.

Fritz Brase wrote a Symphony in D major that was performed in Munster in 1908 and a number of other orchestral scores.

Fritz Brase wrote the station's official arrangement of the Irish national anthem.

Fritz Brase was one of a small number of Germans and Austrians living in Ireland in the 1930s, several of whom had been brought there by the Irish Government, that included Fritz Brase and others, mostly involved in new industry the fledgling state was trying to develop.

Fritz Brase joined the Nazi Party on 1 April 1932 according to records in Berlin.

Fritz Brase was elected chairman when he requested permission from the Irish Army to lead the group, it was clearly suggested he choose between the two.

Fritz Brase chose the army and his career allowing Adolf Mahr, another German immigree and director of the National Museum of Ireland, to assume the position.

The soccer match between Germany and Ireland, that Ireland won 5 to 2, at Dalymount Park on 7 March 1936 was attended by Fritz Brase leading the Army Band playing the Nazi national anthem, "Deutschlandlied", to which the attending Germans stood to attention with their right arms raised in a Nazi salute while singing.

Fritz Brase was an active participant in the elaborate events, such as Christmas parties, held by the small German colony that took place in Dublin's grand hotels, the Royal Hibernian Hotel and Gresham Hotels.

At the 1937 event, Fritz Brase played piano to accompany the children's performance for the adults, as reported in both the Irish Independent and Irish Times.