From patriotic military anthem
to the touching song of peace

Shiregreen releases new interpretation
of the classic "Hundred Men and an Order"

Written as a patriotic military anthem during the Vietnam War, celebrated as a German hit in the 1960s, misused by right-wing circles as a marching song that downplayed the war - after an eventful 55-year history, the classic "Hundred Men and One Command" is now written by the singer-songwriter Klaus Adamaschek and his Band Shiregreen reinterpreted as a consistent and touching anti-war song.


The now 64-year-old singer/songwriter Klaus Adamaschek and his band Shiregreen have already released 13 albums with their own, often time-critical songs. On the forthcoming album "Indian Summer" (release date March 25, 2022), Adamaschek now dares to tackle a piece of music and contemporary history that is as exciting as it is ambiguous with the new version of the classic "Hundert Mann und einOrd" (Hundred Man and a Command).

In 1966, Barry Sadler and Robin Moore wrote "The ballad of the green berets", a patriotic paean to an elite US unit. Barry Sadler sings the number 1 hit himself, saluting in parade uniform, with tears in his eyes and repeatedly interrupted by the patriotic cheers of the audience. In the same year, the German Schlager and chanson writer Ernst Bader wrote a German version that, rather cautiously, questioned the meaning of the war and with which Freddy Quinn and Heidi Brühl moved millions of Germans to tears.

However, "Hundred Men and One Order" also found a strong echo in right-wing circles and is still misused today for purposes that downplay war and are German-inspired. The march version, performed by a pithy male choir, underlaid with the text in Nazi runes, is viewed more than six million times on the so-called "Marching Song Channel".

Klaus Adamaschek and Shiregreen are now fundamentally redefining the piece. In a touching duet with singer Marisa Linss, Adamaschek presents "Hundred Men and One Command" as a folky anti-war song, entirely in the tradition of legendary protest singers such as Pete Seeger, Neil Young and Hannes Wader. Superficial marching sounds are completely avoided, instead the band provides u. with accordion, slide guitar and harps for melancholic warmth, and the expressive voices give the song exactly the emotional depth that the lyrics deserve.

In the haunting video for the song as well as in the album version, Adamaschek dedicates the song to his father, "who had to go to war at the age of 15 and who later taught me that every war is a crime and that no one should march along."