Hermann Leopoldi

Austrian composer and cabaret artist, born 15 August 1888 in Vienna, Austria, died 28 June 1959 in Vienna, Austria. Starting out in Viennese bars after the end of World War 1, Leopoldi's comic songs, which he himself accompanied on the piano, made him so popular that he soon performed in Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, and Paris. Starting in 1923 or 1924, he recorded widely for [l=Favorite], [l=Gramola], [l=His Master's Voice], and [l=Odeon]. On April 26, 1938, after Austria's annexation by Nazi-Germany, Leopoldi, who was Jewish, was arrested and sent to concentration camps, first Dachau, then Buchenwald. In Buchenwald, he and fellow Viennese [a=Fritz Löhner-Beda] composed the famous "Buchenwaldlied." Thanks to his wife's American relatives, he was able to leave Buchenwald in early 1939 and emigrate to America. In New York City, he played in emigrant cafés like the Old Vienna and Eberhardts Cafe Grinzing at the Upper East Side and found a new partner, [a=Helly Möslein]. Both returned to Vienna in 1947, and Leopoldi began to record again for the [l=Austroton] label and others. Several of Leopoldi's schlager have become Viennese evergreens, such as "Ich Bin A Stiller Zecher" and "Schön Ist So Ein Ringelspiel."

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