René Giessen (born 24 December 1944, Prague) is a German musician, composer and conductor. Giessen is widely known for playing the harmonica in various cover-versions of the title melody of famous German Winnetou-movies from the 1960s starring Pierre Brice and Lex Barker. This melody was composed by German composer Martin Böttcher and originally was played by . At the time the original themes from the Karl May movies were published they held top positions in the German charts and can be considered a landmark in German film music history. The success of these movies originated a whole new genre later known as the "Spaghetti Westerns" where once again the harmonica plays a dominant role (there is even a character by the name of Harmonica in Sergio Leone's movie Once Upon a Time in the West)