White Ferdl

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Weiss Ferdl, 1936

Weiss Ferdl (born June 28, 1883 in Altötting ; † June 19, 1949 in Munich ; actually Ferdinand Weisheitinger ) was a German humorist. He is one of the most famous Bavarian folk singers and actors . He remains famous with his lecture Ein Wagen von der Linie 8 , a satire on the Munich tram that became the anthem of many tram fans.

Life

Telefunken shellac record with the song Ein Wagen from Line 8
Weiss Ferdl's grave at the Solln forest cemetery

As the child of a single waitress, he was raised primarily by his grandmother. In Salzburg he was a cathedral boy for a while. In Altötting he completed his training as a typesetter. After his apprenticeship, he moved to Munich , where he discovered his inclination for the stage under the spell of folk singers.

The Münchner Platzl , a trendy bar for popular entertainment, granted him his first engagement in 1907. Seven years later he became its director. Due to his increasing success with the audience, Weiss Ferdl remained loyal to the Platzl until the end of his stage activities.

During the First World War , the vocal humorist was drafted as a non-commissioned officer in the reserve. His regiment advanced on the western front near Arras . To cheer up the soldiers in the grueling trench warfare , Weiss Ferdl soon became a solo entertainer . The distraction from everyday war life was sought in the hinterland, among other things in front theaters. In March 1916, Weiß Ferdl was the head of the twelve-person Singspiel troupe of the 1st Baier Reserve Division and proved to be a talented man in charge of the troops . Texts written by him on site attempted to counter the murderous everyday life with relaxing moments in cheerful scenes and dreams of home. The soldiers returning home after the end of the war raved about the Platzl in the field , as Weiss Ferdl's troop had been succinctly christened by the public.

The artist resumed his performances in the Platzl in Munich and became director of the restaurant and entertainment venue in 1921. Acting also predestined Weiß Ferdl for film appearances. After two silent film strips (1928 and 1929), his talent of the sharp tongue in the sound film came into its own. In the 1930s he played in around 20 (home) films. This made him known throughout the empire at that time and became a wealthy man.

Weiß Ferdl was a sympathizer of the National Socialists at an early age , used to interact with their party leaders in Munich and from 1922 appeared at entertainment evenings of the NSDAP . But he did not become a member until 1940. Many of his Gstanzln served widespread anti-Semitic clichés. He treated the assimilated Jews with particularly hateful mockery and thus expressed the doctrine of biological determinacy in a popular form. B. in the verse:

"The Kohn is baptized, only away the bad people,
He takes the name Schmid, which makes him particularly happy,
But he can't remember the name" Julius Schmid "
and you ask him: What are the names of S ' , then he says «Schmulius Jüd». "

- White Ferdl

During the Hitler-Ludendorff trial , Weiß Ferdl took a pathetic side for the accused putschists in the Hofbräuhaus:

“Say, what did they do?
Should it even be a shame,
If one wants to save out of shame and need,
Man his German fatherland? "

- Weiß Ferdl : from a Gstanzl from 1924

In the time of National Socialism and especially during the war he was also critical. For example, when he told his audience that he certainly knew that 98 percent of the population were firmly behind the regime, but for some reason had the bad luck of only ever meeting the other two percent on the street. In 1943 he made the "proposal" on Reichsfunk that the warring parties could bomb their own cities - that saves fuel. He was also briefly in prison because he presented a family of pigs: "Son, husband, daughter, husband, wife, husband, Herr Mann" (an allusion to Hermann Göring ) . When he came back, he introduced her again: "Son, husband, daughter, wife, husband - and because of that pig I was in prison!" In one of his programs he made fun of the Nazi mass organizations with the following verse:

"The little trees in the cool ground
are part of the NS-Tree League
so that nothing happens to them."

- White Ferdl

When he got into trouble about it, he said in the next performance:

"The little trees in the cool ground
are NOT in the NS-Tree League
so that nothing happens to ME."

- White Ferdl

Because of his criticism, a policeman was always present. So he came on stage with a suitcase and said, “Our government is inside!” The policeman ordered the door to be opened. During the search he shouted “They're all rags!” Then Ferdl: “You said that.” In 1943 the comedian had to give up his stage work because of a heart condition.

