Robert Wolfgang Löffler was born on December 20th, 1927 in Ascherleben, Germany. His father, Robert Max Löffler, was a clerk. His mother, Margarete Löffler (nee Giebel), did not learn a trade. There was mass unemployment in the 20s and it was only possible to earn enough money to stave off hunger by doing odd jobs, an enterprise in which Robert Wolfgang Löffler also participated.
In 1934 Robert Wolfgang Löffler attended elementary school for four years and then middle school for six. During this time he learned to play the accordion with a musician of his acquaintance.
On August 8th, 1944, military conscription put an end to education. Robert Wolfgang Löffler did not go voluntarily. Until the end, he was just a simple soldier. Wounded by a grenade on the Eastern Front, the 17-year-old Löffler wound up in Soviet prison in Czechoslovakia in May of 1945. Deemed too weedy for hard labor in the Soviet Union, he was sent on an Odyssey with other prisoners of war from a processing camp in Focani, Romania, back to Czechoslovakia to work there. He worked in several Czech villages with local farmers. After attempting to flee to Austria he was arrested and sentenced to one and a half years of labor in the Klement Gottwald coal processing facility in Horni Sucha, where he spent his days 491 meters below ground.
On December 24th, 1948 he was released from his imprisonment and could return home. It was only after his return to Ascherleben that he realized that he had just turned 21. For prisoners who’d attempted to escape, there were no calendars.
In the Focani prison camp, a Soviet guard once turned on his radio to cheer up the prisoners a little bit. This humane gesture touched Robert Wolfgang Löffler deeply and carried him through difficult times during his imprisonment. After his release, he worked on the railroads for three-quarters of a year. He decided, under the influence of the positive power of music, to again apply himself to learning the accordion. Robert Wolfgang Löffler made it his goal to bring the positive power of music to a greater public.
Seeking an accordion teacher, Robert Wolfgang Löffler found the Quedlinburger Privatkonservatorium, a private conservatory. The director, himself a psychologist, could not offer him help with the accordion. He also felt that there was no way to begin studying the piano at the ripe age of 22. But as a psychologist, he seemed interested in whether such an old student could still learn the piano. Robert Wolfgang Löffler was thus accepted to the piano program. To his great luck, his teacher was excellent and very helpful. To the astonishment of the conservatory, Löffler managed to pass the entrance exam after just a year of practice. From then on, he was a normal student at the Quedlinburger conservatory.
The conservatory was soon dismantled as a capitalist institution and moved to the regional capital, Halle, for training socialist music teachers. Despite suffering from health problems arising from his imprisonment, Löffler graduated with good marks in 1954.
During his studies, Löffler was in constant contact with the folk art groups in his hometown. Since a music school was planned for Ascherleben in the 50s, he returned to his hometown and became a music teacher at a local school. The plans for a true music school, however, never came to pass. Since Löffler did not choose to join the Communist Party, he often faced difficulties as a young teacher.
Only after 21 years of teaching in various schools in the area did he finally have a chance to teach at a music school when a branch of the Quedlinburg music school opened in Ascherleben. Löffler travelled to surrounding towns and villages, giving piano and accordion lessons. On the way to Harzgerode, Ballenstedt and Gatersleben, where he taught piano in the “Institut für Kulturpflanzenforschung”, he jotted down many melodies that occurred to him.
After a serious illness in 1992, he sought out these scraps of scores but did not develop them further. In 1997 a new anthem for Saxony-Anhalt motivated him to compose what he felt was an improved version.
The success of his revised anthem for Saxony-Anhalt drove him onward to new ideas for compositions and lyrics. Thus it came to be that he wrote to more songs in 1997, “Die Sonne steht nun früher auf” and “Weihnachtsfreude”. All three songs were recorded on a CD by the Johann Friedrich Reichardt Choir of the University of Halle. Löffler’s daughter initiated the project in honor of his 70th birthday. The premier of the works was a surprise for him, and featured 20 members of the choir as well as the local press.
This treasured gilt from the students of the university choir motivated Löffler to work on more compositions. 70 years old, he began to learn how to use the computer and diverse composing and recording programs. He founded and for a brief time led his own choir in the Ascherleben-area. He composed the song “Unser Schützenfest ist angesagt” in 1999, which premiered to great acclaim at the Froser Schützenfest. 17 songs and 20 other musical works by Löffler have appeared on four CDs in the last 13 years. They reflect his love of his hometown of Ascherleben and the Harz region.
