He should complete the military in order to become a military musician. After two years he dropped out voluntarily since the orders of the military music did not satisfy him. Then he became orchestra musician and composer of more than 1200 marches.

"The departure of the gladiators" is still played at the Buckingham-palace today during the change of guards. He composed one of his marches on the occasion of the granting of the honorary citizen right of his native city Thamsbrück in 1937. Up to his death, Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg lived in Wesel on Rhine.