Werner Sebb researched the life and work of Paul Kochte

Paul Kochte composed the “Geretsrieder Gründungsmarsch”, the “Mayor Karl Lederer March” and much more.

Werner Sebb has now researched his life.

Geretsried

- He has largely been forgotten.

Paul Kochte was an important figure in Geretsried's cultural life in the first decades after the war.

July 14th marked the 50th anniversary of his death.

For this reason Werner Sebb has compiled some data in order to remember "this outstanding musician".

“I still knew him personally,” says Sebb. “But at first I didn't know how he got to Geretsried in the first place.” Paul Kochte was born on May 3, 1887 in Klein-Zachwitz near Dresden. He attended the Royal Conservatory in his hometown and the Kötzschenbroda music school. “He had his first engagement at the age of 16 as a violinist with the spa orchestra in Binz on Rügen,” reports Sebb. "After that he was a member of the music train of the 5th Bavarian Infantry Regiment."

At the age of 21, Kochte was director of the spa orchestra in Schleusingen, Thuringia.

He then worked on the musical train of the 5th Cuirassier Regiment in Wiesenburg in West Prussia and on the musical train of the 2nd Infantry Regiment in Munich.

“At the same time, he studied harmony and composition.” In 1916 he was assigned to the war as a music master.

After the end of the First World War, Kochte was in Upper Silesia and Schleswig-Holstein.

From 1927 he was engaged as a solo trombonist at the Volkstheater Hamburg for several years.

Sebb: "He also directed several orchestras."

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Highly decorated: Paul Kochte in his military uniform.

© Private

Born in Dresden, he came to Geretsried during the Second World War.

In 1940 he was drafted into the service of the DAG and DSC ammunition works as a file and music train operator.

The retired chemical engineer couldn't find out more about Kochte's time as a music train driver.

“That was all subject to secrecy,” says Sebb, who has already dealt extensively with the history of the city for the historical Geretsried working group.

At the end of the Second World War, Kochte and his family lived in a wooden barrack east of the makeshift station in what is now the northern Elbestrasse.

Also read: The first refugees in the Buchberg camp

In 1945 the Kochte chapel was formed from members of the former factory chapel. He traveled a lot in the Oberland to earn a living for his family. The father of two children composed and arranged modern and older hits as well as light music. Years later this benefited the Geretsried Music Association, which he co-founded. "In the beginning he wrote his arrangements on everything possible because there was no paper."

The first displaced persons who reached Geretsried in April 1946 and found refuge in the barracks of the Buchberg camp came from Graslitz.

The city was known for making musical instruments.

In this tradition, a small brass group with musicians from the camp and elsewhere came together to frame the first May celebrations.

“A rapidly growing brass band formed and performed at the first public festival on Geretsrieder Boden, which was initiated on a private initiative,” reports Sebb.

That was on August 7, 1949.

Also read: An unbelievable journey from New York to Geretsried

A special event was the foundation of the church on June 24, 1950. Kochte composed the “Geretsrieder Gründungsmarsch” for this purpose.

Many other works followed, such as the “Mayor Karl Lederer March” and the “Long Bruno” march in honor of the innkeeper Bruno Böhm.

Kochte also gave music lessons, including violin and trombone.

Sebb occasionally made tapes for Kochte, who died in 1971.

He remembers him as an “accessible” man.

Sebb, for whom music is a passionate hobby, describes the composer's style as “complicated”.

“The keys he chose were unfamiliar,” says the passionate singer.

“It was a certain kind of marching music that didn't catch your ear that much.

But he composed according to the taste of the time. "

In some cases he made high demands on his musicians.

Often the conductor assumed too much, even when it came to extreme pitches.

"And someone who has served as head of military bands for so long also had a certain tone," says Geretsrieder with a wink.

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