After the end of the war, the American military government pulled in the wealthy folk singer's Mercedes. Only during this time did he ever take the tram and thus laid the basis for his later successful song about Line 8.

In the denazification proceedings on October 27, 1946, he was sentenced by a ruling chamber as a follower to an atonement of 2,000 Reichsmarks .

Weiß Ferdl died in 1949 and was buried in the Solln forest cemetery in Munich (grave site No. 3-W-3).

Weiß-Ferdl-Brunnen on the Munich Viktualienmarkt

Since 1953 a fountain monument by Josef Erber has been commemorating him on the Viktualienmarkt in Munich . The fountain column bears the inscription Munich citizens their folk singers .

Act

Weiß Ferdl wrote hearty, critical verses. Many of his skits and songs became known beyond Bavaria, as the prizes were a popular target of his lecture. He wrote several plays and also wrote books. In addition to his film projects, he occasionally managed up to nine screenings per week on the Platzl theater stage .

The best-known piece on humor records is A Car from Line 8 . Numerous other audio documents and recordings of performances can still be heard from him today.

Works

Movies

  • 1928: Behind the monastery walls (silent film)
  • 1929: Left the Isar - right the Spree (silent film)
  • 1930: the immortal scoundrel
  • 1931: The Song of Nations
  • 1931: The mother of the company
  • 1932: When the donkey is too good
  • 1932: The shooter king
  • 1933: master detective
  • 1934: The two seals
  • 1934: The master boxer
  • 1935: Economic boom
  • 1935: Everything gone to the dog
  • 1936: The tired Theodor
  • 1936: An order is an order
  • 1937: Gordian, the tyrant
  • 1937: The laughing doctor
  • 1939: the poor millionaire
  • 1940: Request concert (appearance)

Fonts

  • I am not an intellectual. A cheerful book. Hugendubel, Munich 1941.
  • Bavarian delicacies. Ed .: Bertl Weiss. dtv, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-423-01752-X .

The works have been in the public domain in Germany since January 1, 2020

literature

  • Sabine Sünwoldt (arrangement): Weiß Ferdl. A white and blue career. Hugendubel, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88034-219-9 .
  • Robert Eben Sackett: Popular entertainment, class, and politics in Munich, 1900-1923. Study of Munich popular theater, focusing on Karl Valentin and Weiß Ferdl. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 1982, ISBN 0-674-68985-2 (English).

Web links

Commons : Weiß Ferdl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Rösch: The Munich NSDAP 1925-1933 . An investigation into the internal structure of the NSDAP in the Weimar Republic (=  studies on contemporary history . Volume 63 ). Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-486-56670-9 , pp. 294 ( (digitized version [accessed August 27, 2012] footnote 27)).
  2. ^ David Clay Large: Hitler's Munich. The rise and fall of the capital of the movement . Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44195-5 , pp. 26 (English: Where ghosts walked . Translated by Karl Heinz Siber).
  3. ^ A b c Ludwig M. Schneider: The popular criticism of the state and society in Munich 1886 −1914 (=  New series of the Munich City Archives . Volume 81 ). Munich 1975, ISBN 3-87913-061-2 , pp. 196 (quoted from Large: Hitlers München. 1998, p. 26).
  4. ^ Reinhard Bauer, Ernst Piper: Munich. A reader . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-458-32527-1 , p. 323 (quoted from Large: Hitlers München. 1998, p. 247).
  5. ↑ Ian Kershaw: Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich: Bavaria 1933 -1945 . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1983, ISBN 0-19-821922-9 , pp. 149 (quoted from Large: Hitlers München. 1998, p. 375).
  6. ↑ Stadtchronik 1946. Remarkable, curious and everyday things from the Munich city chronicle. In: muenchen.de. The official city portal. City of Munich, accessed on January 7, 2013 : "Weiß Ferdl is denazified"
personal data
SURNAME White Ferdl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weisheitinger, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bavarian folk singer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Altötting
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1949
Place of death Munich