Carl Latann (1840–1888) was a German military musician who in 1871 became director of the first navy band in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Previously, he had worked as an oboist in various army bands. With his new navy band he travelled across Germany, giving concerts, and became a well-known personality.
However, when the band was significantly reduced in 1878, due to funding cuts, he protested vehemently. Obviously, his protests were not tolerated and he was dismissed from military service in 1884.
Following his military discharge, Latann tried to find civilian employment by starting a music school in Wilhelmshaven.
The school was unsuccessful, so he had to work for a short time as a conductor in near-by Jever before moving to the Netherlands to lead a traditional brass band (Schützenkapelle) associated with a local Schützenverein (marksmen’s club) in Nijmegen.
In 1887 he once again tried in vain to establish a music school in Wilhelmshaven. Later, he managed to serve briefly as a music director in Bad Freienwalde, a small town northeast of Berlin (today at the Polish border), before his death in 1888.
Carl Latann composed around 250 works, including marches, ouvertures, songs and dances, but few of his works are played today.
His most famous march Frei Weg! (1885) is now played mainly in Germany. In Britain, Latann’s Leicht zu Fuss (1889) is known as Light of Foot after it became the regimental march of the Royal Hussars. Admiral Stosch March (Op. 140, 1874), named for the very first admiral of the German navy, was adopted in Sweden as March of the Royal Kronoberg Regiment.
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Carl Latann (1840–1888) was a German military musician who in 1871 became director of the first navy band in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. Previously, he had worked as an oboist in various army bands. With his new navy band he travelled across Germany, giving concerts, and became a well-known personality. 
